'He Was Despised' - Singing Lesson with Jess Dandy (The Contralto Voice Part 3/3)

[00:00:01]So, the music we've chosen really is is because we've been talking about the passaggio zone and knitting the two registers together.

[00:00:10]Uh you've chosen to sing as as it is happens to be December and inevitably lots of Messiahs for you.

[00:00:18]Looking at he was despised which goes over this zone rather relentlessly, doesn't it? So, it's one thing to do it in situ concentrating on the sound on one vowel.

[00:00:30]>> [snorts] >> Uh semitone by semitone, it's another thing to get into the hurly-burly of words and music and constantly changing vowels and changing intervals as well.

[00:00:40]And coming from the top down to passaggio or even lower and coming up to it. So, uh um good luck.

[00:00:50]Right, so there's your chord.

[00:00:58]>> He [snorts] was despised. [singing] Despised and rejected. [singing] >> So, the first troubled spot is rejected there, isn't it?

[00:01:25]Um that that means cautious blending. So, you're coming from re which is a very close note on the higher close vowel on the higher pitch to eh which is a very open vowel on the lower pitch. So, you've unfortunately that's made the bridge even wider, hasn't it?

[00:01:45]Um so, just get it sorted.

[00:01:48]>> [laughter] >> Yes, sir.

[00:01:49]>> Just just be just be aware of that. So, you you've got to either make jerk a little bit more mellow. Jerk jerked rather than check, check it. That might work or you >> [snorts] >> I think that's the one actually rather than opening up uh the the the pictures either side of it.

[00:02:08]Should we give it another go?

[00:02:09]>> Mhm.

[00:02:21]>> That's it. So, for me that that works and these are the meticulous things that you've got to bring to it because, you know, until you are complete in complete control of this zone and, you know, it does take time then you still have to be quite cautious when you're performing. Do you I mean I I think I mean that when you sing this when you you you've sung this what, three or four times already, haven't you? We've several more to go.

[00:02:46]>> Mhm.

[00:02:47]>> And and I and and you feel you're happy now going going through it? Yes. Yeah.

[00:02:52]Yeah.

[00:02:53]>> Yeah. I mean we've watched it on it a lot.

[00:02:55]>> Yeah.

[00:02:55]>> Yeah.

[00:02:55]>> Yeah. I mean it was to we sort of just luckily got it ready for the Messiah season, haven't we? So, you know, sometimes necessity is the mother of invention.

[00:03:04]Uh right, uh rejected [music] of men.

[00:03:30]>> [singing] [music] [singing] [singing] >> Mhm.

[00:04:19]Any comments from you?

[00:04:20]>> Just this far?

[00:04:22]>> I think that previously, and I have a sort of haunting memory of this, going on to the open vowels of a man, >> Mhm.

[00:04:33]>> um would previously have felt quite precarious, and I think I would have tried to over open.

[00:04:41]>> Yeah.

[00:04:41]>> So, even now when I'm implementing your advice with the more open vowels, that actually over open opening them is a is a false god, and something that maybe we've we've taken on a lot from from uh the pop tradition in a way. Uh that it's kind of seeped into uh the classical tradition, because it is very very different.

[00:05:02]>> Mhm.

[00:05:02]>> Um but we sort of kid ourselves into thinking that something will be more resonant if we open up more.

[00:05:09]>> Yeah.

[00:05:09]>> Um so, actually closing down those um those open vowels of a man, and keeping the depth, and keeping it in, as we were saying in uh the other exercise on one of the other clips, um that actually it's always about optimizing resonance on every single note, and the vowels are very much nearer together than than we might assume.

[00:05:37]>> Yeah.

[00:05:38]>> Um >> Yeah.

[00:05:39]>> Yeah.

[00:05:39]>> Well, seems to be working.

[00:05:41]>> Mhm.

[00:05:41]>> Uh should we move on? He he The word seems to be he was despised it. So, you don't have to worry about learning too many words in Handel. [laughter] Um he >> [music] >> was despised it.

[00:05:54]>> He was despised it.

[00:06:04]Rejected.

[00:06:11]He was despised and rejected of men.

[00:06:26]A >> [singing] >> man of sorrows and a acquainted with grief.

[00:06:43]>> [singing] [singing] >> A >> [singing] >> man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

[00:07:11]He was [singing] despised it.

[00:07:21]Rejected.

[00:07:30]A >> [singing] >> man of sorrows and acquainted >> [singing] >> with with grief.

[00:07:47]Unacquainted with grief.

[00:08:06]>> [sighs and gasps] >> A man of sorrows.

[00:08:15]>> [singing] >> Unacquainted with grief.

[00:08:32]>> [singing] >> Very beautiful.

[00:08:39]And every now and every now and then you will you will just suddenly do a hush tone. And and I think yeah, this this is why I like to take a lot of time with you.

[00:08:48]Um very very moving. Very moving.

[00:08:51]Technically speaking, um I think I mean you and I know that in the future there will be better blending going on. It's such a hurly-burly of different closed vowels, open vowels, over semitones.

[00:09:05]Uh and every now and then we will hear this break. And and I think that's a good thing. You know, you should be able to do both. You should be able to smooth it over, but you should be able to use that break for for dramatic and expressive effect. Callas Callas did it of course. Uh Caballé. Um maybe the one who did it more than I can think than others was uh the Turkish soprano Leyla Gencer, who was contemporary of Callas and was a little bit in her shadow. I mean, everybody's going to be in Callas' shadow, unfortunately, but she was a remarkable singer and sang Aida and Traviata, all sorts of things.

[00:09:45]But but she would use it very potently and it is very dramatic because if you're this is why sometimes I think women demur from singing too much in chest voice because it is a little bit unladylike. In the same way as men don't always like singing in falsetto because it seems a little bit effeminate.

[00:10:06]>> Yeah, but but we hesitate.

[00:10:08]>> But when we talk about sort of resonance being a force of nature and something that is elemental, that is not ladylike, is it?

[00:10:16]>> No, it's there. We all have big ranges.

[00:10:18]We have these ranges. We don't always use use them in classical singing. They do perhaps more in in in light singing.

[00:10:24]>> And I think in something as truthful as this aria, particularly when it comes in the Messiah, that it really is the sort of the knob of the piece when there is this raw >> Mhm.

[00:10:36]>> emotion.

[00:10:37]>> Mhm.

[00:10:37]>> That he's completely cast out, tortured.

[00:10:41]Um in a way allowing the voice to sort of just go where it wants. It's just a sort of audible sob, really, at this point.

[00:10:49]It's so that the vulnerability at the center of of this to sort of go from this point to end up at at the sort of triumphalism of the amen at the end. It It needs to be that extreme trajectory, I think.

[00:11:05]>> It's It's a bit like the slow the slow movement of a sonata, isn't it? This is This is where the depth, the profundity of expression really is.

[00:11:13]>> Yeah, you've got to earn the amen.

[00:11:16]>> [laughter] >> Yeah.

[00:11:17]>> Yeah.

[00:11:18]>> I I think also because it is this in this particular zone, this is why we chose this because it it exploits the the zone. It is in the rich sepulchral part of the voice that has a great plangency to it. So, I think it's especially effective. You know, it could have it could have it shouldn't have been a soprano aria or a baritone aria. I think this particular color in in in the human voice that happens to for me be at its height of expression in the lower part of the contralto voice is is very profound. It's all almost becomes non-human because it could be a man could be a woman a high tenor could sing this.

[00:12:03]>> Mhm.

[00:12:03]>> Not not a countertenor, but a proper high tenor wouldn't be a problem.

[00:12:08]But, yeah, very good. Is there anything you wanted to go over there?

[00:12:14]>> No, I don't think so.

[00:12:15]>> No, I think that was great. Yeah.

[00:12:17]Thank you.

[00:12:17]>> Brilliant. Thank you very much.