Song suggestions for higher lyric voice

Subject: Song suggestions for higher lyric voice
From: Margo
Date: 19 Jul 99 - 02:38 PM

Hey folks! I love sea shantys but they're the last thing I ought to be singing. I have been told at song circle that I sound great singing in my higher register. I like old English, Scottish, and Irish ballads. What are some of your favorites that have lyric melodies? I must build a repetoire!

Margarita

Subject: RE: Song suggestions for higher lyric voice
From: Alice
Date: 19 Jul 99 - 07:38 PM

Margarita,
- the songs in Jean Redpath's Scottish recordings, lift the key up about a third,
- all of Mary O'Hara's recordings,
- the older sheet music for Irish and Scottish songs, which were usually written for a lyric soprano,
- older songbooks that have songs by Thomas Moore and Delia Murphy... that's a good start!

Subject: RE: Song suggestions for higher lyric voice
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Jul 99 - 07:47 PM

Lots of songs can enjoy new life in a higher key. Try higher keys for "This Land Is Your Land," and it sounds a lot more idealistic. Men can sing nicely in higher keys than they're used to, sometimes in the same key as the women - that takes a little machismo-swallowing, but it can sound terrific. Even more interesting is to have a woman sing below a man's voice, although that doesn't seem to apply with Margarita's higher voice.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Song suggestions for higher lyric voice
From: Margo
Date: 19 Jul 99 - 10:57 PM

Actually, Joe, I do have a two octave range: G below middle C and G two octaves up. It's funny you mention that because I had approached a guy at song circle about singing an arrangement I had written where the woman's voice does go lower than the man's. We haven't worked it out yet, but I always thought that was such a pleasing sound, she in close harmony with and lower than he.

Margarita

Subject: RE: Song suggestions for higher lyric voice
From: rich r
Date: 19 Jul 99 - 11:00 PM

Try some Richar Dyer-Bennet or maybe some BeeGees. No I didn't type that last one, some evil electronic impulses twitched my fingers.

rich r

Subject: RE: Song suggestions for higher lyric voice
From: Barry Finn
Date: 19 Jul 99 - 11:09 PM

Hi Margarita, pretty poor reason to stop singing shanties. The high voice was the voice that could be heard above the wind in the rigging or a filling sail. "Tom's Gone To Hilo" or "Shallow Brown" in an upper range can be as high & lonesome on a breaking sea as it can be on a mountain top. In West Indies there's a tradition of two singing while the rest join in on the refrains, the basser (low register voice) plays 2nd fiddle to the leading high register, the same high lead or backing, or high harmony can be found in the Prison work songs & Slave songs, nothing to do with who's got the most macho voice. Barry

Subject: RE: Song suggestions for higher lyric voice
From: Bert
Date: 19 Jul 99 - 11:23 PM

If it's just shanteys you want you probably saw these on the "songs I can't sing" thread.

Stormalong, Golden Vanity & Shenandoah. Or look for forebitters, a lot of those are very delicate and should be OK.

Other than that, a few that come to mind are...

Believe me if all those endearing young charms
Still I love him
The Ash Grove
On wings of song
The Cornish Nightingale
Scarborough Fair
The Star Spangled Banner
Unchained melody - great for your wide range
Softly, softly

Wow I'm really getting into the Fifties here, guess I'd better stop for now.

Bert.

Subject: RE: Song suggestions for higher lyric voice
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 20 Jul 99 - 03:28 AM

Dear M, you DO have a great upper register. Ghost of William-O has a great eerie sound. a cappella, with lots of ornamentation.

"Straw into Gold" has a lot of great stuff on their 3 tapes, sung in harmony, but it doesn't have to be.

(I just drove home from Portland sing along to "All that is gold do-es not glitter/All who wander are not lost...)

-MA

Subject: RE: Song suggestions for higher lyric voice
From: Vixen
Date: 20 Jul 99 - 09:10 AM

In regards harmony with the woman lower than the man--Tim and I do that occasionally, and every one tells us we have such great harmonies when we do! I have to concentrate too much on what I'm singing to listen to the "whole" sound, but Tim thinks it sounds good, and when I've heard us on tape, I like it too. I've got a low singing voice, and Tim and I have a lot of overlap in our ranges, so it's relatively easy for us to arrange that type of harmony.

V