@@despacito2384 Not necessarily high pitch, as long as it resonates with the fundamental frequency of the cup/glass in question, there's a possibility for it to break
I know some fellow vocalists and opera singers, and they have expressed concern over how many orchestras and opera companies are currently switching to microphones for vocal projection. To these singers, using microphones in that context comes off as cheating.
@Scribbli Chheery I'm in the camp that doesn't understand electric guitars. If it's being played electroacoustically then that's one thing, but the stereotyped "electric" timbre of an electric guitar is created not by the actual instrument but by the audio post-processing.
@@Stratelier i understand them because of ease-of transport and repair. Acoustic guitars need to be kept at a consistent range of moisture so they dont warp and break, but for electrics the wood body is pretty much irrelevant, the only components you need to protect are the neck and the base of the strings (the sensors that convert the vibrations into electrical signals, Im not a guitar maker so I dont know the term) Electrics are easier to repair, and cheaper to replace than acoustics. Theyre also easier to carry around in luggage (much thinner)
@Scribbli Chheery using a microphone is comparable to using a trampoline in a high jump at the Olympics while electric guitars is more comparable to using more aerodynamic balls in golf.
@@juanvelez8564 :: There is no sound on Earth that is as pure & clear & high as a child's voice at that age. Even the little boys sound like little girls !
We take for granted the amount of work and mind muscle connection that these extraordinary professionals achieve. I have to go to opera soon, never been to one.
You definitely should! Just make sure you read the synopsis BEFORE you go! Otherwise it will be hard to understand and enjoy as the plots are usually so convoluted.
thank YOU! You really got what its all about! I'm studying it since three years and oh my - it's SO hard in every aspect you could imagine and many more, but the best thing in the world
Bathrooms close, smooth walls at odd angles (especially the shower) also add "course" by making the sound reach the singers ear clear and offset at multiple times.
An opera singer was hired to come to our choir room for seventh period in school and she explained everything about opera singing. She explained how they use residence in their voices and thats what makes the ringing sound in your ear when they hit a high note thus, the reason why they don’t really need microphones. And she also sang a beautiful song in Italian. I haven’t really been into opera but hearing her voice was so angelic and beautiful that you can help but smile.
I have searched for (musical, I'm studying physics) entry-level education with a take on music similar to the one this video had, with little success. This was short and repeated a lot of things I knew, but it took this exact standpoint I've imagined, but couldn't find anywhere - until I saw this, not because I searched for it, but because it appeared in my subscription box. I am very greatful for the few insights this gave me, and sincerely hope to get a chance to really learn how composing, playing and hearing music works in detail from the perspecive of a physicist and a mathematician. If anyone happens to know about something he could recommend, I'd appreciate it, of course.
Lion Tyleraned I believe Acoustics is the field you’re interested in. I’m studying Acoustics and Music Technology, which basically means I am studying the physics of music. I recommend you have a look at Universities around you and see if they offer something similar. If you’re genuinely interested in this field, then get into it, you won’t regret it.
I like how when they sing it actually can move light objects around, like wind, just from certain notes. You feel a rush around you and a swelling in your head sort of feeling. It’s the weirdest coolest thing! You can hear it and it moves the energy around you. Without a microphone. It’s like magic.
I should interject that it does not matter whether one sings Baroque operas, Wagnerian operas, Verismo operas, Bel Canto operas or even operas in various languages. Chest voice and head voice coordination is what makes voice ring and have presence throughout a huge opera house. Hence, opera singing is definitely considered to be the Olympics for the voice because of the demands every opera singer needs to fulfill. This principle applies to all singers ranging from coloratura soprano to basso profondo.
You cannot hire small voices for a full scale opera house, forget it. There are professional opera singers who for example refuses to sing in the biggest opera houses where you need a voice of steel. What you need is a born vocal apparatus of the bigger calibre, no training in the world will help you if you not are born with basic physics for it. Not everyone have the physiques for heavy weight wrestling either.
@@johnojvind7641 I'm sorry, but this is simply NOT TRUE! A properly trained voice, whether large or small, will easily soar above the largest orchestra. The reason for this is that the voice vibrates at a different frequency than instruments. As opera singers, we use RESONANCE in order to be heard above the instruments, and NOT volume! This is a very important principle that unfortunately has been lost on most vocal teachers. As a singer, it's IMPOSSIBLE to overpower the instruments using the volume (strength) of our voices. It's basic physics - instruments produce far greater volume than a single voice ever could. HOWEVER, what we as opera singers have are higher vibrations in our voices. When placed properly, the vibrations of the voice easily soar ABOVE the vibrations of the instruments, thus enabling that single voice to be heard above the largest orchestras. This is the secret that was taught by old school masters such as Porpora in the 18th century and why the castrati were able to be heard in 3000+ seat theaters in the 18th and 19th centuries without the need for microphones. About 20 years when I was a voice student here in Vienna, I went to a Kathleen Battle concert at the Musikverein. She'd always been one of my favorite singers but I'd never heard her in person before. Since I was a broke, half-starving student, I could only afford the cheapest ticket which was basically a standing area all the way on the last floor of the theater up in the rafters with the pigeons. When Kathleen Battle walked out on the stage, I was surprised at how small she was. I was even more surprised when she started singing - she had a very pretty but VERY SMALL voice! You don't get to hear that on her CDs where audio engineers compensate for the size of a singer's voice. HOWEVER, despite her small voice and small stature, you could hear EVERY SINGLE note she sang as CLEAR AS A BELL!! I was so surprised!! Every single syllable, every single note resonated throughout the large concert hall, reaching all the way up to where I was standing on the last floor. At the time I was stupefied as I did not yet understand how she did this. Many years later, however, I now do. She was able to be heard because she used the RESONANCE in her voice which travels throughout all four corners of the concert hall, DESPITE her small voice and small frame. Volume, on the other hand, which requires muscle strength, does not. It's a paradox of physics that the human voice cannot be adequately projected using volume. And that's why many modern singers who scream using muscle power are so easily drowned out by the orchestra. You don't have to take my word for it - look up any modern singer on YT, the more they huff and puff, the easier they're drowned out by the orchestra. This happens because they were taught to project their voices using VOLUME, which as we know is 100% guaranteed to fail because the human voice CANNOT overpower an instrument using volume. Listen to a singer like Anna Netrebko for a good example of someone who tries to use volume to project her voice. The minute the orchestra plays mezzoforte, she can no longer be heard. She then reacts by increasing her volume to the point where she has to scream. And despite this, she will still not be easily heard. Contrast this with old school singers like Alma Gluck or Elisabeth Rethberg whose effortless usage of resonance (and not volume) can be clearly heard. In particular listen to Alma Gluck's recording of Care Selve and how the resonance of her voice on the final high note sounds warm and velvety without any of the unpleasant strident screams of Netrebko.
@@CurtisCT You are talking extraordinay pure BS and well spread myths. There is no way only frequency will help your voice survive for 2/3 hours perhaps 3 days a week for an entire season without any natural born volume and a voice of steel. Opera has a graveyard with ruined voices just because they sings unamplified and do not have the born stamina and endurance. If you ever been to a football match listening to some extraordinary big voices you actually can hear long distances, they are all natural big voices. Also there are quite many trained opera singers who will not perform at the biggest opera houses like the Met just because their voices are to small. In the end you can have all the technical talent needed but if you cannnot be heard at the cheap back row tickets no opera company will hire you, guaranteed. It´s simple physics, a lion always will roar louder than a cat.
instead of arguing with you, I'll show you the difference between resonance and volume. Here's a recording of Alma Gluck singing Handel's "Care selve". This recording was made in 1916 and as you can clearly hear, Alma Gluck has a small, average sounding soprano voice. What she does do, however, is to properly employ the "squillo" on the final high note in the third minute of the recording, using RESONANCE and NOT volume to expand the projecting power of her voice. The result is a warm, velvety tone with so much resonance that your ears begin to buzz DESPITE the poor quality of this 108 year old recording. Her voice can be EASILY heard, and in fact it OVERPOWERS the instrument, even though she uses NO MUSCLE POWER to do so: ruclips.net/video/l9aQicDdIWk/видео.html Now here are two MODERN singers performing the same aria, however without old school technique. They have FAR LARGER voices than Alma Gluck, however their high notes are produced using sheer lung POWER, and not voice RESONANCE: ruclips.net/video/R9c4JLbQW8I/видео.html ruclips.net/video/_JF_iYwMMBw/видео.html The result is an unattractive, strident voice lacking any warmth or resonance. If they were performing with a large orchestra, they would have EASILY been drowned out by the orchestra players, despite their large voices. Alma Gluck, on the other hand, despite her small voice would have EASILY been heard. Why is that? Because projecting the voice is a function of RESONANCE and not MUSCLE POWER or VOCAL SIZE. At the risk of getting too technical, the squillo is produced by placing the tone in the elongated "u" position while only very slightly spreading as you pass the upper passaggio. Nowadays however, most singers SPREAD their voices too wide instead of singing in the "u" position, especially on top. This spreading causes the voice to lose laser focus and the tone quickly dissipates, which causes the singer to use MORE FORCE in order to be heard, leading to a screaming match with the orchestra, which of course the singer ALWAYS loses because the laws of physics dictate that the human voice CANNOT produce more volume than an orchestra. Instead of overpowering the orchestra with volume however, the old Italian masters discovered that we can SOAR ABOVE it using the overtones of the voice (resonance), requiring only a FRACTION of the energy otherwise required if we were to try to overpower the orchestra using volume.
The difference between a really good recording of an opera singer and hearing that artist in person is shocking. There are qualities in the voice that cannot be conveyed electronically. This was an excellent video. Thank you.
Actually opera is really broken into five fundamental voice parts: bass, baritone, tenor, mezzo-soprano/contralto, and soprano. While choir music generally classifies voices into SATB, opera generally uses the German Fach classification system. While there is obviously deviancy from this, most composers of opera from the Classical era into the very late Romantic era use this system. In most famous operas composed at this time, the leads will be mostly made up of the aforementioned five parts but with some exceptions. It is really hard to break it into an arbitrary fundamental number of voice parts as opera really has five(six if you count contraltos apart from mezzos) and you can even go on from there if you want to divide counter-tenor and tenor. Wikipedia actually covers this fairly accurately (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fach#Bass_F%C3%A4cher). But, put simply, baritones rest easy, many of the most beautiful arias are written for you: Largo al Factotum, Mein Sehnen, Lieben Hassen, Avant de quitter cex liux and many others. We ain't no joke lol
Contraltos are so rare, I wouldn't even cover them in a video like this (I adore contraltos, but they are just not a given). There are only a handful of contralto roles a mezzo couldn't sing; it should really be soprano, mezzo(-soprano), tenor, baritone, bass. Contralto, countertenor, and bass-baritone should probably be asterisks.
Ok, just a little precision : vibrato is NOT a musical effect for singers. When you learn opera singing, you learn to breathe properly, relax your larynx and support your sound with enough air. A relaxed larynx, when exposed to a strong airflow, oscillates (just like a sheet of paper, lying flat on a table, does when you blow on it) : vibrato is the direct consequence of a good and healthy vocal technique. Of course, it can be modified at will to create certain effects, but the only way to do so is to tense the larynx, which singers try to avoid most of all. Of course, it's a different matter entirely for string players and other musicians.
Tristan Couloumy not the way tetrazzini, Caruso, Melba, ruffo, guelfi, or tebaldi learned/taught it. Your explanation is a very modern idea. All of the singers I mentioned above discuss learning and teaching vibrato specifically; they never said it is a natural consequence. Seeing those jaws and throats bounce around with throaty modern vibratos is a major factor in the decline of modern singers abilities, and the noted rise in a need for microphones to aid in amplification, because of the lack of release and freedom in the voice due to employing extra tension for the larynx to “flap in the wind.”
What do you say to rock/metal singers who sang their whole life until +60 without over the top annoying, music destroying, vibrato.With your logic they should have ruined their voices but they didn't. You have to go back to the drawing board.
You must consciously learn and apply vibrato; it doesn't just happen naturally otherwise screaming babies and shouting kids would develop it. Some singers get it wrong because of too much applied tension and constriction, however - hence the wobble and slow pulse so prevalent today - or the tremolo fibrillation which is just as bad. The greatest singers could, it seems, slightly modify the pulse of their vibrato - Tibbett was one - but for the most part the ideal pulse is 6 to 8 times per second. A quicker vibrato of the kind Gobbi had can be attractive but only up tp a point and a wobble like Nina Stemme's is always unpleasant.
you guys should do a video on the traditional Korean style opera called pansori. it's is very different from Western operas, from the instruments to the singing style where singers sing through strained vocal chords to produce a unique sound.
All completely correct, but as an orchestra musician, I’d like to add some of the more practical points that we’ll actually talk about in rehearsal. 1. High notes cut through low notes. The cellos and basses are rarely going to drown out the soprano no matter how loud they play, but they need to be very cautious when the tenor or bass sings. 2. Very high notes and very low notes are easier to hear than the “middle range”. It’s easier for a soprano to pierce through and for a bass make the hall shake than it is to hear an alto or tenor. 3. Composers pay careful attention to orchestrate the piece (basically, decide note placement) so the instruments and singers aren’t crowded in the same range. Their goal is to keep the instruments away from the singer’s notes. If a soprano is singing, they’re intentionally going to keep the violins and flutes either very quiet or in a different range. Same goes for the alto, tenor, and bass singers and instruments. 4. Classical musicians are very intentionally trained to listen like hawks. We may not look like it, but our ears are working overtime to listen for balance in relation to every other person on stage. And, we have the conductor (who has the most accurate idea of balance) to correct us. This is something that happens a lot with performing musicians; we learn the theory behind it all via grueling classes in college. But ultimately, most of the textbook theory stuff goes straight out the window. We instead learn the tricks to actually make it happen in practice. Ask most performers the last time they talked about overtones and detailed theory, they’ll tell you “in college”.
Sadly, things are not exactly like that, today. Indeed, put in an overly simple way, "squillo" in the voice is the production of those rich harmonics/overtones. And as the video says, much of them can be controlled through the oral tract (lips, tongue, jaw, pharynx, larynx). Now, here comes the trouble: the fundamental pillar in a singer's voice that brings not only the "squillo", which will make the voice loud, ringing and cutting through even the fullest orchestra, but also CLARITY in their vowels, is the actual **development** of the voice, or the correct set of muscles used to manipulate the vocal chords, which sadly today, is no longer done. Or rather, what is developped today, is the set of muscles that would make a singer produce a sound that is either very hollow (so, with no "squillo" at all, or with a minimal amount) or a sound that is white and squeezed, shrill (like the soprano you hear in this video). A very simple test: hear this soprano in the video, or any of today's contemporary ones, and pay attention to their vowels; you can't hear a clear "eh, ah, eeh, ooh", etc. in most of them. Try hearing a soprano of an older age, such as Claudia Muzio (one of Puccini's own sopranos) and pay attention to the vowels, then. There's simply no comparison. Not only the clarity, but the sheer volume and efficiency of their voice, today's opera is done with a "studio" approach, as if singing into a microphone... the sound might pass over the orchestra, but it never quite "slaps you" in the face, gripping you and capturing you like it did back then... at other times, it never even leaves the stage and were it not for supertitles the audience wouldn't even be able to understand...
@@Daniela-pr7rz Indeed, pretty much :) Though it does extend in a multitude of topics pertaining to singing that go far beyond my brief explanation. Alternatively, one might simply read works such as "Your Voice" by Douglas Stanley, which is purely technical and scientific, or even Manuel Garcia's (Maria Malibran's brother) works which can even be found for free on IMSLP, although more practical, with a lot of exercises, his books still give tremendous insight to how the voice can be fully and properly developed and applied.
Thank you. I am a trained opera singer working with a small children's choir, and one of the fundamentals I am giving them is an understanding of pure vowels. I appreciate your saying how foundational that is to fine singing, and I credit some of my phenomenal children's choir directors with helping me develop what would eventually become a much bigger instrument.
I just heard opera singing for the first time live it’s amazing.. and really interesting that someone can create that. I’ve actually always wondered why it was the trend for so much of history and why such an un normal style of singing was so popular. In sharing these thoughts too the person sitting next to me said ‘yeah it’s like a weapon’.
I love videos that teach about music. When you listen it sounds complicated When you read it, it feels easy (unless you got something like flight of the bumblebee than gg) But when you learn about it it pulls everything together into the perfect bundle called music
All my sincere appreciation for this concise, effective and truthfull video. I am a professional opera singer and I totally agree. There would be more to say, of course, but this lesson contains the essentials about "squillo", which is one of the key aspetcs of opera singing technique. A technique which has developed in order to allow singers to go through the sound barrier of an orchestra and be heard from afar. Any microphone intervention in this process of acoustic physics inevitably distorts the art of opera singing.
I am a trained opera singer and I basically had to stop singing because my voice is too big for anything but a huge hall. I had a great teacher recently but lessons are so expensive when you're a parent too. Now I'm working with a little children's choir and teaching itty bitties piano, but I would love to be able to get back onstage again
There are a lot of singers that are potentially talented in the industries. However, they are lacking teachers(good teachers) who can ACTUALLY teach them. For examples, they need to know how to use chiaroscuro, passagio, open space, proper breathing technique, proper use of “chest voice” and Squillo. A lot of Universities in the US neglected those terms and stopped using the old school techniques since mid 70s. Due to that, many singer cannot sing with their full potentials. Instead, they were replaced with “mask singing” which is commonly used today which I think it is the most ridiculous technique to be used in operas today.
@@wylieryanjonlean3661 ‘This is Opera’ , it's a RUclips channel that focuses on old operatic techniques and voice development. Another similar channel is GeneralRadamez
Mansa P yeah I do watch their videos on their channel but I used to have a teacher who taught me the old school vocal training in person way before TIO existed.
Maria: The Demon Barber of RUclips, Opera is its own beast! I’ve been learning how to sing opera for 6 year more or less and I’ve finally gotten to a place where I feel like I’m somewhat satisfied on how I sound 😭😂
Maria: The Demon Barber of RUclips I think your current studies in cello and your current degree in music theory will definitely give you a leg up in terms of performing because you have insight into orchestras and how they work as well as the more subtle music intermusical device that composers use to give singers and knowledgable audiences emotional and staging content clues.
Thank you so much TED-Ed for videos like this specifically focusing on arts and music. Your videos are fun to watch all the while learning a lot about a topic. Very effective for kids. Hope to see more videos about music and arts. Keep it up!
Some famous opera singers in the past would sing at open air in front of thousands of people and were heard. Great opera singers don't rely on accoustics of the building. They rely on their own phisiological ones.
hahaha,, the best thing they did,, they picked the song "Queen of the night" "Magic flute" as an example to their topic,, i just watched a lot of covers of that song weeks ago and now this,, luv it,,
"So bist du, nein!, meine Tochter nimmermehr." Not everyone is a good opera singer. Thus when some people sing, the hound of Baskerville howls. Answering their mating call.
If anyone is interested in the idea of overtones in the human voice, look up Throat singing or overtone singing. they are truly beautiful sounding techniques that you don't hear much these days.
Nice but partially you got it wrong: 1) lo squillo is not something you reach through modifying lips and tongue (tongue shouldn’t ever interfere), it really comes from the breathing technique which you quoted as the second step. On the contrary breathing is everything and it’s something we study all life long to perfect, a mistake in that makes no squillo at all. 2) the vibrato is not something we come up with. It’s not like we make the voice go up and down, it’s a natural feature of a healthy voice. On the contrary, la voce ferma, still voice, is an artificial effect. Also, during centuries the techniques developed as an answer to the different composing characteristics of the musics, but also theatre did. The introduction of the pit made a huge difference in the way a theatre would work. Also! Another thing that changed through centuries is the frequency adopted for the A, which used to be lower and now is rising (way too much). This provokes an overall change in how the music is made and perceived by the audience.
I agree with what you're saying, but I think the order in the video is correct. Proper breath technique results in a more harmonically rich fundamental, but the mechanics of the emphasizing specific harmonics comes from the vocal tract. There's just no physical other way for it to happen. That's how vowels are formed, after all. You're absolutely right about the tongue though, the example they show is moving waaay too much.
@@lonoran 100% agreed, but it depends: if you talk about the vocal tract anatomically, then, absolutely, 100% what you say. But if we consider the vocal tract from the technical point of view, it starts all the way down from the pelvic sustain, which is again breath. So in this view, which is personally my own, that’s why I say that breath first, upper body adjustments second. But I think we are agreeing in facts, and diversifying in angles of perspective, so basically potato potato :)
You should do a video on the coronavirus. People are unnecessarily freaking out, and I think that a video could help. Thanks! Also, great video. I never really thought of musical physics before, but this is a cool way of exposure!
So basically these opera singers are more talented than many of the popular singers nowadays. (Dont get me wrong, the popular singers are still talented)
I wouldn't say they're more talended, it's just a different kind of vocal technique. Ask an opera singer to belt out some pop music, it's usually funny yo hear haha
All good technical info but I wish he had talked about how squillo creates beauty in a voice (or instrument) and its characteristic sound (which he touched on) instead of emphasizing the VOLUME an opera singer needs. Pop singers need squillo, too, to bring out the uniqueness of their voice.
Funny that in this video all the voices used in this video HAD ABSOLUTELY NO SQUILLO and pretty much sucked really bad. You want to hear squillo? Listen to Maria Callas pre 1955 performances and tenor Mario Del Monaco!
Narrator: Explaining the science behind the sound of opera singers Me: Only listening to the aria "This is nice... but would've been better without someone talking about science"
Maybe this video is the answer to the question I asked everyone I know, but nobody understood what I was talking about. I always thought that the voices of opera singers were different from the the voices of most modern singers, but I couldn't put my finger on it and couldn't describe it. Maybe it is the use of the squillo that makes the difference. I will do further research, now that I have a word to look for.
Opera singers sing on the beat to be in time with the orchestra. They generally use legato phrasing meaning that they hold one note until they start the next note in the phrase. They also use vibrato on every note and that vibrato is usually trained to be wider and at measured pace compared to the anything goes world of pop singing. Pop singers these days use a lot of breath in their sound and don't use much vibrato and and only rarely squillo. They can shift the timing of the start of a note to before, on or after the beat and they can shorten or lengthen it as they please.
So cool! I'd love to see a video series about other singing styles. Barbershop does different things with overtone and I'm sure Jazz and Choral singing does it different too!
Great vid although I must say, sometimes bel canto and Wagner can cross over - the two are often described as separate today but even Wagner valued bel canto teachings to some extent and i believe he even got one or two of his singers to study with Manuel Garcia who was a vocal pedagogue of the Bel Canto technique (although the term bel canto also has problems, being described by many as having varied in meaning a lot)
Lauritz Melchior is the prime example, he is considered the best Wagnerian tenor of all time. Most of the Italian-repretoire fans I have come across really detest Wagner, they call Wagnerian singers “Bayreuth barkers”.
Another episode of: Why School Can't Teach Me These Things That is why even if I didn't experienced going to a TED conference, I fell in love with TED as it celebrates the gift of learning, knowledge and wisdom that a school doesn't teach as much as TED does. Sorry to compare but I think TED educates me more than how I get educated in school. 😶
As far as I understand it (vocal scientists correct me if I wrong) the tension being referred to in this section of the video is the literal tightness of the vocal cords themselves which changes the frequency at which they vibrate which is inevitable. What sining teachers mean when they say "no tension" is that students have a tendancy to have sympathetic reactions to this vocal-tightening in other muscles surrounding the vocal cords which begin to strain the voice. Removing tension while singing is about reducing these sympathetic reactions, but vocal pitch control is all about the tightness of the vocal chords themselves (that's what they do).
loving the theatre science! i'd love to see something on forced perspective in theatre or about how theatre lighting can change the colors of things on stage dramatically.
Most people nowadays only know Queen Of The Night from The Magic Flute. It makes sense, that performance video of Diana Damrau is very popular in the RUclips algorithm. It's practically part of pop culture now.
I do not understand a single word of what is being sung, nor do I know about musicology - Despite that I love listening and listening to these melodies and symphonies.
Squillo means something like "ringing". Since all terms in opera and music in general are in Italian. It is easy for me to understand the meaning. For Opera singers and classical musicians Italian is compulsory.
The correct, Italian pronunciation is not "squeal-o" but "squill-o" with a short "i" and the double "l" held. Squillo comes from correct pharyngeal resonance in the cavity above the vocal cords correctly shaped, as well as the muscular hold. Squillo requires plenty of so-called "chest voice", whereby that lower register sound is taken up to higher notes - otherwise all you get is a thin, squealing, "Minnie Mouse" sound.
Dear TED Ed, Can you please make a video on the Myth of Holika ? The Story of Holi. Because it is the week of Holi in India and it will be very kind of you, if you make a video on this topic. Love your videos and animations.❤️😊XD
These videos are very much helpful. Helpful in revising. They taught us in the physics class (fundamental, overtones etc.) but I forgot. *Thank you, Ted-Ed*
*Opera Singer:* [singing beautifully in soprano]
*Glass of water:* _"Something's wrong. I can feel it."_
Oh, I get it! High pitch voice breaks a glass. That's physics!
@@despacito2384 wooosh
Jai Bellare He literally just said “I get it!”
Mr. Friendship I LOVE YOUR IMAGE PROFILE
@@despacito2384 Not necessarily high pitch, as long as it resonates with the fundamental frequency of the cup/glass in question, there's a possibility for it to break
I know some fellow vocalists and opera singers, and they have expressed concern over how many orchestras and opera companies are currently switching to microphones for vocal projection. To these singers, using microphones in that context comes off as cheating.
MoltoRubato88 I don’t consider those singers who uses microphones in opera “opera singers” if they’re performing in the theaters/opera houses.
@Scribbli Chheery
Right? That's some cool gatekeeping there
@Scribbli Chheery I'm in the camp that doesn't understand electric guitars. If it's being played electroacoustically then that's one thing, but the stereotyped "electric" timbre of an electric guitar is created not by the actual instrument but by the audio post-processing.
@@Stratelier i understand them because of ease-of transport and repair. Acoustic guitars need to be kept at a consistent range of moisture so they dont warp and break, but for electrics the wood body is pretty much irrelevant, the only components you need to protect are the neck and the base of the strings (the sensors that convert the vibrations into electrical signals, Im not a guitar maker so I dont know the term)
Electrics are easier to repair, and cheaper to replace than acoustics. Theyre also easier to carry around in luggage (much thinner)
@Scribbli Chheery using a microphone is comparable to using a trampoline in a high jump at the Olympics while electric guitars is more comparable to using more aerodynamic balls in golf.
Video: "The sopranos can produce fundamental notes ranging from 250 to 1,500 vibrations per
9 year olds: *Observe*
4-year-olds: No, *you* observe!
lol this the best comment
IMA NINE YR OLD
4 year olds on airplane: hold my milk
@@juanvelez8564 ::
There is no sound on Earth that is as pure & clear & high as a child's voice at that age. Even the little boys sound like little girls !
We take for granted the amount of work and mind muscle connection that these extraordinary professionals achieve.
I have to go to opera soon, never been to one.
O'SSÉIN - Master Your Mind With Me, You’ll like it. I’ve always been a rock/blues guy but I went to an opera and it was amazing.
You definitely should! Just make sure you read the synopsis BEFORE you go! Otherwise it will be hard to understand and enjoy as the plots are usually so convoluted.
thank YOU! You really got what its all about! I'm studying it since three years and oh my - it's SO hard in every aspect you could imagine and many more, but the best thing in the world
Check out soprano Kasondra Kazanjian
Check out soprano Kasondra Kazanjian
Everyone is an opera singer when they in a bathroom
Me rn
I get it lol cus you get scared of the reflection in the mirror
Email Akkont i guess so
@@emailakkont6520 I thought it refers to everyone being so loud in school's bathroom but your explanation makes more sense lol.
Bathrooms close, smooth walls at odd angles (especially the shower) also add "course" by making the sound reach the singers ear clear and offset at multiple times.
An opera singer was hired to come to our choir room for seventh period in school and she explained everything about opera singing. She explained how they use residence in their voices and thats what makes the ringing sound in your ear when they hit a high note thus, the reason why they don’t really need microphones. And she also sang a beautiful song in Italian. I haven’t really been into opera but hearing her voice was so angelic and beautiful that you can help but smile.
You man, I don't wanna be mean but she ment resonance instead of residence
If she were talking about housing I would be concerned
That is a lovely comment and it clearly made a great impression on you.
"To sing is an expression of your being, a being which is becoming" - Maria Callas
That is so true.
Human being?
@@cht2162
???
MUSIC PHYSICS!!! MY FAVORITE KIND OF PHYSICS YAA!!
Samee33
Music
I have searched for (musical, I'm studying physics) entry-level education with a take on music similar to the one this video had, with little success. This was short and repeated a lot of things I knew, but it took this exact standpoint I've imagined, but couldn't find anywhere - until I saw this, not because I searched for it, but because it appeared in my subscription box. I am very greatful for the few insights this gave me, and sincerely hope to get a chance to really learn how composing, playing and hearing music works in detail from the perspecive of a physicist and a mathematician.
If anyone happens to know about something he could recommend, I'd appreciate it, of course.
Lion Tyleraned I believe Acoustics is the field you’re interested in. I’m studying Acoustics and Music Technology, which basically means I am studying the physics of music. I recommend you have a look at Universities around you and see if they offer something similar. If you’re genuinely interested in this field, then get into it, you won’t regret it.
This video was so satisfying lol
Opera singers: doing their squillo
Projection: *_I'm about to play a huge role_*
so projection gives you more squillo????
@@phucnhahuynh4477 squillo is about projection
@@dame-e-in1258 ohh wow!! But I don't know what's the difference between squillo and resonance?? Can you explain to me
@@phucnhahuynh4477
Squillo is a formant sound generally between 2.5 kHz to 3 kHz. Also it is considered as a REAL RESONANCE.
@@blackmamba3429 hi bestie
I like how when they sing it actually can move light objects around, like wind, just from certain notes. You feel a rush around you and a swelling in your head sort of feeling. It’s the weirdest coolest thing! You can hear it and it moves the energy around you. Without a microphone. It’s like magic.
I should interject that it does not matter whether one sings Baroque operas, Wagnerian operas, Verismo operas, Bel Canto operas or even operas in various languages. Chest voice and head voice coordination is what makes voice ring and have presence throughout a huge opera house. Hence, opera singing is definitely considered to be the Olympics for the voice because of the demands every opera singer needs to fulfill. This principle applies to all singers ranging from coloratura soprano to basso profondo.
You cannot hire small voices for a full scale opera house, forget it. There are professional opera singers who for example refuses to sing in the biggest opera houses where you need a voice of steel. What you need is a born vocal apparatus of the bigger calibre, no training in the world will help you if you not are born with basic physics for it. Not everyone have the physiques for heavy weight wrestling either.
@@johnojvind7641 I'm sorry, but this is simply NOT TRUE! A properly trained voice, whether large or small, will easily soar above the largest orchestra. The reason for this is that the voice vibrates at a different frequency than instruments. As opera singers, we use RESONANCE in order to be heard above the instruments, and NOT volume! This is a very important principle that unfortunately has been lost on most vocal teachers. As a singer, it's IMPOSSIBLE to overpower the instruments using the volume (strength) of our voices. It's basic physics - instruments produce far greater volume than a single voice ever could. HOWEVER, what we as opera singers have are higher vibrations in our voices. When placed properly, the vibrations of the voice easily soar ABOVE the vibrations of the instruments, thus enabling that single voice to be heard above the largest orchestras. This is the secret that was taught by old school masters such as Porpora in the 18th century and why the castrati were able to be heard in 3000+ seat theaters in the 18th and 19th centuries without the need for microphones.
About 20 years when I was a voice student here in Vienna, I went to a Kathleen Battle concert at the Musikverein. She'd always been one of my favorite singers but I'd never heard her in person before. Since I was a broke, half-starving student, I could only afford the cheapest ticket which was basically a standing area all the way on the last floor of the theater up in the rafters with the pigeons. When Kathleen Battle walked out on the stage, I was surprised at how small she was. I was even more surprised when she started singing - she had a very pretty but VERY SMALL voice! You don't get to hear that on her CDs where audio engineers compensate for the size of a singer's voice. HOWEVER, despite her small voice and small stature, you could hear EVERY SINGLE note she sang as CLEAR AS A BELL!! I was so surprised!! Every single syllable, every single note resonated throughout the large concert hall, reaching all the way up to where I was standing on the last floor. At the time I was stupefied as I did not yet understand how she did this. Many years later, however, I now do.
She was able to be heard because she used the RESONANCE in her voice which travels throughout all four corners of the concert hall, DESPITE her small voice and small frame. Volume, on the other hand, which requires muscle strength, does not. It's a paradox of physics that the human voice cannot be adequately projected using volume. And that's why many modern singers who scream using muscle power are so easily drowned out by the orchestra. You don't have to take my word for it - look up any modern singer on YT, the more they huff and puff, the easier they're drowned out by the orchestra. This happens because they were taught to project their voices using VOLUME, which as we know is 100% guaranteed to fail because the human voice CANNOT overpower an instrument using volume.
Listen to a singer like Anna Netrebko for a good example of someone who tries to use volume to project her voice. The minute the orchestra plays mezzoforte, she can no longer be heard. She then reacts by increasing her volume to the point where she has to scream. And despite this, she will still not be easily heard. Contrast this with old school singers like Alma Gluck or Elisabeth Rethberg whose effortless usage of resonance (and not volume) can be clearly heard. In particular listen to Alma Gluck's recording of Care Selve and how the resonance of her voice on the final high note sounds warm and velvety without any of the unpleasant strident screams of Netrebko.
@@CurtisCT You are talking extraordinay pure BS and well spread myths. There is no way only frequency will help your voice survive for 2/3 hours perhaps 3 days a week for an entire season without any natural born volume and a voice of steel. Opera has a graveyard with ruined voices just because they sings unamplified and do not have the born stamina and endurance. If you ever been to a football match listening to some extraordinary big voices you actually can hear long distances, they are all natural big voices.
Also there are quite many trained opera singers who will not perform at the biggest opera houses like the Met just because their voices are to small. In the end you can have all the technical talent needed but if you cannnot be heard at the cheap back row tickets no opera company will hire you, guaranteed.
It´s simple physics, a lion always will roar louder than a cat.
instead of arguing with you, I'll show you the difference between resonance and volume. Here's a recording of Alma Gluck singing Handel's "Care selve". This recording was made in 1916 and as you can clearly hear, Alma Gluck has a small, average sounding soprano voice. What she does do, however, is to properly employ the "squillo" on the final high note in the third minute of the recording, using RESONANCE and NOT volume to expand the projecting power of her voice. The result is a warm, velvety tone with so much resonance that your ears begin to buzz DESPITE the poor quality of this 108 year old recording. Her voice can be EASILY heard, and in fact it OVERPOWERS the instrument, even though she uses NO MUSCLE POWER to do so:
ruclips.net/video/l9aQicDdIWk/видео.html
Now here are two MODERN singers performing the same aria, however without old school technique. They have FAR LARGER voices than Alma Gluck, however their high notes are produced using sheer lung POWER, and not voice RESONANCE:
ruclips.net/video/R9c4JLbQW8I/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/_JF_iYwMMBw/видео.html
The result is an unattractive, strident voice lacking any warmth or resonance. If they were performing with a large orchestra, they would have EASILY been drowned out by the orchestra players, despite their large voices. Alma Gluck, on the other hand, despite her small voice would have EASILY been heard. Why is that? Because projecting the voice is a function of RESONANCE and not MUSCLE POWER or VOCAL SIZE. At the risk of getting too technical, the squillo is produced by placing the tone in the elongated "u" position while only very slightly spreading as you pass the upper passaggio. Nowadays however, most singers SPREAD their voices too wide instead of singing in the "u" position, especially on top. This spreading causes the voice to lose laser focus and the tone quickly dissipates, which causes the singer to use MORE FORCE in order to be heard, leading to a screaming match with the orchestra, which of course the singer ALWAYS loses because the laws of physics dictate that the human voice CANNOT produce more volume than an orchestra. Instead of overpowering the orchestra with volume however, the old Italian masters discovered that we can SOAR ABOVE it using the overtones of the voice (resonance), requiring only a FRACTION of the energy otherwise required if we were to try to overpower the orchestra using volume.
At last someone focussing on the importance of resonance. Thanks for this @@CurtisCT
The difference between a really good recording of an opera singer and hearing that artist in person is shocking. There are qualities in the voice that cannot be conveyed electronically. This was an excellent video. Thank you.
Voice, the oldest instrument. ❤️❤️ Thank you for deepening our understanding over it.
TED-ED: "Shows four fundamental opera voices"
Baritone: "Am i a joke to you?"
Actually opera is really broken into five fundamental voice parts: bass, baritone, tenor, mezzo-soprano/contralto, and soprano. While choir music generally classifies voices into SATB, opera generally uses the German Fach classification system. While there is obviously deviancy from this, most composers of opera from the Classical era into the very late Romantic era use this system. In most famous operas composed at this time, the leads will be mostly made up of the aforementioned five parts but with some exceptions. It is really hard to break it into an arbitrary fundamental number of voice parts as opera really has five(six if you count contraltos apart from mezzos) and you can even go on from there if you want to divide counter-tenor and tenor. Wikipedia actually covers this fairly accurately (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fach#Bass_F%C3%A4cher). But, put simply, baritones rest easy, many of the most beautiful arias are written for you: Largo al Factotum, Mein Sehnen, Lieben Hassen, Avant de quitter cex liux and many others. We ain't no joke lol
@Mattia S. show a bass who can sing rossinis figaro cavatina then;D baritone is a FUNDAMENTAL voice part since 19 century
Mezzos: "Forgotten again"
Verdi, rising from his grave: How dare they forget baritones and mezzos. Give me a Sword.
Contraltos are so rare, I wouldn't even cover them in a video like this (I adore contraltos, but they are just not a given). There are only a handful of contralto roles a mezzo couldn't sing; it should really be soprano, mezzo(-soprano), tenor, baritone, bass. Contralto, countertenor, and bass-baritone should probably be asterisks.
Ok, just a little precision : vibrato is NOT a musical effect for singers. When you learn opera singing, you learn to breathe properly, relax your larynx and support your sound with enough air. A relaxed larynx, when exposed to a strong airflow, oscillates (just like a sheet of paper, lying flat on a table, does when you blow on it) : vibrato is the direct consequence of a good and healthy vocal technique. Of course, it can be modified at will to create certain effects, but the only way to do so is to tense the larynx, which singers try to avoid most of all. Of course, it's a different matter entirely for string players and other musicians.
Yes! Beautifully explained.
Thank you! Perfectly explained
Tristan Couloumy not the way tetrazzini, Caruso, Melba, ruffo, guelfi, or tebaldi learned/taught it. Your explanation is a very modern idea. All of the singers I mentioned above discuss learning and teaching vibrato specifically; they never said it is a natural consequence. Seeing those jaws and throats bounce around with throaty modern vibratos is a major factor in the decline of modern singers abilities, and the noted rise in a need for microphones to aid in amplification, because of the lack of release and freedom in the voice due to employing extra tension for the larynx to “flap in the wind.”
What do you say to rock/metal singers who sang their whole life until +60 without over the top annoying, music destroying, vibrato.With your logic they should have ruined their voices but they didn't. You have to go back to the drawing board.
You must consciously learn and apply vibrato; it doesn't just happen naturally otherwise screaming babies and shouting kids would develop it. Some singers get it wrong because of too much applied tension and constriction, however - hence the wobble and slow pulse so prevalent today - or the tremolo fibrillation which is just as bad. The greatest singers could, it seems, slightly modify the pulse of their vibrato - Tibbett was one - but for the most part the ideal pulse is 6 to 8 times per second. A quicker vibrato of the kind Gobbi had can be attractive but only up tp a point and a wobble like Nina Stemme's is always unpleasant.
Every Opera Singers need a Squillo
Except for Ling Ling
Lmao twoset is everywhere
Yassss! Twoset is everywhere!!
I agree.
B
Ling Ling 40 hrs!!
you guys should do a video on the traditional Korean style opera called pansori. it's is very different from Western operas, from the instruments to the singing style where singers sing through strained vocal chords to produce a unique sound.
All completely correct, but as an orchestra musician, I’d like to add some of the more practical points that we’ll actually talk about in rehearsal.
1. High notes cut through low notes. The cellos and basses are rarely going to drown out the soprano no matter how loud they play, but they need to be very cautious when the tenor or bass sings.
2. Very high notes and very low notes are easier to hear than the “middle range”. It’s easier for a soprano to pierce through and for a bass make the hall shake than it is to hear an alto or tenor.
3. Composers pay careful attention to orchestrate the piece (basically, decide note placement) so the instruments and singers aren’t crowded in the same range. Their goal is to keep the instruments away from the singer’s notes. If a soprano is singing, they’re intentionally going to keep the violins and flutes either very quiet or in a different range. Same goes for the alto, tenor, and bass singers and instruments.
4. Classical musicians are very intentionally trained to listen like hawks. We may not look like it, but our ears are working overtime to listen for balance in relation to every other person on stage. And, we have the conductor (who has the most accurate idea of balance) to correct us.
This is something that happens a lot with performing musicians; we learn the theory behind it all via grueling classes in college. But ultimately, most of the textbook theory stuff goes straight out the window. We instead learn the tricks to actually make it happen in practice. Ask most performers the last time they talked about overtones and detailed theory, they’ll tell you “in college”.
Sadly, things are not exactly like that, today. Indeed, put in an overly simple way, "squillo" in the voice is the production of those rich harmonics/overtones. And as the video says, much of them can be controlled through the oral tract (lips, tongue, jaw, pharynx, larynx).
Now, here comes the trouble: the fundamental pillar in a singer's voice that brings not only the "squillo", which will make the voice loud, ringing and cutting through even the fullest orchestra, but also CLARITY in their vowels, is the actual **development** of the voice, or the correct set of muscles used to manipulate the vocal chords, which sadly today, is no longer done. Or rather, what is developped today, is the set of muscles that would make a singer produce a sound that is either very hollow (so, with no "squillo" at all, or with a minimal amount) or a sound that is white and squeezed, shrill (like the soprano you hear in this video).
A very simple test: hear this soprano in the video, or any of today's contemporary ones, and pay attention to their vowels; you can't hear a clear "eh, ah, eeh, ooh", etc. in most of them. Try hearing a soprano of an older age, such as Claudia Muzio (one of Puccini's own sopranos) and pay attention to the vowels, then. There's simply no comparison. Not only the clarity, but the sheer volume and efficiency of their voice, today's opera is done with a "studio" approach, as if singing into a microphone... the sound might pass over the orchestra, but it never quite "slaps you" in the face, gripping you and capturing you like it did back then... at other times, it never even leaves the stage and were it not for supertitles the audience wouldn't even be able to understand...
Just in case somebody does not have the patience to go through the This is opera! channel, the comment above is the summary of it.
@@Daniela-pr7rz Indeed, pretty much :) Though it does extend in a multitude of topics pertaining to singing that go far beyond my brief explanation. Alternatively, one might simply read works such as "Your Voice" by Douglas Stanley, which is purely technical and scientific, or even Manuel Garcia's (Maria Malibran's brother) works which can even be found for free on IMSLP, although more practical, with a lot of exercises, his books still give tremendous insight to how the voice can be fully and properly developed and applied.
Thanks so much for explaining this!
Yes so true. Thank you.
Thank you. I am a trained opera singer working with a small children's choir, and one of the fundamentals I am giving them is an understanding of pure vowels. I appreciate your saying how foundational that is to fine singing, and I credit some of my phenomenal children's choir directors with helping me develop what would eventually become a much bigger instrument.
The Queen of the Night never ceases to amaze me!
I just heard opera singing for the first time live it’s amazing.. and really interesting that someone can create that. I’ve actually always wondered why it was the trend for so much of history and why such an un normal style of singing was so popular.
In sharing these thoughts too the person sitting next to me said ‘yeah it’s like a weapon’.
@@johnojvind7641 yes no microphones as already in the video. And in my post.
I love videos that teach about music. When you listen it sounds complicated
When you read it, it feels easy (unless you got something like flight of the bumblebee than gg)
But when you learn about it it pulls everything together into the perfect bundle called music
For those who care to know, the singer of “Der Hölle Rache” at the beginning of the video is Beverly Hoch, American coloratura soprano.
All my sincere appreciation for this concise, effective and truthfull video. I am a professional opera singer and I totally agree. There would be more to say, of course, but this lesson contains the essentials about "squillo", which is one of the key aspetcs of opera singing technique. A technique which has developed in order to allow singers to go through the sound barrier of an orchestra and be heard from afar. Any microphone intervention in this process of acoustic physics inevitably distorts the art of opera singing.
If opera halls were smaller their singing perhaps could be better than the over loud squeaking and shouting these barkers produces.
I am a trained opera singer and I basically had to stop singing because my voice is too big for anything but a huge hall. I had a great teacher recently but lessons are so expensive when you're a parent too. Now I'm working with a little children's choir and teaching itty bitties piano, but I would love to be able to get back onstage again
There are a lot of singers that are potentially talented in the industries. However, they are lacking teachers(good teachers) who can ACTUALLY teach them. For examples, they need to know how to use chiaroscuro, passagio, open space, proper breathing technique,
proper use of “chest voice” and Squillo.
A lot of Universities in the US neglected those terms and stopped using the old school techniques since mid 70s. Due to that, many singer cannot sing with their full potentials. Instead, they were replaced with “mask singing” which is commonly used today which I think it is the most ridiculous technique to be used in operas today.
I see you watch TIO as well comrade
@@mansa_p what is TIO?
@@wylieryanjonlean3661 ‘This is Opera’ , it's a RUclips channel that focuses on old operatic techniques and voice development. Another similar channel is GeneralRadamez
@@mansa_p thanksss
Mansa P yeah I do watch their videos on their channel but I used to have a teacher who taught me the old school vocal training in person way before TIO existed.
That's the first time I've known squillo. Thank you, TED-Ed :-0
* heard about squillo
Or that opera singers take years to reshape their vocal chords. Like, what?!
I was looking for the right subject, amazing timing.
A.f.aliluft Same!!
This video made me rethink of my:
"I want to learn how to sing opera, I think it will not be so difficult if you know how to basically sing"
Maria: The Demon Barber of RUclips, Opera is its own beast! I’ve been learning how to sing opera for 6 year more or less and I’ve finally gotten to a place where I feel like I’m somewhat satisfied on how I sound 😭😂
Maria: The Demon Barber of RUclips But I encourage you to go out and find a teacher if you want to learn☺️
@@dancergir98 Thank you! Right now I have my degree in music theory and my cello studies to focus on but I want to study opera singing in the future!
Maria: The Demon Barber of RUclips I think your current studies in cello and your current degree in music theory will definitely give you a leg up in terms of performing because you have insight into orchestras and how they work as well as the more subtle music intermusical device that composers use to give singers and knowledgable audiences emotional and staging content clues.
@@dancergir98 Couldn't have said it better, I totally agree...
Ted ed: What is a squillo, and why do opera singers need it?
Me, an Italian: I thought you should keep your phone on silent during opera...
What a GREAT video. I'm a classically trained trumpet player who also enjoys opera. I learned so much. So well explained.
Loved Maria’s quote at the beginning ❤️
We all know that the best way Ted-Ed teaches is with top-quality animations, regardless of style...
Interesting the voice that sings queen of the night in this video does not have squillo…it’s only collapsed head voice, constrictions all over.
Thank you so much TED-Ed for videos like this specifically focusing on arts and music. Your videos are fun to watch all the while learning a lot about a topic. Very effective for kids. Hope to see more videos about music and arts. Keep it up!
The singer is beautifully illustrated. Also, I like that physics is incorporated in this lesson. 😍
I was just studying waves and oscillation in physics and i saw this
Apart from these, auditorium is designed for such acoustics.
That's mentioned in the video
Some famous opera singers in the past would sing at open air in front of thousands of people and were heard. Great opera singers don't rely on accoustics of the building. They rely on their own phisiological ones.
There are also outdoor arenas
I'm just thinking of the Figaro episode in Tom and Jerry 😂
hahaha,, the best thing they did,, they picked the song "Queen of the night" "Magic flute" as an example to their topic,, i just watched a lot of covers of that song weeks ago and now this,, luv it,,
I'm doing a project on the physics and biology of opera singers and this video is just in time! Thank you very much, it will really help me!! 🎶
Thank you after five decades of loving opera I’ve learned a lot this includes bel canto to wagner
"So bist du, nein!, meine Tochter nimmermehr."
Not everyone is a good opera singer. Thus when some people sing, the hound of Baskerville howls. Answering their mating call.
Omfg all my life i thought it was der holle rache en kocht in meinem herzen
Good God! I need to hear The Magic Flute now!
Great Job Ted Ed! You aroused a need in me that you cannot satisfy!
They say Ulfric Stormcloak murdered the High King... shouted him apart with his voice.
fus
Ro
Nilsson, Del Monaco and Ghiaurov were definitely Dragonborn :D
If anyone is interested in the idea of overtones in the human voice, look up Throat singing or overtone singing. they are truly beautiful sounding techniques that you don't hear much these days.
Excellent clip. Best explanation of singing physics that I have seen.
Nice but partially you got it wrong:
1) lo squillo is not something you reach through modifying lips and tongue (tongue shouldn’t ever interfere), it really comes from the breathing technique which you quoted as the second step. On the contrary breathing is everything and it’s something we study all life long to perfect, a mistake in that makes no squillo at all.
2) the vibrato is not something we come up with. It’s not like we make the voice go up and down, it’s a natural feature of a healthy voice. On the contrary, la voce ferma, still voice, is an artificial effect.
Also, during centuries the techniques developed as an answer to the different composing characteristics of the musics, but also theatre did. The introduction of the pit made a huge difference in the way a theatre would work.
Also! Another thing that changed through centuries is the frequency adopted for the A, which used to be lower and now is rising (way too much). This provokes an overall change in how the music is made and perceived by the audience.
Check out soprano Kasondra Kazanjian
I agree with what you're saying, but I think the order in the video is correct. Proper breath technique results in a more harmonically rich fundamental, but the mechanics of the emphasizing specific harmonics comes from the vocal tract. There's just no physical other way for it to happen. That's how vowels are formed, after all. You're absolutely right about the tongue though, the example they show is moving waaay too much.
@@lonoran 100% agreed, but it depends: if you talk about the vocal tract anatomically, then, absolutely, 100% what you say. But if we consider the vocal tract from the technical point of view, it starts all the way down from the pelvic sustain, which is again breath. So in this view, which is personally my own, that’s why I say that breath first, upper body adjustments second. But I think we are agreeing in facts, and diversifying in angles of perspective, so basically potato potato :)
as a music major I LOVE this video
Magnificent presentation!!!
Love you TED-ed
You should do a video on the coronavirus. People are unnecessarily freaking out, and I think that a video could help. Thanks!
Also, great video. I never really thought of musical physics before, but this is a cool way of exposure!
There is one in vox
I listen this video on headphones. It was gorgeous!
So basically these opera singers are more talented than many of the popular singers nowadays. (Dont get me wrong, the popular singers are still talented)
I wouldn't say they're more talended, it's just a different kind of vocal technique. Ask an opera singer to belt out some pop music, it's usually funny yo hear haha
@@tristancouloumy opera singers need no microphone. Different and art as opposed to entertainment.
If you compare opera singer with singer like celine dion or beyonce, I think they’re pretty equal just different genre
@@Operafreak9 modern opera singers: uhh 😬🤪
New opera singers are leagues below the greats of 90s and before like Whitney, Shirley Bassey, Barbra Streisand,, mariah, Céline etc
The art style in this video is so amazing!
All good technical info but I wish he had talked about how squillo creates beauty in a voice (or instrument) and its characteristic sound (which he touched on) instead of emphasizing the VOLUME an opera singer needs. Pop singers need squillo, too, to bring out the uniqueness of their voice.
0:20
Saxophone in The Magic Flute? Wait, that's illegal.
Also the bowed oboe and english horn are an interesting choice...
Thank you Ted-Ed for enlightening us of the fascinating science behind opera music. Love it!
What's described here is actually " the singers formant", rather than squillo ( or 'ping' as we say in the industry.
Funny that in this video all the voices used in this video HAD ABSOLUTELY NO SQUILLO and pretty much sucked really bad. You want to hear squillo? Listen to Maria Callas pre 1955 performances and tenor Mario Del Monaco!
Yeap. Can't forget her Armida. That is pure squillo
PREACH !
Narrator: Explaining the science behind the sound of opera singers
Me: Only listening to the aria "This is nice... but would've been better without someone talking about science"
Maybe this video is the answer to the question I asked everyone I know, but nobody understood what I was talking about. I always thought that the voices of opera singers were different from the the voices of most modern singers, but I couldn't put my finger on it and couldn't describe it. Maybe it is the use of the squillo that makes the difference. I will do further research, now that I have a word to look for.
Opera singers sing on the beat to be in time with the orchestra. They generally use legato phrasing meaning that they hold one note until they start the next note in the phrase. They also use vibrato on every note and that vibrato is usually trained to be wider and at measured pace compared to the anything goes world of pop singing. Pop singers these days use a lot of breath in their sound and don't use much vibrato and and only rarely squillo. They can shift the timing of the start of a note to before, on or after the beat and they can shorten or lengthen it as they please.
wow, surprised to see such an accurate video on opera from a channel that isn't entirely focused on it :)
I already knew that but it's still amazing every time I hear it.
And no opera singers today (bar a few) have squillo.
Why is that?
So cool! I'd love to see a video series about other singing styles. Barbershop does different things with overtone and I'm sure Jazz and Choral singing does it different too!
The Contralto is back!!!!.🙌
Great vid although I must say, sometimes bel canto and Wagner can cross over - the two are often described as separate today but even Wagner valued bel canto teachings to some extent and i believe he even got one or two of his singers to study with Manuel Garcia who was a vocal pedagogue of the Bel Canto technique (although the term bel canto also has problems, being described by many as having varied in meaning a lot)
Was great to learn more about the physics of squillo though😍
Lauritz Melchior is the prime example, he is considered the best Wagnerian tenor of all time. Most of the Italian-repretoire fans I have come across really detest Wagner, they call Wagnerian singers “Bayreuth barkers”.
Exactly... You need to have a solid bel canto background in the voice in order to even attempt any Wagner music vocally
Pretty interesting. There's so much more to music than I ever imagined.
Another episode of: Why School Can't Teach Me These Things
That is why even if I didn't experienced going to a TED conference, I fell in love with TED as it celebrates the gift of learning, knowledge and wisdom that a school doesn't teach as much as TED does. Sorry to compare but I think TED educates me more than how I get educated in school. 😶
3:30 there shouldn't be tension in the vocal tract right?
As far as I understand it (vocal scientists correct me if I wrong) the tension being referred to in this section of the video is the literal tightness of the vocal cords themselves which changes the frequency at which they vibrate which is inevitable. What sining teachers mean when they say "no tension" is that students have a tendancy to have sympathetic reactions to this vocal-tightening in other muscles surrounding the vocal cords which begin to strain the voice. Removing tension while singing is about reducing these sympathetic reactions, but vocal pitch control is all about the tightness of the vocal chords themselves (that's what they do).
Always happy to be one of the first 1000 viewers
loving the theatre science! i'd love to see something on forced perspective in theatre or about how theatre lighting can change the colors of things on stage dramatically.
Most people nowadays only know Queen Of The Night from The Magic Flute. It makes sense, that performance video of Diana Damrau is very popular in the RUclips algorithm. It's practically part of pop culture now.
Yes, but Diana Damrau has no squillo. She has bad technique.
@@Ignasimp true she never had it, but was low key passable in her early years. Never liked her coloratura singing,
@@Ignasimp could you recommend a YT video of someone singing the aria with good technique?
TED-Ed you guys are awesome you make the best videos
This video’s animation is so good. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
I do not understand a single word of what is being sung, nor do I know about musicology - Despite that I love listening and listening to these melodies and symphonies.
Squillo means something like "ringing". Since all terms in opera and music in general are in Italian. It is easy for me to understand the meaning. For Opera singers and classical musicians Italian is compulsory.
The freaking animation,dammmnnnnnn
The correct, Italian pronunciation is not "squeal-o" but "squill-o" with a short "i" and the double "l" held. Squillo comes from correct pharyngeal resonance in the cavity above the vocal cords correctly shaped, as well as the muscular hold. Squillo requires plenty of so-called "chest voice", whereby that lower register sound is taken up to higher notes - otherwise all you get is a thin, squealing, "Minnie Mouse" sound.
You made my ears ring
Oh my god they are so talented!!😍😍
This was so amazing for me. Thank you
MARIA CALLAS! DIVINA!
LIFE OF MARIA CALLAS NEXT PLEASE! THE GREATEST SOPRANO OF THE 20TH CENTURY
Movie coming out on Netflix 12/2 I think, starring Angelina Jolie
I see you used Cristina Deutekom’s Queen of the Night aria. Wise choice. Hers is the best.
Wow! you video make my day! Thank you very much!!!!
The Queen of the Night's titular aria? What exactly does that mean?
Dear TED Ed,
Can you please make a video on the Myth of Holika ? The Story of Holi. Because it is the week of Holi in India and it will be very kind of you, if you make a video on this topic. Love your videos and animations.❤️😊XD
Fascinating facts put into a wonderful video.🎼❤️
Ted-ed: We gonna talk about squillo while random singers with no squillo sing in background...
Literally just thinking about this 🙌🏽❤️❤️
what is the violin song at 2:05 - 2:08?
... It's a scale.
I like Opera, so this pretty interesting!!!🙂❤👍
I'm gonna be an opera singer!!😁😁😍😍😍😍
And here i am plucking my kalimba for any sound it may produce without knowing anything about it.
Best RUclips channel
Please do more on singing!!!
Wow, I really like the animation TED-Ed! Keep it up!
Does anybody know who the soprano singing the exercises is? Thanks!
These videos are very much helpful. Helpful in revising.
They taught us in the physics class (fundamental, overtones etc.) but I forgot.
*Thank you, Ted-Ed*
I like how the illustration literally breathes the exact opposite of what would be taught