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1.Why do we have a world wide disagreement about
so called covering sound technique?
Well, if you ask any great opera singer about it,
he will talk about his experiences and his technique and
what's most important, unless he is a vocal scientists and intellectual,
he may explain his own technique using his teachers notions and tricks,
I repeat he will use his teachers explanation not his own ideas.
Warning!
When you hear a singer describing vocal technique, he describes his own one.
And even describing his own one, he may not know necessarily the true mechanisms of his
own voice.
Let's take a famous demonstration of a noble sound by Pavarotti here on you tube(see the
link)
Pavarotti show covered and not covered sound on F#(if you noticed, he asks a pianist to
give him F# that proves Pavarotti did not have a perfect pitch, another legend dismissed).
Pavarotti starts with a supported chest voice and turns it(covers it) on F# passagio, then
he shows not covered sound as not
noble one.
We have to notice that Pavarotti uses a typical Italian lyric tenor trick: covering at passagio
zone.
Does he have a choice, if he uses just supported chest voice and not chiaro-scuro, to bring
it beautifully to F# the way he show it?
Of course not: only chiaro-scuro voice is capable of doing it beautifully without covering.
Why? Because chiaro-scuro doesn't need any modification, just support.
Chiaro-scuro already has both bright and dark elements in it that, allows it to just support
and nothing else. Let's say that Pavarotti's type of voices:
lyric Italian tenors do the same(not in Mozart or early Belcanto styles) when they approach
passagio zone. And they are absolutely correct. I say it
again:
When you don't use chiaro-scuro tone as a only register and still want to sing with
a supported sound, you have to turn your breaking into falsetto or head voice by covering it.
You have no choice if you want to be heard and beautiful.
That means that voices like Pavarotti have chiaro-scuro only after they cover.
Great singer and teacher Lauri-Volpi said that instead of covering he suggests not to
open. Inventor of Chiaro-scuro technique tenor Dupre
suggests not to change but to keep the chest voice up to the top
notes.
B.Gigli suggests not to cover but support well.
So weather you cover or not will depend on your technique, volume, fach, subfach and
so on.
In this case formula like this works likle in Russian proverb:
What is good for a Russian is bad for a German What is good for a lyric tenor is bad for
dramatic one and we can go on.
Lyric Italian voices have their chiaro-scuro starting at the passagio zone when they cover
their tones. They don't have their chest voice as chiaro-scuro
and that's why they need covering. And covering, as Pavarotti shown, is necessary
in this case.
Rule of chiaro-scuro appoggio is not to change but to keep already covered sound.
Let me remind you: covering is a manipulation with a sound timber and larynx position
In order to keep sound unforced and supported, often requires a vowel change from:
AH to Oh or OU. Ou sound boosts squillo or chiaro-scuro in
our case. (Show nessun dorma by lyric
and dramatic tenor(first phrase)
In conclusion: Whether one covers or
not will depend on
his technique, voice type(lyric, dramatic), repertoire,
Ideas etc. It's not
a rule
for every voice in
the world. Thanx
Here are 4 types of F# passages: 1.Falsetto chest and head(chamber voices, baroque voices, early
opera) 2.Chest supported and covered(Chiaro-scuro)
most popular 3.Chiaro-scuro altogether from bottom to top:
elitist one(Caruso/Corelli/Lauri-Volpi/Pertile/Giacomini)