musical ramble

[electricland]

So I'm going to rant a little about singing. I have next to no formal musical training, so those who do (ipanicked, rottenfruit, drkeys, raithen's sister, and any of the rest of you) are encouraged to avert their eyes and/or poke holes in the following. But I've sung in several choirs, I am an enthusiastic singer-along to the radio, and I know what I like, dammit. So.

Performances of songs, it seems to me, can be roughly divided into three (maybe four) categories:

1. Easy songs made to sound easy.
Lots of pop music is like this. Some of it can be fantastic (many folk songs fall in this category). I enjoy singing along to an easy song as much as the next girl. If the singer has a spectacular voice, this is a definite plus, but easy songs can also show off pleasant-voiced singers with a limited range, and that's fine. Performances in this category are not trying to be something they're not.

2a. Hard songs made to sound hard.

2b. Easy songs made to sound hard.
Anyone can do either of these. Pop "divas" do this a lot -- Celine Dion and Whitney Houston, for instance, come to mind. They never quite let you forget how much work they're putting into the song. (Whether the song sounds good is another question -- Gerard Butler as the Phantom of the Opera, I'm lookin' at you. I've seen a trailer for the Phantom, which looks quite sumptuous, but the line

Let your soul take you where you long to... BEEE!

made me flinch back in my seat. Not his fault, mind you -- I gather he's never sung before. But it's a problem.)

There is certainly a place for virtuoso singing that doesn't make a secret of how difficult the song is (as a random example, the bass soloist's rendition of "The Trumpet Shall Sound" at my mother's choir's performance of the Messiah). So category 2a gets a conditional bye from me. I reserve a special place in Heck, though, for many, many performances in 2b, good singers overplaying a song (hard or easy) to show off. And in this category I am placing those responsible for two renditions I recently heard of "O Holy Night": Stevie Wonder and whoever got the nod for the CBC's broadcast on Christmas Day. Both of them managed to make the chorus sound something like this:

Fall on your knees!
Oh hear how great my voice is!
My voice divine, my voice, listen to me
I'm working hard, so hear
My voice divine!

And that's just wrong. It's a beautiful carol and, yes, difficult to sing, but it can show off a voice very well without, as it were, showing off. It has plenty of drama all on its own -- there's no need to add pounds of vibrato and overplay the dynamics and generally marzipan it up. Ugh. I would much prefer it to fall in the last category:

3. Hard songs made to sound easy.
This is the singing I admire the most. Kirsty MacColl and Warren Zevon, my current obsessions, share this quality: incredible voices that sneak up on you by making you think "Hey, I could do that." Until you try. (I grant you that my definition of "hard" is entirely subjective and arbitrary and consists of "I tried to sing it, and found it difficult." It's as good a working definition as I've been able to come up with, though, and I'm going to keep it.) There are others: off the top of my head, Ella Fitzgerald, Dusty Springfield, Dolly Parton (the reader will kindly make a hex sign here to ward off harm from the only living person in this list) all put a hell of a lot of effort into making their singing sound effortless.

And that, to me, is the real secret of virtuosity.

Comments

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

I think Linda Ronstadt, whom I've grown to admire more as I get older (in part because I've never been able to figure out what genre she belongs to, and generally think of her as Mabel in the "Pirates of Penzance"), also falls into that latter category.

[lilactime.livejournal.com]

3. Hard songs made to sound easy.

Like ABBA. Some of those songs are almost impossible to sing without years of training.

[elissa-carey.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I think you may be right. I've had some experience singing (I'd been in choirs from 3rd grade on up to singing in choirs in the military), and I know what a pain singing any song can be. Pulling off a difficult one and making it sound acceptable is a good achievement for me. The day I can pull off a difficult one and make it sound wonderful and easy is the day that yes, I'd count myself a diva. (And that day may be "never," as I don't really get time anymore for formal singing of any stripe.)

[lostvoice.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. I'm a trained vocalist, and sometimes even I think to myself "heck, I can do that" and then try and fail. And then of course, I try and try and try until I nail it.

The only time I do the "easy songs made difficult" route is if I'm trying to piss off someone who thinks they can sing, but really can't. You know those people. And yes, I'm mean. But only when it comes to music. ;)

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

Brava! I agree that the fussy, swooping, vibrato-laden, scale-encrusted, look-at-me style does nothing to convey the emotional or musical content of the song. It seems sometimes that these folks have forgotten that music, like poetry, is about conveying image and emotion.

I also agree that a really good singer makes it sound easy until you actually try to sing along. When you hear your own voice sound stale, you realize how much inflection these singers have put into their words and melodies, because all those swoops and hitches and warbles were subservient to the meaning and emotion of the song, they come from the singer knowing exactly what their voice can do and more importantly, feeling the song as they sing. It's a layer that can't be replicated because it's unique to that mind/throat/heart, for lack of a better word, their personal oomph.

In addition to Warren Zevon (a tricky bastard because you really have to sing along uncover his oomph, it's subtle but powerful), Dolly Parton (such a sweet clear voice, and she can make me sniffle with one well-turned phrase), and Ella Fitzgerald (Ella's style was so very particular to her it's hard to even hum along because she's such a joy to listen to), I'd also add Johnny Cash.

Even as his voice aged and became frail, Johnny Cash's oomph only got stronger because he put the whole collected weight of his life and experience into his singing, those cracks and shakes part of what he was showing you when he sang.

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

Sing it sister!

You already know my thoughts as we thoroughly discussed them on the streetcar. I agree with Feldman about Johnny Cash and I would personally add singers like Lucinda Williams and Bob Dylan to the list who manage to wow me with their lyrics. I'm not sure how I'd rate their singing though...

[life-on-queen.livejournal.com]

Even as his voice aged and became frail, Johnny Cash's oomph only got stronger because he put the whole collected weight of his life and experience into his singing, those cracks and shakes part of what he was showing you when he sang.

His cover of 'Hurt' for example, took the song to an entirely different level from Trent. Same with 'Personal Jesus.' Both demonstrated Cash's complete mastery of his voice as his premier instrument.

[kendokamel.livejournal.com]

One of my biggest musical pet peeves is people who use unnecessary embellishments. I also get irritated by unnecessary vibrato. I trained operatically for awhile, and I see no reason for people to use such a heavy vibrato that a) you can't tell what the actual note is supposed to be, or b) obscures the words, regardless of language.

I recall this one woman in a church choir I used to be in... she had a machine-gun-like vibrato. (Think: THe Cowardly Lion singing "If I... were king... of the for-ehehehehehehehehehest!") It irritated me to no end when people woudl hear hear and say, "Oh, she's so talented!" She absolutely butchered the "Ave Maria", and I had to fight with every fibre of my being to not cringe while standing there, hearing, "Ave Mariheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheheeeeeeeeeia... grahahahahahahahahahatzia playyyynahahahahahahahahaha."

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

Here's my post from when I first heard Cash's "Hurt" (and also saw the video): http://www.livejournal.com/users/rubberneck/10843.html The short of it being that it made me sob like a lost child.

[claris.livejournal.com]

he only time I do the "easy songs made difficult" route is if I'm trying to piss off someone who thinks they can sing, but really can't. You know those people. And yes, I'm mean. But only when it comes to music. ;)

Note to self -- never let Melly into the Brass Monkey (kareoke bar) on a Friday night in LA. The wannabes would cause you a stroke.
Or, alternately, maybe I should -- 'cause it'd be fun to watch... I never did write up the thing that innocentgurl & her boy came to when I sang - we literally sat there & took notes like, "He's only three other guys short of the next boy band..." 'cause we're mean too!

[themusesbitch.livejournal.com]

The only time I do the "easy songs made difficult" route is if I'm trying to piss off someone who thinks they can sing, but really can't. You know those people. And yes, I'm mean. But only when it comes to music. ;)

Oooooh... could you come to my office and do that to Annoying New Manager? She REALLY needs a good, hard slap of reality.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Ave Maria! Yes! Another perfect example of a song that should just be allowed to stand on its own, dammit! So easy to ruin with froufrou. IMO it should be sung as simply as possible -- unfortunately, so few singers can pull it off.

[drkeys.livejournal.com]

Hard songs made to sound easy is, I agree, the top level of artistic achievement, which is why I love Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon (that stuff is deceptively complicated!). I'm curious where Tom Waits would rank... I'd say he crosses all four categories.

I think category 2b should be split again into "easy songs made to sound difficult" and "easy songs with singers really digging in with their voice." All the singers in The Band (on songs like "The Weight," "Up On Cripple Creek," or anything else, really) fall into the latter.

[raithen.livejournal.com]

*hee* I thought of Ave Maria right off when I read your post. When we went to the Figure Skating Grama and I BOTH thought, independently, that my sis does a MUCH better job than the recording artist they had chosen for the set....

[electricland.livejournal.com]

I believe it -- your sister has an amazing voice, and knows not to overpower a song. I bet she would do a kick-ass O Holy Night, too.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

2b is definitely a fuzzy category! You are right -- really digging in can sound great under the right circumstances. It does depend a lot on the song: sometimes the singer needs to step back and do a really straight, pure rendition. Like (not to obsess or anything) O Holy Night. At least that's my preference.

Also, of course, my definition of "easy song" can even vary with the key. Some singers can go places I just can't follow (this is why I rarely sing along with Tori Amos, f'rinstance -- my voice just doesn't do that -- and why I only sing the harmony part on Superman's Song from, oh hell, that Winnipeg band, Crash Test Dummies, I'm losing my mind).

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Yes! Yes to everything you said.

I really need some Johnny Cash in my life...

[electricland.livejournal.com]

*hee* This I want to hear. Well, both these things, actually.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

I hear ya. My party piece is "Mercedes Benz", which should give you some idea of where my voice is at... although I'm really loving the choir/course I'm in at the moment, because the instructor is all about just singing together, and we mostly very simple a capella songs but with fantastic harmonies. It's fun and when we nail something it sounds amazing.

[electricland.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... hadn't thought of them!

[electricland.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard much of her, but I suspect you're right. I should see if I can find a CD of hers to start me off -- any suggestions?

Pirates of Penzance? ...really?

O Holy (Christmas Carol) Night(mares)

[raithen.livejournal.com]

Im sure she has - she sang carols at Butchart Gardens and the Empress for YEARS to make ends meet. To this day, she runs screaming at the first notes of most Christmas carols.... Familiarity does, in this case, breed contempt. But she always sang them beautifully, I've been told!

[rottenfruit.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a pretty accurate assessment of singing! I prefer types 1 and 3 to listen to, and type 1 to sing. 2b gets on my nerves like nothing else, and 2a can be okay in the context of a singing class or something... good to learn from but still embarrassing to listen to.