# Favorite voice type



## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Polololo pollolo lollolo loo, pololololoo.....


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Impossible to choose.
( No counter tenor though)


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## helenora (Sep 13, 2015)

hm....yeah, difficult to choose only one, at least 3.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

I would have liked to have chosen mezzo-soprano _and_ baritone.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Bellinilover said:


> I would have liked to have chosen mezzo-soprano _and_ baritone.


Indeed , it would have been better if we where allowed more then one choice.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

I like more specific voice types (ex: dramatic coloratura soprano, dramatic mezzo, Verdi baritone, spinto tenor, basso cantante) than simply tenor/mezzo/bass/etc


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

my top 5 voice types would have to be (in order)
1) dramatic coloratura soprano (Joanie! <3)
2) dramatic/Verdi baritone
3) dramatic mezzo
4) basso cantante
5) contralto

....see how I can't just say sopranos are my favorite when the following four voice types are something else?

PS: oh hell, let's go up to 10 lol
6) spinto soprano
7) spinto tenor
8) lyric soprano
9) heldentenor
10) lyric/coloratura mezzo

only thing that's clear is: least favorite: light tenors and countertenors


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> my top 5 voice types would have to be (in order)
> 1) dramatic coloratura soprano (Joanie! <3)
> 2) dramatic/Verdi baritone
> 3) dramatic mezzo
> ...


You are bending the rules somewhat. 
Now just one


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

No countertenors please! 

I picked mezzo-soprano, but I do like all the ladies' voices. For male voices, baritone and bass tend to be better. For some reason tenors often grate on my ear.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

I'm not a fan of male voices, but I guess tenor would be my favorite for them. For women, I prefer contralto or mezzo. Soprano is a bit too much


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## Marinera (May 13, 2016)

Impossible to choose. I really like good countertenors, and lower voices for women, but I have favourite singers from each voice category. Perhaps I like variety.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Marinera said:


> Impossible to choose. I really like good countertenors, and lower voices for women, but I have favourite singers from each voice category. Perhaps I like variety.


That's why I choose impossible to answer.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Mezzo-soprano. For me, the tone has a lot of *character*.


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## Marinera (May 13, 2016)

^
Yep, Teresa Berganza for example, she could sing from a phone book to me, and I'd ask for more. 
Sometimes I really like how voices work together, like in Mozart's Tuba Mirum, for instance, or express interesting musical ideas that suits particular piece like Akhnaten's and Neferiti's voices in Glass opera, and they usually get this complex interesting overall sound.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

You should have added "Not a counter-tenor" option so it would end all the controversy and we would know exactly how to vote in this poll!


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Bass is my favourite; not a fan of any high voices.

Skoluba's aria 'Ten zegar stary' from Moniuszko's _Straszny Dwór_ ("The Haunted Manor")


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## Guest (May 18, 2016)

Probably death growl.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

1st: Elvis Presley
2nd: Bing Crosby

No. I'm not old, but I know history of music and stuff.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Arsakes said:


> 1st: Elvis Presley
> 2nd: Bing Crosby
> 
> No. I'm not old, but I know history of music and stuff.


I voted tenor, but those two great baritones should be near the top of anyone's list! :tiphat:


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Marinera said:


> ^
> Yep, Teresa Berganza for example, she could sing from a phone book to me, and I'd ask for more.
> Sometimes I really like how voices work together, like in Mozart's Tuba Mirum, for instance, or express interesting musical ideas that suits particular piece like Akhnaten's and Neferiti's voices in Glass opera, and they usually get this complex interesting overall sound.


Good point Marinera, Teresa Berganza is so underrated. :tiphat:


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Pugg said:


> You are bending the rules somewhat.
> Now just one


Dramatic coloratura soprano


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> Dramatic coloratura soprano


I knew you could do it :cheers:


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Pugg said:


> I knew you could do it :cheers:


indeed, though my previous explanation stands as to why this alone is an incomplete answer


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> indeed, though my previous explanation stands as to why this alone is an incomplete answer


I know you by now, keep up the good work:tiphat:


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Contralto. Reader, I married one.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Pugg said:


> I know you by now, keep up the good work:tiphat:


I can do anything or anyone


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## Hmmbug (Jun 16, 2014)

Could boy soprano be a category?


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Hmmbug said:


> Could boy soprano be a category?


If you are in to that stuff, why not .
Normally they have very short career as far as I know :angel:


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## Wood (Feb 21, 2013)

I quite like throat-singing 



 but would favour sopranos.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Wood said:


> I quite like throat-singing
> 
> 
> 
> but would favour sopranos.


Fascinating, not heard this before.


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## BaritoneAssoluto (Jun 6, 2016)

Figleaf said:


> I voted tenor, but those two great baritones should be near the top of anyone's list! :tiphat:


Elvis Presley was a baritone but Crosby was a well known bass-baritone.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

BaritoneAssoluto said:


> Elvis Presley was a baritone but Crosby was a well known bass-baritone.


And you voted; Baritone I presume


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

BaritoneAssoluto said:


> Elvis Presley was a baritone but Crosby was a well known bass-baritone.


Really? Can you generally tell what voice type a singer without classical training would be, from microphone recordings only? I'm not criticizing, just curious.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

I know a Russian guy who fancied himself as a rock singer but then decided he wanted to be a classical singer. He went along to a voice coach and said he wanted to be a tenor. The voice coach listened to him and said he was a bass!


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

sospiro said:


> I know a Russian guy who fancied himself as a rock singer but then decided he wanted to be a classical singer. He went along to a voice coach and said he wanted to be a tenor. The voice coach listened to him and said he was a bass!


Some basses can sound quite high, like Vanni Marcoux.

I wouldn't mind being a bass.


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## jenspen (Apr 25, 2015)

BaritoneAssoluto said:


> Elvis Presley was a baritone but Crosby was a well known bass-baritone.


Years ago there was a multi-part BBC radio programme about Bing during which we were told that when, as a younger man, he had to project his voice while singing with a band he was a tenor. It was when microphones became sophisticated (or because he was the first to master the technique of singing into the mic) he crooned in a baritone register.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

sospiro said:


> I know a Russian guy who fancied himself as a rock singer but then decided he wanted to be a classical singer. He went along to a voice coach and said he wanted to be a tenor. The voice coach listened to him and said he was a bass!


I know a German guy who was a opera star but became very popular at the rock scene


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

jenspen said:


> Years ago there was a multi-part BBC radio programme about Bing during which we were told that when, as a younger man, he had to project his voice while singing with a band he was a tenor. It was when microphones became sophisticated (or because he was the first to master the technique of singing into the mic) he crooned in a baritone register.


Yes, I always wonder whether Bing's low notes would have carried if he'd had to project. His voice does seem somewhat higher on the earliest recordings, and as it deepened it also became dryer sounding, and (I speculate here) perhaps far less powerful.

One crooner of that time who I like very much and who sounds like a tenor Crosby is Russ Columbo. What a shame he died so young.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

It is an impossibility because it so much depends on what they are singing. Listen to Janowitz in Strauss' Four Last Songs and it is my favourite. But then hear the glorious Pav in Turandot and you change your mind.


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## Marinera (May 13, 2016)

No one has voted for countertenors.. however Sholl fills the concert halls full on Friday evenings.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Figleaf said:


> Some basses can sound quite high, like Vanni Marcoux.
> I wouldn't mind being a bass.


^I have noticed this too. a friend of mine from Wales is a bass and I am a bass-baritone, and my speaking voice is WAY deeper than his (his speaking voice is like a lyric baritone even though he has a deep C with a rattle XD)

@OP
I have already answered for classical music, but for pop music, honestly, contraltos and low mezzos hand down. why the hell would I want to listen to some whiny pop soprano when I can listen to....


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

BaritoneAssoluto said:


> Elvis Presley was a baritone but Crosby was a well known bass-baritone.


A question for you, BaritoneAssoluto. Al Bowlly: tenor or baritone?


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Figleaf said:


> A question for you, BaritoneAssoluto. Al Bowlly: tenor or baritone?


lyric baritone imo, but not sure (very Nelson Eddy-esque)


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> lyric baritone imo, but not sure (very Nelson Eddy-esque)


I think you're right- I'd never noticed any resemblance before since their core repertoire was so different, if sometimes overlapping. I suppose Eddy had the better voice, though Bowlly had a very expressive, almost spiritual quality which always makes me want to consider him a better singer than perhaps he technically was. At any rate, his solo recordings show that his gifts as a _diseur_ were wasted on supplying 'vocal refrains' to a bunch of pretty average British dance bands.

Re Nelson Eddy, I think I've figured out where your user name comes from  :


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## BaritoneAssoluto (Jun 6, 2016)

Figleaf said:


> A question for you, BaritoneAssoluto. Al Bowlly: tenor or baritone?


A lyric baritone. And if he was a french native or french singer with a higher passaggio, he'd be considered a baryton-noble. Such sweetness in his tone and the lower notes aren't as pronounced for a true "low baritone".


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## BaritoneAssoluto (Jun 6, 2016)

Quoniam, Petite Messse solennelle, Giacchino Rossini. As performed by a wonderful baritone, David John Pike.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

I have lately become increasingly tolerant of the operatic singing style. I like all types of tenors, whether dramatic/dark/heavy or lyric/light - though I have to say that to me even leggero tenors sound quite "dramatic", at least when compared to "tenors" of popular music. I also like basses, the really low ones with really big, heavy voices in particular. Lyric baritones and really average (in timbre) baritones are probably the most boring type of voice for me, but they are not unpleasant either.

With operatic female voices on the other hand I have a very clear preference for as light voices as possible (not really the case at all when it comes to popular music). Coloratura sopranos in particular. In regards to countertenors I likewise like light, smooth voices like Philippe Jaroussky's - most countertenors I have heard sound too contraltoesque to me.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Dim7 said:


> I have lately become increasingly tolerant of the operatic singing style. I like all types of tenors, whether dramatic/dark/heavy or lyric/light - though I have to say that to me even leggero tenors sound quite "dramatic", at least when compared to "tenors" of popular music. I also like basses, the really low ones with really big, heavy voices in particular. Lyric baritones and really average (in timbre) *baritones are probably the most boring type of voice for me, but they are not unpleasant either.*
> 
> With operatic female voices on the other hand I have a very clear preference for as light voices as possible (not really the case at all when it comes to popular music). Coloratura sopranos in particular. In regards to countertenors I likewise like light, smooth voices like Philippe Jaroussky's - most countertenors I have heard sound too contraltoesque to me.


not in the right rep. here are a few of my favorites


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> not in the right rep. here are a few of my favorites


The Rigoletto duet is absolutely stunning, so is Anna Moffo. :tiphat:


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Pugg said:


> The Rigoletto duet is absolutely stunning, so is Anna Moffo. :tiphat:


nothing beats a good baritone/soprano duet. they pair far better than soprano/tenor duets, imo.

as for exciting baritones, they're my favorite fach, so I could keep going  
(seems like about 40% of my favorites are Eastern European lol)


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> not in the right rep. here are a few of my favorites


See that I specified which kind of baritones I find comparatively boring.... The first one sounds almost like a bass to me (or is clearly on the "darker" side of baritones, anyway) so he isn't in that category. The rest do sound like baritones, and predictably I find them OK but not as good as tenors and basses. Another exception is if a baritone sounds like a heldentenor (to my ears).


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Dim7 said:


> See that I specified which kind of baritones I find comparatively boring....


ah, fair enough (I find lyric male voices in general to be kinda boring lol)



> *The first one sounds almost like a bass to me* (or is clearly on the "darker" side of baritones, anyway) so he isn't in that category. The rest do sound like baritones, and predictably I find them OK but not as good as tenors and basses. Another exception is if a baritone sounds like a heldentenor (to my ears).


he's actually my favorite (hell, I'd consider him my favorite male singer in general), and yes, has the timbre of a bass-baritone throughout the bottom 2/3 of his range, but his top rings like a baritone.

one of the reasons I like baritones more so than tenors is that, when a baritone has a powerful upper register, it's just....WOW! tenors with high notes....meh, most of them sound partially like they're crying, but baritone high notes are BANG! sheer manly power (of course, I don't expect this to convince you of much given you have a preference for lighter voices of both genders. the "crying" quality likely doesn't bother you).


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

There is NOTHING that compares to listening to a great baritone strut his stuff.

Here is Ettore Bastianini performing "Il balen" from Verdi's Il Trovatore.


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## pcnog11 (Nov 14, 2016)

After hearing Catherine Jenkins, I changed my view about mezzo-sopranos. It seems to me that there is a range of female voices that I have missed. There are certain musical depth and dynamics that a mezzo can offer that soprano cannot.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

pcnog11 said:


> After hearing Catherine Jenkins, I changed my view about mezzo-sopranos. It seems to me that there is a range of female voices that I have missed. There are certain musical depth and dynamics that a mezzo can offer that soprano cannot.


That's why it's impossible to choose.


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## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

I guess for me the voice types would rank something like this:

1. Tenor (any type... expect if they are actually baritones)
2. Lyric soprano (coloratura in particular, if that's a separate voice type)
3. Bass
4. Bass-baritone
5. Baritones, including "tenors" that are actually baritones (like Lauritz Melchior)
6. Lyric mezzo
7. Dramatic soprano
8. Dramatic mezzo
9. Contralto 

Not sure where I'd put countertenors, some of them I like, some of them I dislike. I very rarely dislike any of the normal male voice types.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Dim7 said:


> I guess for me the voice types would rank something like this:
> 
> 1. Tenor (any type... expect if they are actually baritones)
> 2. Lyric soprano (*coloratura in particular, if that's a separate voice type*)
> ...


yup, there are a lot of types of soprano:
1) lyric coloratura soprano
2) dramatic coloratura soprano
3) lyric soprano 
4) spinto soprano
5) dramatic soprano

some subdivide lyric soprano into light lyric vs full lyric (ex: Barbara Bonney or Lucia Popp vs Renee Fleming or Victoria de los Angeles) and dramatic soprano into Italian dramatic soprano vs Wagnerian soprano


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

for example:

lyric soprano
what to look for: creamier, more silky, legato, warmer, (sometimes) darker, most comfortable in middle tessituras





lyric coloratura soprano
what to look for: bright, flexible, extremely high, seems to dance effortlessly in the stratosphere





dramatic coloratura soprano 
what to look for: heroic, intense, high-lying passages, can sing more lyrically or more dramatically, bright, but with greater vocal weight


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> for example:
> 
> lyric soprano
> what to look for: creamier, more silky, legato, warmer, (sometimes) darker, most comfortable in middle tessituras
> ...


You made my day, this early Sunday morning.:angel:


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## JosefinaHW (Nov 21, 2015)

Baritone has long-been my favorite voice but I've been introduced to a lot more of them since I chose to study music last September. Bryn Terfel (already knew and loved) but then Matthias Goerne, Christian Gerhaher. Nikolai Herlea, Alexei Petrenko (I don't know if he is a singer, but he was the speaker in Galina Ustvolskaya's _Symphony No. 3 Jesus Messiah, Save Us for speaker and orchestra_--I saw this performed for the first time by the Berlin Philharmonic on 6 Sept. 2016--his voice is amazing: the powerful deep growl of a Porsche started in the showroom--that is a sound everyone should hear at least once in their life.

I don't know if any piece of music has been composed for four baritones and male speaker, possibly with two Bass singers as well but I would give my left arm to hear it. Does anyone know of such a piece?

Having really ramped-up my vocal music listening the past 4 months (?) the more I listen the more I come to like (almost) all the different voices. I never thought I would really enjoy the counter tenor voice but having watched a few videos of Jarrousky and watched Bejun Mehta in Glucks _Orfeo et Euridice, _I've become a believer.






The one voice that I have the most trouble with depending on the singer is the soprano.


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## pcnog11 (Nov 14, 2016)

I attended a lecture at a local university voice concert recently and after the concert there was a Q&A about voices. The ratio of students in a voice program is as follows
Soprano : Messo: Tenor : Baritone: Countertenor: Bass 
10: 3 :2 :2 :1: 0.5. 
Obviously, no too many students are trained to be an alto. Food for thought!


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## BenjiBass (Dec 25, 2016)

Ewwwwww Countertenor the one voice type that should of never been. For males I love the extremes I like Basso Cantante and a Tenorino. For females like a Drama Contralto and a Coloratura Mezzo-Soprano.


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