Sopranist
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A sopranist (also, sopranista or male soprano) is a male classical singer who is able to sing in the vocal tessitura of a soprano usually through the use of falsetto vocal production. This voice type is a specific kind of countertenor.[1] It should be noted that in rare cases an adult man may be able to sing in the soprano range using his normal or modal voice and not falsetto due to endocrinological reasons, like Radu Marian and Jorge Cano, or as a result of a larynx that has not completely developed as in the case of Michael Maniaci.
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[edit] Voice
A sopranist is able to sing in the soprano vocal range which is approximately between C4 and C6, though at times may expand somewhat higher or lower. Men of all voice types can possess the wide-ranged and effective reinforced falsetto needed to produce the contralto, mezzo-soprano and soprano vocal ranges. Some countertenors, can sing up into the female vocal tesituras using the modal register (normal singing production) and need not employ any falsetto. However, this extension does not reach into the upper part of soprano range going no further than an E5 or F5. Therefore sopranists must at some point employ falsetto to sing notes in the upper part of the soprano tessitura.[2] The exception would be those rare singers mentioned above.
[edit] Controversy over the term male soprano
Typically, the term "soprano" refers to female singers but at times the term male soprano has been used by men who sing in the soprano vocal range using falsetto vocal production instead of the modal voice. This practice is most commonly found in the context of choral music in England. However, these men are more commonly referred to as countertenors or sopranists. The practice of referring to countertenors as "male sopranos" is somewhat controversial within vocal pedagogical circles as these men do not produce sound in the same physiological way that female sopranos do.[1] The singer Michael Maniaci is the only known man who can refer to himself as a true male soprano because he is able to sing in the soprano vocal range using the modal voice like a woman would. He is able to do this because his larynx never fully developed like a man's voice does during puberty.[3]
[edit] Technique
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A countertenor is normally defined as a male singer whose falsetto is naturally stronger than the common, weak, falsetto and can be used to sing professionally without any damage to the vocal cords. Furthermore, unlike with normal male singers, the countertenor falsetto is technically equivalent to that of female ranges, in relation to sound production, passagios and range (though some vocal tutors report that countertenors require more "support" in order to maintain their head voice, as opposed to maintaining their chest- or bass-voice).
A sopranist is, specifically, a countertenor whose passagios (normally on the Fs and Cs) and register are equivalent to those of a soprano (normally on the Fs and Cs) and whose tessitura is the same as female sopranos'. The "sopranist range" is mostly attributed to F#5 and above, though it is sometimes further divided further to "soprano range", F#5-C6, and "sopranino range", C#6 and above. Some sopranists, like Philippe Jaroussky, are not able to reach a soprano C, which is C6 (Jaroussky can reach up to B5), but unlike tenors, sopranos are not required to produce any note to prove that they are indeed sopranos. As said above, much like alto and mezzo countertenors, a sopranist can either possess a particularly capable reinforced falsetto or alternatively a natural head-voice. A simple test to prove which nature applies is whether the singer can go into falsetto from his base-voice, thereby producing a weak and unsingable sound with very limited range (normally up to A4 for baritone based singers and C5 for tenor based singers), and whether the singer can descend to chest voice using his natural head-voice (sometimes referred to as "contra-voice"), with a range below middle C and below F#3 (the lowest note for an alto) and down to C#3 and sometimes lower. However, most singers are not able to achieve this capability (employing falsetto or descending from head-voice to chest-voice) without a fair amount of tutoring and experience, so this test cannot be applied to beginning singers.
Many times, a countertenor who is for some time believed to be an alto or mezzo type, at some point (most likely after achieving good technique and support) discovers a higher range. Normally, this range begins at F#5 or G5. Sometimes, a countertenor that in training only achieved G5 is thought to be a mezzo, when if fact with proper training he can reach higher, as happens in due course many times. The reason behind this, most likely, is that the soprano range, especially for male singers, requires an even greater amount of support and well learned and implemented technique (which is already greater compared to other kind of classical singers). Therefore, only at a certain point a singer discovers a further range and begins to develop it.
Because sopranists are currently rather scarce, it is as of yet hard to classify and distinguish types of sound they produce. It is evident, however, that much like alto and mezzo countertenors, vocal qualities differ greatly between various sopranist, from having small and thin voices to large and thick (or "dark timbered") voices, the latter normally rarer.
[edit] Repertoire
There is a large body of music for the male soprano that was written when it was common to use a castrato - a voice type which, for all intents and purposes, no longer exists, as the practice of castrating trebles was abolished before the end of the 19th century. Sopranists are very rare, since most countertenors are altos and mezzos. In fact, probably because early famous countertenors were altos (like Alfred Deller), it was believed for a long time that countertenors can only be altos (and later, mezzo countertenors, like David Daniels or Jochen Kowalski were recognized). While there is some modern repertoire written for countertenors (sometimes written specifically for certain singers, like Britten's Death in Venice, which has a part that was written specifically for James Bowman, or David Daniels, for whom a cantata was recently composed), at present there only a small number of modern pieces written specifically for the sopranist vocal type.
The first well known sopranist was Aris Christofellis, who began officially performing in the 1980s and has produced numerous recordings.
| Common vocal ranges represented on a musical keyboard |
[edit] Known sopranists (Classical)
Present day sopranists include:
- Simone Bartolini
- Timur Okutman (From bass to soprano, known as La Voce)
- Jorge Cano
- Jörg Waschinski
- Max Emanuel Cencic
- Aris Christofellis
- Robert Crowe
- Philippe Jaroussky
- Angelo Manzotti
- Radu Marian
- Tomotaka Okamoto
- Michael Maniaci
- CJ Sokolowski
- Pasi Hyökki
[edit] References
- ^ a b McKinney, James (1994). The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults. Genovex Music Group. ISBN 13: 978-1565939400.
- ^ Giles, Peter (1982). The Countertenor. Muller Publishing Co..
- ^ Times Article October 2007
