June 20, 2005

Let The Boy Sing!

Good grief -- if this young man has this exceptional talent and range, why deny him the right to compete on a fair and equal basis with the girls?

Singing soprano is for girls only in Texas' All-State Choir, eliminating a 17-year-old boy's chance to audition for a statewide honor and raising questions about gender and vocal performance.


The Texas Music Educators Association denied a petition by Mikhael Rawls of suburban Fort Worth to audition this fall for the elite ensemble as a soprano, a part traditionally sung by girls.

Rawls sings countertenor, a little known male voice part that has surged in popularity in classical and operatic circles in the past decade. He can sing an octave and a half higher than most boys his age, and he feels most comfortable singing in that range. He has even won first place as a soprano in the University Interscholastic League's competition two years in a row.

The association, however, does not allow boys to sing soprano, or alto or girls to sing tenor or bass. Association spokeswoman Amy Lear said the group adopted the rule two years ago because of concerns that girls auditioning for tenor parts were hurting their voices by singing too low.

"If you make a rule one way it has to work both ways,"

Actually, no you don't have to make it both ways. On the one hand, you have individuals being harmed by exceeding their abilities. On the other, you have someone trying to sing in their natural range. No reasonable judge in the world would see it differently.

Oh, that's right, I just used a non-sequiter -- "reasonable judge".

The young man, though, hits the nail right on the head in his letter to the association.

"This is an education association that is supposed to be fostering and developing young singers," said Maguire, who wrote a letter to the Texas group urging them to approve Rawls' petition. "Keeping someone from singing what is essentially natural to them is not fostering them."

Fortuantely, colleges are already looking at this fine young man. He'll get to sing on the college level -- and well beyond, if I do not miss my guess.

Good luck, Mikhael! I long to hear your voice some day.


Posted by: Greg at 01:59 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 385 words, total size 2 kb.

1 Actually, they don't have to have a law either way. I'm certain there are girls whose natural voice is quite low, and that is their range. Rather than making a rule, either find out some way to test the abilities of the people auditioning first, to make certain they can handle the work, or warn them, and their parents, before hand, about the problems inherent in singing in a range wrong for one's vocal chords.

Posted by: Rachel Ann at Mon Jun 20 17:36:21 2005 (U4L0I)

2 Yeah, I love it when people make paternal rules to 'protect' people from themselves. It's disgusting and flat pisses me off.

Sub

Posted by: Subjugator at Tue Jun 21 00:07:45 2005 (r/FBF)

3 As a teacher of English with a minor in vocal music and many years of professional work as a classical tenor it's clear that this young man is not being abused. There is nothing keeping him from singing music written for tenors, he merely does it in a higher register. Music written specifically for counter tenors is the same note a tenor would sing, written in a high register, usually in the same key.

The use of counter tenors, which may well have its origin in castrati (yes, the Italians would castrate young boys prior to puberty so they could maintain their pure, high soprano-like voices), is more a function of composers writing for their specific timbre--the tonal color of their voices) than of a significant need for what is a relatively uncommon vocal phenomena.

A tenor may sing a work written in the key of D major, and so may a counter tenor, but with a slightly different timbre and an octave higher. To the trained ear, and not a few untrained ear, a counter tenor sounds like a male singer, not a female.

Requiring that a male sing parts written for men isn't discrimination or a suppression of artistic development or freedom, it's a recognition of the abilities and timbres of male and female voices. One doesn't write a part for a flute below the staff, nor does one voice a trombone on the treble clef.

This young singer can have a career as a counter tenor that will not be in any way harmed by singing tenor literature an octave higher. As Rachel Ann noted, with young singers, educators have a responsibility to protect their voices, voices which may well change up to and beyond their high school years.

Posted by: Mike McDaniel at Wed Jun 22 13:39:23 2005 (G5PGV)

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