Get Someone to Pay Me on Time

[annr]

Thom,
Thanks for the kind words. I should have mentioned that no fewer than three knives were involved in this successful transaction; this is a knife forum after all.

I'm sure that everyone appreciates being paid on time and your voice teacher will be tickled with your thoughtfulness!! As a class I can tell you that musicians are not the best at business, though if I were asked to perform for free I might not even make a return phone call depending on the lunacy of the request. I would absolutely stand firm against playing for free or playing with amateurs unless the situations were completely of my choosing. Unequivocally. But teaching is a bit different...could write a book on this I suppose.

This thread could go a million different directions, even in a Political one: how much are you or your occupation worth and according to whom? I think we've have a few like that.

So when will we be able to catch you on YouTube, a little knife aria? Have you ever heard a Heldentenor?

 

[thombrogan]

Have you ever heard a Heldentenor?

My favorite tenor, Lauritz Melchior, is the Heldentenor.

Here's a good example of his vocal talents. Listen one minute, forty seconds in where he holds a note at primo passaggio for about 13 seconds:

[youtube]ZbfrL4L5GME[/youtube]

I generally prefer hearing Italian-style lyric, dramatic, and spinto tenors singing tenor pieces from Verdi and Puccini (Caruso, a dramatic tenor, being my favorite), but Melchior, well, he's my favorite. Even if he did made English and Italian songs sound German.

 

[annr]

Thom,
Interesting, thanks for sharing. The first and only time I've encountered a Heldentenor, he was standing, unbeknownst to me, 2-3 yards behind me. When he opened his mouth the sound was enormous, like a clap of thunder. It seemed as though he could move fixed objects with the use of his vocal chords. I will never forget that moment, like a volcanic eruption, so much energy and power coming from one man's voice.

I didn't get that same impression of supernatural and overpowering might from your clip (my speakers?) and I wonder if it is possible to only get that incredible feeling in person. I found his obituary in the NYT. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage and I remembered thinking that maybe he put a lot of strain on himself to sing. Also note he was not a small man.

BTW where does one go to practice? Far too loud for most apartments and many detached homes it would seem.



Richard Cassilly, American Tenor, Dies at 70



By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Published: February 4, 1998

The American tenor Richard Cassilly, who was a mainstay in the heldentenor repertory in opera houses around the world for 30 years, died on Friday in Boston, where he lived. He was 70.

The cause was a cerebral hemorrhage, his family said.

Mr. Cassilly had a 6 foot 3 inch, 250-pound frame and a voice to match: a burly tenor with a bright ping on the top notes. In his prime, his singing also had a supple lyric quality that distinguished his performances of roles like Don Jose in ''Carmen.'' But he was best known for his interpretations of the Wagnerian heldentenor roles, Tristan, Siegmund and Tannhauser, as well as other dramatic parts that require vocal heft and stamina, like Verdi's ''Otello'' and Saint-Saens's ''Samson.'' He was known to bring a musical intelligence and uncommonly clear diction to his work.

For the full coverage:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C05E3D61F3AF937A35751C0A96E958260

 

[thombrogan]

Thanks, Ann. I'm sad to hear of his passing.

As for Melchior, he passed quite a while ago, so I only have his recordings. And I'm getting more of them.

Heldentenors seem to be a genetic anomaly, but I've also heard it's just the German version of a dramatic tenor.

Regardless of one's voice-type, proper singing (as opposed to crooning - almost all non-operatic 'singing' is actually crooning) is loud most of the time, so a quest for a proper rehearsal space exists. At least one singer I know of has made a 5'x5'x5' cube of silence in his apartment thus saving him from paying for a rehearsal space or putting off practice until he gets a car or home in which to practice. Always fun.

I need to build one of those cubes.

 

[Cougar Allen]

Lower the Cone of Silence!
[youtube]KLZKEre3yJ0[/youtube]

 

[annr]

At least one singer I know of has made a 5'x5'x5' cube of silence in his apartment

Sounds like a guy going out for those smaller, not-so-tall parts?

until he gets a car..in which to practice

Some car!

I need to build one of those cubes.

Yikes. Have you seen those phone-booth style, soundproof practice compartments? There are some in the basement of Symphony Hall for people to warm up, or practice. See-through walls, not larger than a phone booth, like being in a fish tank.........I don't know how one can really work in such a small space as a mainstay. At least you could stand up?

There is a famous short story about a retired BSO oboist written by his son; he pokes fun at the peculiarities of the oboist and living with one: all the peeping on the reeds, the knives, the cane and feathers, etc. It is hilarious the way he describes his father's moving from room to room daily so as not to annoy the same neighbor two days in a row, longer if possible. Better than a cube or a cone?

Hey Cougar,
You stole my line!

 

[thombrogan]

Cone of silence for the win!

The car doesn't reduce sound, but the Doppler Effect obscures it. Can make matters "worse" if windows are left rolled up (if hearing loss or tinitis are "worse"....).