Favorite Alto????????

[GClef2]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 3:34pm

UMMM Idina is amazing, but I love Amy Spanger and Carolee Carmello. There's too many!!!!!!

[starsinger]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 3:57pm

i dunno, i wouldnt say idina is an alto...i'd say shes a low soprano.

[GClef2]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 4:16pm

I guess I should have said belter. Idina is not a low soprano, she doesn't have a true soprano range and her voice sounds more natural in an alto range-this is what makes her a true alto.

[Allie]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 4:17pm

So, would mezzo soprano be a better term here, then?

[GClef2]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 4:55pm

It is nice to finally meet someone familiar with classical technique terms. However, I do find that Idina only really mixes live, In all of her recordings, she is a belter. If she had more of a classical voice, because she has a great extension in her chest voice, she would probably sing TENOR. Her transition is quite good, making her a versitil singer. So, with her, it depends on the song. A true Mezzo is Bernadette, save Gypsy, her belt is almost always mixed, making it a much brighter sound.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 5:01pm

Idina has a soprano belt voice. She's not an alto or even a mezzo by any stretch of the imagination.

Most pop voices today (certainly Broadway "pop") are belt sopranos (women) and belt tenors (men). The fact that they can hit a low note every once in a while does not change the high tone of their voices.

Pop music doesn't welcome altos (mezzos) or baritones (basses) very often these days.

Many of the "pop" voices of the 1940s and '50s who sang standard tunes were the lower voices. It's kind of funny how that shifted in the later decades. But back in the '40s you had real altos and mezzos: Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Jo Stafford, Patti Page, etc. For the men you had Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dick Haymes, etc.

A different style of music, yes... but also a different type of singer. Lower, deeper tones were needed to put those songs over. Today, everybody's reaching for the rafters with high-pitched voices. "Little girl" and "young boy" sounds, and there aren't too many exceptions to that... unless you want to sing the old stuff.

EDIT: If you want to hear a "belty alto" from Broadway, you have to go back to Susan Johnson, Georgia Brown, Kaye Ballard, etc. Those vocal types (as fantastic as they were) just aren't around now... actually, they're around all right, they just don't get cast in Broadway shows.

Updated On: 11/25/05 at 05:01 PM

[GClef2]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 5:04pm

This is very true. I really do enjoy the old standards, in the keys in which they were sung. Even in revivals of older shows, the keys seem to move north to accomodate a higher belt rather than leaving it in the original key.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 5:17pm

I agree, best12bars.

And I like lower voices, especially in speaking voices for women onstage.

[GClef2]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 5:20pm

Me too.It adds such a level of mystery when a woman has a lower speaking voice. I totally agree.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 5:24pm

The interesting thing to me is that film actresses (and actors too) are more likely to get cast and taken seriously if they have low-pitched speaking voices.

Yet for Broadway, the "sky's the limit"... literally.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 5:28pm

Are you speaking only musicals or straight dramas as well, best12bars?

Certainly some of the women who have been RADA or RSC trained and come over and performed on Broadway or at BAM have lower-registered chest voices.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 5:35pm

The film actresses that people seem to admire most today, give Oscars too, and put on their A-lists for casting have lower speaking voices these days. Cate, Kate, Gwyneth, Judi, Meryl, Glenn, and so forth. Not all of them, but most fall into the mellow mezzo-alto range (for speaking voices). I would say that's true for dramatic (NON-musical) theatre today, as well.

Then you get to Broadway musicals... and the demands of a pop score with high-belted notes, and you end up with your belty sopranos and tenors taking over the game. It's so rare to hear a "smokey alto" or a rich baritone on Broadway (with the exception of Stritch).

[overthemoon419]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 5:39pm

Chita.

[nomdeplume]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 5:40pm

A lower-ranged speaking voice, particularly for women, and a chest voice in general, is supposed to be easier on the ear.

[ForTheLoveOfLea]

Posted: 11/25/05 at 9:12pm

Lower voices are easier on the ear. I have a friend who has a high pitched speaking voice and when she gets excited for any reason it hurts my ears. I'm her polar opposite because my regular talking voice is (and has been since I was a child)incredibly low. I was borderline Kathleen Turner for quite some time. My singing voice is a lyric soprano, oddly enough.

If you want to hear what a real alto sounds like, listen to Marian Anderson, or someone of the like. Thats a true alto. If you compare her to someone like Idina, you will know the difference DDTruitt is talking about.

[Jazzysuite82]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 12:19am

There is no such thing as a female tenor or baritone. They'd be considered altos. I think people classify things based on range. It's important to know that range isn't the defining factor of a vocal part. It's timbre, but even that is sometimes difficult to tell. Everyone says that Audra is a mezzo-soprano because she has a heavy sound, but she's a true soprano, just a dramatic one.
Updated On: 11/26/05 at 12:19 AM

[Aigoo]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 12:23am

"UMMM Idina is amazing, but I love Amy Spanger and Carolee Carmello. There's too many!!!!!"

That "there's" in the first sentence should be "there are".


But that's just obsessive me.

Updated On: 11/26/05 at 12:23 AM

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 12:26am

Chita Rivera
Gwen Verdon
Ann Reinking
<----- Bebe Neuwirth
Brenda Braxton



I consider them REAL altos.
Updated On: 11/26/05 at 12:26 AM

[Jazzysuite82]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 12:28am

Aigoo, what?

[ThE nEw KiD]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 3:31am

Idina
AND Lisa Brescia...OMG she's amazing!

[thespian geek]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 3:46am

Is "alto" really short for "contralto"? Because I thought they were two different ranges. "Contralto" being what some people would try and say as the female equivalent to being able to sing tenor or even baritone (though I don't think I've met a woman who could, unless it's like upper range baritone notes)?

But I'll say one thing - I'm an alto/contralto. The male range on songs is much, much easier for me to sing than anything female. I can get up into soprano, don't get me wrong, but singing lower makes me feel more comfortable.

[AngusN]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 6:53am

It really infuriates me that people now class you as a better singer the higher you can sing. There is this snobbish attitude towards anything other than soprano and tenor. If you're a baritone or alto, generally speaking you are not regarded as a great singer.

[ljay889]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 9:50am

But REAL altos do exist.

I feel the women I listed are/were TRUE altos.

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 9:56am

"UMMM Idina is amazing, but I love Amy Spanger and Carolee Carmello. There's too many!!!!!"

That "there's" in the first sentence should be "there are".


But that's just obsessive me.

Thank you, I absolutely loathe poor grammar. I can understand spelling because to keep up with a thread you must type quickly.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 10:11am

ljay889---Real altos definitely do exist! I agree with you. The trouble is that good theatre roles aren't being written for them today.

It's LESS about the fact that they exist and there are good altos out there with terrific, pleasing voices... and MORE about the fact that modern, pop (and Broadway) composers aren't writing songs for their vocal ranges anymore.

I think "City of Angels" was the last time I recall two female parts written for altos. And of course the style of music was '40s and '50s jazz, which is the only reason it happened to begin with. Modern pop songs aren't written for altos... with the OCCASIONAL exception of country music.