Calgary Public Library

The Supernatural Voice, A History of High Male Singing

eng

no index present

non fiction

The Supernatural Voice

electronic resource

dictionaries

892239393

A History of High Male Singing

The use of high male voices in the past has long been one of the most seriously misunderstood areas of musical scholarship and practice. In opening up this rich subject (to readers of all sorts) with refreshingly clear perspectives and plenty of new material, Simon Ravens'' well-researched book goes a very long way to rectifying matters. Ravens writes damnably well, and if the story that emerges is necessarily a complex one, his treatment of it is always engagingly comprehensible.'' ANDREW PARROTT Tracing the origins, influences and development of falsetto singing in Western music, Simon Rave

Cover; Title; Contents; List of Illustrations; Preface: A Declaration of Disinterest; Acknowledgements; Chapter 1: The Discovery of Alfred Deller; Extempore 1: An Inartistic Trick: Physiology and Terminology; Chapter 2: The Ancient World to the Middle Ages; Extempore 2: A Famine in Tenors: The Historically Developing Human Larynx; Chapter 3: Renaissance Europe; Extempore 3: Are We Too Loud? The Impact of Volume on Singing Styles; Chapter 4: Late Medieval and Renaissance England; Extempore 4: Reserved Spaniards: Cultural Stereotypes and the High Male Voice; Chapter 5: Baroque EuropeExtempore 5: Into Man's Estate: Changing Boys' Voices and Nascent FalsettistsChapter 6: Baroque England; Extempore 6: A Musicological Red Herring: The Etymology of the Counter-Tenor; Chapter 7: The Nineteenth Century; Extempore 7: The Bearded Lady: Gender Identity and Falsetto; Chapter 8: The Early Twentieth Century; Extempore 8: The Angel's Voice: Falsetto in Popular Music; Chapter 9: The Modern Counter-Tenor; Bibliography; Index; Copyright; Titles of Related Interest