Word: basse
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...always man's most expressive musical instrument, and until a few centuries ago it was also the most flexible. Then part singing was invented, and in time the singer's voice became corseted by custom into one of six categories: soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass. Like any set of muscles restricted to less than full capabilities, the human voice became the slave of the restriction. Individuals once even went to such extremes as castration to break out,* but occasionally a voice comes along that needs no adjustment to make musical news: the thrilling voice of Soprano...
...London last week a new voice was making news. It belongs to pretty, pencil-slim Jennifer Johnson, 23, and its useful range is an extraordinary 4½ octaves, or everything from bass to soprano...
...pupils to illustrate his theory. He has a tape recording of one of them singing all the principal roles of The Magic Flute, from the Queen of the Night's famously difficult coloratura (F above the staff) to Sarastro's well-deep basso (F below the bass staff). A group of four women students recorded the minuet from a Haydn string quartet, singing cello, viola and violin parts. One boy has recorded his rumbles and squeaks over a range of seven octaves, a young man has produced close to nine under Wolfson's tutelage...
...greatness of these 350-year-old madrigals lies in the combination of lovely Elizabethan poetry and musical settings which preserve a consistent harmonic structure while observing equality of line. Each part, from soprano to bass, is melodic and fun to sing. Woodworth has long spoken of madrigals as after-dinner music, and on Friday he proved his point by placing his 16 best singers around a table for several of the pieces. Morley's My Bonny Lass and Shoot, False Love sounded especially buoyant in this arrangement...
...glimpses of wide vistas on the other side. The second movement went along at a dashing, rustic gallop, while the third strutted with the bravado of a teen-ager unaware of being observed. Some of the loveliest music came when the high clarinet played a melting melody while the bass clarinet throbbed, followed by a slam-bang finale...