tenor RUBY HELDER 18-yr-old GIRL sounds like a man

Girl tenor RUBY HELDER sings "Eily Mavourneen" from Benedict's Irish opera, "The Lily of Killarney"—in 1908. The petite girl had just passed her 18th birthday.

The recording was made as a Pathe cylinder. It was available in the U.S. in the form of a Pathe 10.75-inch disc #766.

This recording falls in the realm of "an operatic PARTY RECORD." You have NEVER heard anything / anyone quite like this!

It's a sad fact that few of the early Helder discs are found in good playing condition--
for three reasons:- they were played on early talking machines that tended to wear the records because of heavy pick-ups (tone arms), coupled with the reality that early disc-owners (playing Helder's lateral discs) were reluctant to play just one record and then throw away the needle.... AND.... because Ruby's recordings were so unusual, they received more playings than a disc might ordinarily receive.

Add to that mix the fact that some vintage talking machines didn't track the grooves properly. U.S. Columbia machines tended to cause more wear than Victor machines.

Ruby Helder first stepped before the recording horn for the Pathe Company in 1908 to cut cylinder masters. When heard by the management of Pathe and then the general public, most didn't believe this was the vocal art of a 18-year-old GIRL who stood under 5 feet at the time and sounded like a MAN.

A more complete bio can be found in the other Ruby Helder recording I posted.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• gmmix
• Ruby
• Helder
• girl
• tenor
• Pathe
• cylinder
• vaudeville
• Irish
• opera

[JeremyPassarelli]

Is she 12 or 18?

[gmmix]

@JeremyPassarelli She was 18. There was no way to correct the error on the label-card without re-posting the whole video. SORRY for the TYPO.

[ellandelachapelle]

Impossible! I don´t believe this! This is neither a girl nor a woman!

[gmmix]

Her life and career are pretty well documented.

Check the comments on the other Helder video I posted.

[ColinMeloy91]

There are plenty of Women Tenors, although they are rare, in my choir we have two!

[fuzzbear6240]

Gmmix, She was truly amazing! You could make a lot of money making bets on this record. Ha Ha Ha! Thanks for sharing this gem with us. YF, J.

[mssparksfly2000]

I AM SO NOT A TENOR!! Im probably an alto

[Jpmadore1]

@1ofmeful-

It varies from one voice to another, but a tenor voice generally is from C3-C5. The extremes are pretty much Ab2-F5.

[1ofmeful]

Finally I know that there is such thing as a woman tenor. I thought I was the only one. A tenor is from around C3 to C5 right? Or just a bit below C5?

[aeiosinek]

i can sing soprano and alto and tenor it just depends how you want it to sound

[abracadabranque]

Etonnant!!!Vraiment???

[orlando098]

@orlando098

I have a recording of a woman, a student of Alfred Wolfsohn, a German singing teacher who specialised in extended range techniques, singing solos of all the leads in the Magic Flute, from the bass Sarastro to the Queen of the Night.

[orlando098]

Very unusual, but why does its say she was 12? That can't be right and is contradicted by the title, which says 18, which is surprising enough. If some rare men are able to sing very well in the soprano range (Aris Kristofellis, Randall Wong etc) then I don't see why women who are good at singing low should not also have their place.

[owtatowttowt]

frightning!