The People That Walked in Darkness - Snippet in C Major

[rodevries]

Well, to say that this aria would be in D-major (instead of b-minor) and to talk about "concert pitch" in Handel's time is a clear demonstration of your complete ignorance in these matters.

[Agorante]

@rodevries Please enlighten me.

[Agorante]

@Taenyr @Taenyr No, but I have practiced it. I have done Osmin twice. Again I think you're right. The really hard part of the Inquisitor scene isn't just the low E but rather all the high Fs. The kind of voice I meant as a profondo could never manage the high loud parts. So maybe I am (or rather was) a profondo.

[Taenyr]

@Agorante Well, from your other videos, it's clear you have a powerful and consistent high F, and a good, dark low C. Have you found any bass roles (besides the crazy low Russian stuff) that you didn't feel comfortable singing?

[Agorante]

@Taenyr Are there any parts that I can't sing? Absolutely - these Messiah arias. I'm made absolutely sick when I listen to them. I'm just not a Handel singer. Ramey says Handel is the hardest. I agree. Its too hard for me.

But I don't want to be a Sarah Palin - kevetching on the sidelines. I'm more like Herman Cain - not really qualified on the face of it but willing to step into the ring and contend.

[Taenyr]

@Agorante Well, I'll be honest, while you're right that the bass arias in Messiah used to be sung at a lower pitch, I do think the kind of music Handel writes sounds better when sung by a voice with a lighter timbre. Your voice has a thickness to it that I really appreciated in "Alseep in the Deep," for example, and that I think would sound great in roles like the Grand Inquisitor - but the kind of singer Messiah seems right for is more of a lyric bass/bariton than a buffo or dramatic bass.

[Taenyr]

@Agorante Nevertheless, I think it's great you decided to try it out. I wonder...did you ever do any choral singing?

[Agorante]

@Taenyr Of course I sang in choruses in school but not lately. I was rejected by the SF Opera Chorus. I flunked the sight singing part of the audition. BTW James Joyce also flunked the sight singing audition for Irish tenors. John McCormack had won the year before. He turned to writing. When his early books didn't sell, his wife begged him to give all that nonsense up and go back to what he was best at - singing.

[Taenyr]

@Agorante ...that's quite a story. I had no idea that James Joyce was a singer. How do you know this stuff?

[Agorante]

@Taenyr I'm Irish.

[Agorante]

Do they? I don't really keep up with period instruments practice. I hired a conductor for Orfeo many years ago who came with his own period instrument orchestra. As I remember the sackbuts and cromhorns were tuned to modern pitches. I sang a low C somewhere as Caronte which I do not think I could have done at A=415. By the way that was Jeff Raskin the father of the Macintosh (not Jobs).

Unless I'm missing something it's a half step from E to F not a whole step. But yes, 415 is a half step.

[Taenyr]

@Agorante Right, but the original aria is written in D-major, as you said, so the lowest note written in the original key is an F-sharp. What you've got here is the aria transposed down a whole step - so about A = 390 or so?

[Agorante]

@Taenyr Damn it, I hate it when I'm wrong. Unfortunately I have had a lot a of practice at just that.

[Taenyr]

@Agorante And by the way - your low notes sound deep, dark, and easy. Unless you used to sing profundo (in the European sense - not the Russian =D), it doesn't seem like your voice is rising...maybe your overall range is just increasing?

[Agorante]

@Taenyr Thank you for your kind remarks. There is something called a European profondo? News to me. I guess since you've proven right about everything else so far maybe I should listen to you.

Most of the really deep voices are the Tibetan or Russian chanters. They can't really sing in the sense of carrying a melody. Then there are the Gospel basses who provide low harmony in the form of short phrases. The bass in the Oakridge Boys just goes "Ompapa Ompapa Mau Mau". LOL.

[Taenyr]

@Agorante Well, "European profundo" is the term I use to refer to what is called a "basso profundo" in the Fach classification system ("seriöser bass" in German) - as in, the kind of bass who sings Osmin and the Grand Inquisitor. The lowest note you're supposed to have as a "European" profundo is a C; Russian profundos, on the other hand, need G1. But your low E sounds easy and strong...and the timbre of your voice would fit the Inquisitor, I think. Have you ever sung the role?

[Taenyr]

Don't period-instrument performances of the Messiah use A = 415? And isn't that about a half-step (not a whole step) lower than A = 440? That would make the low note an F, which many baritones can and do perform.