Yes. The famous tongue retraction. According to my knowledge and experience, the root does not go back. They teach the tip to retract and the root is brought closer to the tip and “out of the throat”, they say it will make room in the pharynx. But it does go back, that would block the throat, true. So acording to Stanley / LoMonaco the tip retracts and the root goes forward. It is in Stanley’s book “Your voice” even with an illustration. Not advocating for anyone, just saying how my experience is
Holding the larynx in place by retracting your tongue may give you a sense of muscular control, but directly manipulating the larynx in this way is needlessly effortful and will never yield your freest and most expressive singing. You must instead create stability by balancing out the forces that act on your larynx.
On the subject of not falsely darkening the voice; Do you ever encounter singers who have a very low tessitura in terms of pitch and passaggio, but a voice that is naturally bright in a way that doesn't find as much use in the repertoire they can sing comfortably? A bass with a tenor-like timbre, for example. What do you personally do with a voice like that? Are they just not useful from a classical perspective?
As I teach classical voices only, I rarely come upon a very high-speaking voice with a low tessitura, although they do exist. I usually find out where the natural breaks or passaggios are in the voice and go for a natural sounding/feeling - voice. Very often, it is a question of the larynx too high and incorrect support.
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Yes. The famous tongue retraction. According to my knowledge and experience, the root does not go back. They teach the tip to retract and the root is brought closer to the tip and “out of the throat”, they say it will make room in the pharynx. But it does go back, that would block the throat, true. So acording to Stanley / LoMonaco the tip retracts and the root goes forward. It is in Stanley’s book “Your voice” even with an illustration. Not advocating for anyone, just saying how my experience is
Holding the larynx in place by retracting your tongue may give you a sense of muscular control, but directly manipulating the larynx in this way is needlessly effortful and will never yield your freest and most expressive singing. You must instead create stability by balancing out the forces that act on your larynx.
On the subject of not falsely darkening the voice; Do you ever encounter singers who have a very low tessitura in terms of pitch and passaggio, but a voice that is naturally bright in a way that doesn't find as much use in the repertoire they can sing comfortably? A bass with a tenor-like timbre, for example. What do you personally do with a voice like that? Are they just not useful from a classical perspective?
As I teach classical voices only, I rarely come upon a very high-speaking voice with a low tessitura, although they do exist.
I usually find out where the natural breaks or passaggios are in the voice and go for a natural sounding/feeling - voice.
Very often, it is a question of the larynx too high and incorrect support.