I know some fellow vocalists and opera singers, and they have expressed concern over how many orchestras and opera companies are currently switching to microphones for vocal projection. To these singers, using microphones in that context comes off as cheating.
@Scribbli Chheery I'm in the camp that doesn't understand electric guitars. If it's being played electroacoustically then that's one thing, but the stereotyped "electric" timbre of an electric guitar is created not by the actual instrument but by the audio post-processing.
@@Stratelier i understand them because of ease-of transport and repair. Acoustic guitars need to be kept at a consistent range of moisture so they dont warp and break, but for electrics the wood body is pretty much irrelevant, the only components you need to protect are the neck and the base of the strings (the sensors that convert the vibrations into electrical signals, Im not a guitar maker so I dont know the term) Electrics are easier to repair, and cheaper to replace than acoustics. Theyre also easier to carry around in luggage (much thinner)
@Scribbli Chheery using a microphone is comparable to using a trampoline in a high jump at the Olympics while electric guitars is more comparable to using more aerodynamic balls in golf.
@@despacito2384 Not necessarily high pitch, as long as it resonates with the fundamental frequency of the cup/glass in question, there's a possibility for it to break
An opera singer was hired to come to our choir room for seventh period in school and she explained everything about opera singing. She explained how they use residence in their voices and thats what makes the ringing sound in your ear when they hit a high note thus, the reason why they don’t really need microphones. And she also sang a beautiful song in Italian. I haven’t really been into opera but hearing her voice was so angelic and beautiful that you can help but smile.
Bathrooms close, smooth walls at odd angles (especially the shower) also add "course" by making the sound reach the singers ear clear and offset at multiple times.
Actually opera is really broken into five fundamental voice parts: bass, baritone, tenor, mezzo-soprano/contralto, and soprano. While choir music generally classifies voices into SATB, opera generally uses the German Fach classification system. While there is obviously deviancy from this, most composers of opera from the Classical era into the very late Romantic era use this system. In most famous operas composed at this time, the leads will be mostly made up of the aforementioned five parts but with some exceptions. It is really hard to break it into an arbitrary fundamental number of voice parts as opera really has five(six if you count contraltos apart from mezzos) and you can even go on from there if you want to divide counter-tenor and tenor. Wikipedia actually covers this fairly accurately (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fach#Bass_F%C3%A4cher). But, put simply, baritones rest easy, many of the most beautiful arias are written for you: Largo al Factotum, Mein Sehnen, Lieben Hassen, Avant de quitter cex liux and many others. We ain't no joke lol
Contraltos are so rare, I wouldn't even cover them in a video like this (I adore contraltos, but they are just not a given). There are only a handful of contralto roles a mezzo couldn't sing; it should really be soprano, mezzo(-soprano), tenor, baritone, bass. Contralto, countertenor, and bass-baritone should probably be asterisks.
Sadly, things are not exactly like that, today. Indeed, put in an overly simple way, "squillo" in the voice is the production of those rich harmonics/overtones. And as the video says, much of them can be controlled through the oral tract (lips, tongue, jaw, pharynx, larynx). Now, here comes the trouble: the fundamental pillar in a singer's voice that brings not only the "squillo", which will make the voice loud, ringing and cutting through even the fullest orchestra, but also CLARITY in their vowels, is the actual **development** of the voice, or the correct set of muscles used to manipulate the vocal chords, which sadly today, is no longer done. Or rather, what is developped today, is the set of muscles that would make a singer produce a sound that is either very hollow (so, with no "squillo" at all, or with a minimal amount) or a sound that is white and squeezed, shrill (like the soprano you hear in this video). A very simple test: hear this soprano in the video, or any of today's contemporary ones, and pay attention to their vowels; you can't hear a clear "eh, ah, eeh, ooh", etc. in most of them. Try hearing a soprano of an older age, such as Claudia Muzio (one of Puccini's own sopranos) and pay attention to the vowels, then. There's simply no comparison. Not only the clarity, but the sheer volume and efficiency of their voice, today's opera is done with a "studio" approach, as if singing into a microphone... the sound might pass over the orchestra, but it never quite "slaps you" in the face, gripping you and capturing you like it did back then... at other times, it never even leaves the stage and were it not for supertitles the audience wouldn't even be able to understand...
@@Daniela-pr7rz Indeed, pretty much :) Though it does extend in a multitude of topics pertaining to singing that go far beyond my brief explanation. Alternatively, one might simply read works such as "Your Voice" by Douglas Stanley, which is purely technical and scientific, or even Manuel Garcia's (Maria Malibran's brother) works which can even be found for free on IMSLP, although more practical, with a lot of exercises, his books still give tremendous insight to how the voice can be fully and properly developed and applied.
Thank you so much TED-Ed for videos like this specifically focusing on arts and music. Your videos are fun to watch all the while learning a lot about a topic. Very effective for kids. Hope to see more videos about music and arts. Keep it up!
hahaha,, the best thing they did,, they picked the song "Queen of the night" "Magic flute" as an example to their topic,, i just watched a lot of covers of that song weeks ago and now this,, luv it,,
Nice but partially you got it wrong: 1) lo squillo is not something you reach through modifying lips and tongue (tongue shouldn’t ever interfere), it really comes from the breathing technique which you quoted as the second step. On the contrary breathing is everything and it’s something we study all life long to perfect, a mistake in that makes no squillo at all. 2) the vibrato is not something we come up with. It’s not like we make the voice go up and down, it’s a natural feature of a healthy voice. On the contrary, la voce ferma, still voice, is an artificial effect. Also, during centuries the techniques developed as an answer to the different composing characteristics of the musics, but also theatre did. The introduction of the pit made a huge difference in the way a theatre would work. Also! Another thing that changed through centuries is the frequency adopted for the A, which used to be lower and now is rising (way too much). This provokes an overall change in how the music is made and perceived by the audience.
So cool! I'd love to see a video series about other singing styles. Barbershop does different things with overtone and I'm sure Jazz and Choral singing does it different too!
loving the theatre science! i'd love to see something on forced perspective in theatre or about how theatre lighting can change the colors of things on stage dramatically.
Maybe this video is the answer to the question I asked everyone I know, but nobody understood what I was talking about. I always thought that the voices of opera singers were different from the the voices of most modern singers, but I couldn't put my finger on it and couldn't describe it. Maybe it is the use of the squillo that makes the difference. I will do further research, now that I have a word to look for.
Opera singers sing on the beat to be in time with the orchestra. They generally use legato phrasing meaning that they hold one note until they start the next note in the phrase. They also use vibrato on every note and that vibrato is usually trained to be wider and at measured pace compared to the anything goes world of pop singing. Pop singers these days use a lot of breath in their sound and don't use much vibrato and and only rarely squillo. They can shift the timing of the start of a note to before, on or after the beat and they can shorten or lengthen it as they please.
Squillo means something like "ringing". Since all terms in opera and music in general are in Italian. It is easy for me to understand the meaning. For Opera singers and classical musicians Italian is compulsory.
Another episode of: Why School Can't Teach Me These Things That is why even if I didn't experienced going to a TED conference, I fell in love with TED as it celebrates the gift of learning, knowledge and wisdom that a school doesn't teach as much as TED does. Sorry to compare but I think TED educates me more than how I get educated in school. 😶
Most people nowadays only know Queen Of The Night from The Magic Flute. It makes sense, that performance video of Diana Damrau is very popular in the RU-vid algorithm. It's practically part of pop culture now.
Nabucco, Turandot, Macbeth, Tosca etc. The Queen of the night is not a good example of squillo. He is not a very good source etc.🎶🎵🎼 Arnold Bourbon Amaral
Squillo doesn’t come from tongue movement. It comes from opening up the higher resonators. Using the space above the eye brows, behind the ears and lifting the soft palate. Literally getting your skull to “ring” no matter where you are in the scale.
Sorry - that's nonsense, There is virtually no resonance from "the space above your eyebrows" unless you have had your brains removed. Squillo comes from correct pharyngeal resonance in the cavity above the vocal cords correctly shaped, as well as the muscular hold. Squillo requires plenty of so-called "chest voice", whereby that lower register sound is taken up to higher notes - otherwise all you get is a thin, squealing, "Minnie Mouse" sound.
Just in case anyone sees this comment I have a correction: there are not 4 main voice types. There are 6, listed from highest to lowest: soprano, mezzo soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone, bass. There are even more that break off of these called “fach”. No, a mezzo soprano is not just a type of soprano, it is a completely different voice type.
@@DCBfanboy they didn’t “appear”. They always existed. Maybe the terms are more recent but the voices have always existed. And the length of existence does not determine if the voice type is a “main one” or not. It’s the classification process. There are SIX MAIN TYPES and then fach gets more detailed within those 6 types.
The correct, Italian pronunciation is not "squeal-o" but "squill-o" with a short "i" and the double "l" held. Squillo comes from correct pharyngeal resonance in the cavity above the vocal cords correctly shaped, as well as the muscular hold. Squillo requires plenty of so-called "chest voice", whereby that lower register sound is taken up to higher notes - otherwise all you get is a thin, squealing, "Minnie Mouse" sound.
if shes going just for sound pressure, then bass drop a thermonuclear bomb on the stage. the resulting shockwave acoustic pressure will satisfy even the most demanding sophisticated opera connoisseur and excellently stand out far above all the tones of the orchestra, and not only 40 meters away.
ifurkend I agree. Like most of opera singers with improper vocal techniques it’s beneficial for them. But for people which the proper old school techniques, the can project the sound a lot more. Especially the greats like Enrico Caruso, Mario Filipeschi, Franco Corelli, Mario Del Monaco, Renata Tebaldi, Eleanor Steber, Maria Callas, Leotine Price(during 60s) and many more in the past! The thing is, I think that majority of the operatic industries are not giving singers enough time to develop their voices.
Cool, I've wondered what purpose vibrato served. Side note: this would be one of those few contexts where folks don't get smacked, sued or arrested for saying "more/less tongue/lip work"?
You can train yourself to either speak in chest voice or mixed voice if you are too soft. It's all in breathing which is most important in squillo. You will need to know how to project air so you can speak and sing louder than before
@@juanvelez8564 :: There is no sound on Earth that is as pure & clear & high as a child's voice at that age. Even the little boys sound like little girls !
I have searched for (musical, I'm studying physics) entry-level education with a take on music similar to the one this video had, with little success. This was short and repeated a lot of things I knew, but it took this exact standpoint I've imagined, but couldn't find anywhere - until I saw this, not because I searched for it, but because it appeared in my subscription box. I am very greatful for the few insights this gave me, and sincerely hope to get a chance to really learn how composing, playing and hearing music works in detail from the perspecive of a physicist and a mathematician. If anyone happens to know about something he could recommend, I'd appreciate it, of course.
Lion Tyleraned I believe Acoustics is the field you’re interested in. I’m studying Acoustics and Music Technology, which basically means I am studying the physics of music. I recommend you have a look at Universities around you and see if they offer something similar. If you’re genuinely interested in this field, then get into it, you won’t regret it.
We take for granted the amount of work and mind muscle connection that these extraordinary professionals achieve. I have to go to opera soon, never been to one.
You definitely should! Just make sure you read the synopsis BEFORE you go! Otherwise it will be hard to understand and enjoy as the plots are usually so convoluted.
thank YOU! You really got what its all about! I'm studying it since three years and oh my - it's SO hard in every aspect you could imagine and many more, but the best thing in the world
I should interject that it does not matter whether one sings Baroque operas, Wagnerian operas, Verismo operas, Bel Canto operas or even operas in various languages. Chest voice and head voice coordination is what makes voice ring and have presence throughout a huge opera house. Hence, opera singing is definitely considered to be the Olympics for the voice because of the demands every opera singer needs to fulfill. This principle applies to all singers ranging from coloratura soprano to basso profondo.
You cannot hire small voices for a full scale opera house, forget it. There are professional opera singers who for example refuses to sing in the biggest opera houses where you need a voice of steel. What you need is a born vocal apparatus of the bigger calibre, no training in the world will help you if you not are born with basic physics for it. Not everyone have the physiques for heavy weight wrestling either.
@@johnojvind7641 I'm sorry, but this is simply NOT TRUE! A properly trained voice, whether large or small, will easily soar above the largest orchestra. The reason for this is that the voice vibrates at a different frequency than instruments. As opera singers, we use RESONANCE in order to be heard above the instruments, and NOT volume! This is a very important principle that unfortunately has been lost on most vocal teachers. As a singer, it's IMPOSSIBLE to overpower the instruments using the volume (strength) of our voices. It's basic physics - instruments produce far greater volume than a single voice ever could. HOWEVER, what we as opera singers have are higher vibrations in our voices. When placed properly, the vibrations of the voice easily soar ABOVE the vibrations of the instruments, thus enabling that single voice to be heard above the largest orchestras. This is the secret that was taught by old school masters such as Porpora in the 18th century and why the castrati were able to be heard in 3000+ seat theaters in the 18th and 19th centuries without the need for microphones. About 20 years when I was a voice student here in Vienna, I went to a Kathleen Battle concert at the Musikverein. She'd always been one of my favorite singers but I'd never heard her in person before. Since I was a broke, half-starving student, I could only afford the cheapest ticket which was basically a standing area all the way on the last floor of the theater up in the rafters with the pigeons. When Kathleen Battle walked out on the stage, I was surprised at how small she was. I was even more surprised when she started singing - she had a very pretty but VERY SMALL voice! You don't get to hear that on her CDs where audio engineers compensate for the size of a singer's voice. HOWEVER, despite her small voice and small stature, you could hear EVERY SINGLE note she sang as CLEAR AS A BELL!! I was so surprised!! Every single syllable, every single note resonated throughout the large concert hall, reaching all the way up to where I was standing on the last floor. At the time I was stupefied as I did not yet understand how she did this. Many years later, however, I now do. She was able to be heard because she used the RESONANCE in her voice which travels throughout all four corners of the concert hall, DESPITE her small voice and small frame. Volume, on the other hand, which requires muscle strength, does not. It's a paradox of physics that the human voice cannot be adequately projected using volume. And that's why many modern singers who scream using muscle power are so easily drowned out by the orchestra. You don't have to take my word for it - look up any modern singer on YT, the more they huff and puff, the easier they're drowned out by the orchestra. This happens because they were taught to project their voices using VOLUME, which as we know is 100% guaranteed to fail because the human voice CANNOT overpower an instrument using volume. Listen to a singer like Anna Netrebko for a good example of someone who tries to use volume to project her voice. The minute the orchestra plays mezzoforte, she can no longer be heard. She then reacts by increasing her volume to the point where she has to scream. And despite this, she will still not be easily heard. Contrast this with old school singers like Alma Gluck or Elisabeth Rethberg whose effortless usage of resonance (and not volume) can be clearly heard. In particular listen to Alma Gluck's recording of Care Selve and how the resonance of her voice on the final high note sounds warm and velvety without any of the unpleasant strident screams of Netrebko.
@@CurtisCT You are talking extraordinay pure BS and well spread myths. There is no way only frequency will help your voice survive for 2/3 hours perhaps 3 days a week for an entire season without any natural born volume and a voice of steel. Opera has a graveyard with ruined voices just because they sings unamplified and do not have the born stamina and endurance. If you ever been to a football match listening to some extraordinary big voices you actually can hear long distances, they are all natural big voices. Also there are quite many trained opera singers who will not perform at the biggest opera houses like the Met just because their voices are to small. In the end you can have all the technical talent needed but if you cannnot be heard at the cheap back row tickets no opera company will hire you, guaranteed. It´s simple physics, a lion always will roar louder than a cat.
instead of arguing with you, I'll show you the difference between resonance and volume. Here's a recording of Alma Gluck singing Handel's "Care selve". This recording was made in 1916 and as you can clearly hear, Alma Gluck has a small, average sounding soprano voice. What she does do, however, is to properly employ the "squillo" on the final high note in the third minute of the recording, using RESONANCE and NOT volume to expand the projecting power of her voice. The result is a warm, velvety tone with so much resonance that your ears begin to buzz DESPITE the poor quality of this 108 year old recording. Her voice can be EASILY heard, and in fact it OVERPOWERS the instrument, even though she uses NO MUSCLE POWER to do so: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-l9aQicDdIWk.html Now here are two MODERN singers performing the same aria, however without old school technique. They have FAR LARGER voices than Alma Gluck, however their high notes are produced using sheer lung POWER, and not voice RESONANCE: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-R9c4JLbQW8I.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_JF_iYwMMBw.html The result is an unattractive, strident voice lacking any warmth or resonance. If they were performing with a large orchestra, they would have EASILY been drowned out by the orchestra players, despite their large voices. Alma Gluck, on the other hand, despite her small voice would have EASILY been heard. Why is that? Because projecting the voice is a function of RESONANCE and not MUSCLE POWER or VOCAL SIZE. At the risk of getting too technical, the squillo is produced by placing the tone in the elongated "u" position while only very slightly spreading as you pass the upper passaggio. Nowadays however, most singers SPREAD their voices too wide instead of singing in the "u" position, especially on top. This spreading causes the voice to lose laser focus and the tone quickly dissipates, which causes the singer to use MORE FORCE in order to be heard, leading to a screaming match with the orchestra, which of course the singer ALWAYS loses because the laws of physics dictate that the human voice CANNOT produce more volume than an orchestra. Instead of overpowering the orchestra with volume however, the old Italian masters discovered that we can SOAR ABOVE it using the overtones of the voice (resonance), requiring only a FRACTION of the energy otherwise required if we were to try to overpower the orchestra using volume.
Ok, just a little precision : vibrato is NOT a musical effect for singers. When you learn opera singing, you learn to breathe properly, relax your larynx and support your sound with enough air. A relaxed larynx, when exposed to a strong airflow, oscillates (just like a sheet of paper, lying flat on a table, does when you blow on it) : vibrato is the direct consequence of a good and healthy vocal technique. Of course, it can be modified at will to create certain effects, but the only way to do so is to tense the larynx, which singers try to avoid most of all. Of course, it's a different matter entirely for string players and other musicians.
Tristan Couloumy not the way tetrazzini, Caruso, Melba, ruffo, guelfi, or tebaldi learned/taught it. Your explanation is a very modern idea. All of the singers I mentioned above discuss learning and teaching vibrato specifically; they never said it is a natural consequence. Seeing those jaws and throats bounce around with throaty modern vibratos is a major factor in the decline of modern singers abilities, and the noted rise in a need for microphones to aid in amplification, because of the lack of release and freedom in the voice due to employing extra tension for the larynx to “flap in the wind.”
What do you say to rock/metal singers who sang their whole life until +60 without over the top annoying, music destroying, vibrato.With your logic they should have ruined their voices but they didn't. You have to go back to the drawing board.
You must consciously learn and apply vibrato; it doesn't just happen naturally otherwise screaming babies and shouting kids would develop it. Some singers get it wrong because of too much applied tension and constriction, however - hence the wobble and slow pulse so prevalent today - or the tremolo fibrillation which is just as bad. The greatest singers could, it seems, slightly modify the pulse of their vibrato - Tibbett was one - but for the most part the ideal pulse is 6 to 8 times per second. A quicker vibrato of the kind Gobbi had can be attractive but only up tp a point and a wobble like Nina Stemme's is always unpleasant.
you guys should do a video on the traditional Korean style opera called pansori. it's is very different from Western operas, from the instruments to the singing style where singers sing through strained vocal chords to produce a unique sound.
Some famous opera singers in the past would sing at open air in front of thousands of people and were heard. Great opera singers don't rely on accoustics of the building. They rely on their own phisiological ones.
So basically these opera singers are more talented than many of the popular singers nowadays. (Dont get me wrong, the popular singers are still talented)
I wouldn't say they're more talended, it's just a different kind of vocal technique. Ask an opera singer to belt out some pop music, it's usually funny yo hear haha
There are a lot of singers that are potentially talented in the industries. However, they are lacking teachers(good teachers) who can ACTUALLY teach them. For examples, they need to know how to use chiaroscuro, passagio, open space, proper breathing technique, proper use of “chest voice” and Squillo. A lot of Universities in the US neglected those terms and stopped using the old school techniques since mid 70s. Due to that, many singer cannot sing with their full potentials. Instead, they were replaced with “mask singing” which is commonly used today which I think it is the most ridiculous technique to be used in operas today.
@@wylieryanjonlean3661 ‘This is Opera’ , it's a RU-vid channel that focuses on old operatic techniques and voice development. Another similar channel is GeneralRadamez
Mansa P yeah I do watch their videos on their channel but I used to have a teacher who taught me the old school vocal training in person way before TIO existed.
Funny that in this video all the voices used in this video HAD ABSOLUTELY NO SQUILLO and pretty much sucked really bad. You want to hear squillo? Listen to Maria Callas pre 1955 performances and tenor Mario Del Monaco!
