Re: Moni Ovadia

[iganz <IGanz...>]

Dear Jacob,

What does it mean: "both cantors and opera performers push their voices
beyond the normal range of standard vocalization"?
There's a place for evey purpose under heaven.  Cantors and opera
performers do not push their voices, unless they are bad singers.  What
they do is use a lot of diaphragmatic muscle (as well as the muscles
between the ribs for support) and raise their soft palates (the fleshy back
part of the roof of the mouth that contains muscles that can be trained) to
create a large resonance space.                                            
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                      Now -
what is "normal"  and what is "standard" for you?  Indeed, the operatic
sound isn't appropriate for folk music in general, since one is trying to
imitate untrained voices.  When doing that, lower the palate, decrease the
vibrato, forget the operatic sound.  But what's normal for klezmer, or
Yiddish song, or Sephardic song is not normal for operatic singing, which
must carry in a large hall with no amplification.  There's a place for all
styles of singing.

You say: "Normal song for the most part has a rounded tone.  Cantors and
opera performes flatten the tone of their voices to emulate the tone; set
in either trope? or musical script."  What on earth is "normal song" and
what on earth do you mean?

I spend most of my days teaching students to create beautiful sounds with
their voices, be they large or small, and to use these instruments in a
physically healthy way to make music.  Your generalization of cantors and
opera performers "pushing" their voices is an un-thought-out affront to all
in both fields.

Isabelle Ganz
Affiliate Artist in Voice, University of Houston  
---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+