# How much weight do you put in the fach system?



## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Title is straightforward enough. I believe this thread has been overdo for awhile. personally, I am a big proponent of it for a few reasons

This is more a personality quirk than anything else, but I love to put things in general categories. Not necessarily black and white categories or anything super-rigid, but I find being able to categorize things makes life easier to navigate, and it allows for getting a feel of the territory if nothing else.
If you don't sing the right repertoire, you will wreck your voice, period.
When you're singing the right fach, it just sounds right. Sure, you have lyric sopranos who sing Candid, dramatic baritones who sing Assur and dramatic sopranos who sing Tosca, but when you have the right voice, the placement and color just line up correctly.

that said, we need to be aware of a few things

the fach system only works if you can properly identify voices. if you insist a particular soprano is a dramatic when she isn't, she isn't going to last long.
the map is not the territory. it's not perfect, and it was never intended to be viewed as such.
some singers are more versatile and can cross fachs without strain.
voices change over time. you're not necessarily going to have the same fach from 25 to 50.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

There isn't a shred of evidence that singers were more likely to wreck their voices before the concept of "fach" was invented. I would guess that it was in fact less likely to happen, since nothing kills discriminatory awareness of an individual voice's qualities like pigeonholing it. 

Every piece of music has its own requirements, and every voice has its own capabilities. Singers may sing successfully a wide range of music, and a work of music may be performed by singers of very different character. 

"Fach" is nothing but a shortcut for opera houses to make casting decisions. It is not a reliable or necessary guide for singers to determine what they should sing. Calling someone a "dramatic" soprano doesn't tell us what roles a given singer will sing safely or effectively, or what roles she should avoid. Not all "dramatic" sopranos are equal. Only acquaintance with the singer's voice and art will do that. 

Outside of its original, limited practical function, fach is a game certain minds like to play. Categories are infinitely divisible, and it's such fun to argue for a certain classification as if one were actually saying something important. We all do it to some extent, if only for convenience. But if we're aware that we're speaking generally and approximately, we are not truly "faching" anyone. Presumably the singers are grateful for that.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

The right weight.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

schigolch said:


> The right weight.


That's the right answer :lol:


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> *There isn't a shred of evidence that singers were more likely to wreck their voices before the concept of "fach" was invented.* I would guess that it was in fact less likely to happen, since nothing kills discriminatory awareness of an individual voice's qualities like pigeonholing it.
> 
> Every piece of music has its own requirements, and every voice has its own capabilities. Singers may sing successfully a wide range of music, and a work of music may be performed by singers of very different character.
> 
> ...


1) that's not my point. this is:
http://www.voiceteacher.com/heavy_repertoire.html 
2) there will still means of classifying voices, they were just less elaborate (even Mozart clearly wrote the Queen of the Night for "dramatic coloratura soprano")
3) music was also less demanding until the romantic era (in terms of strain put on the vocal cords, not necessarily in terms of technique). there wasn't really much in the way of what we would call "dramatic" (in terms of vocal weight) today until around the romantic era. for example, Isabelle Colbran, for whom Semiramide was written, was considered a "dramatic soprano".


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> 1) that's not my point. this is:
> http://www.voiceteacher.com/heavy_repertoire.html
> 2) there will still means of classifying voices, they were just less elaborate (even Mozart clearly wrote the Queen of the Night for "dramatic coloratura soprano")
> 3) music was also less demanding until the romantic era (in terms of strain put on the vocal cords, not necessarily in terms of technique). there wasn't really much in the way of what we would call "dramatic" (in terms of vocal weight) today until around the romantic era. for example, Isabelle Colbran, for whom Semiramide was written, was considered a "dramatic soprano".


1.) The article you cite has nothing to do with the fach system. In fact, it is an implicit criticism of the notion of "fach." It says that Tebaldi ran into vocal problems because she was told that her voice had matured and that she should therefore perform "dramatic" roles - i.e., a different "fach" for which she was now deemed suitable. The problem lies with the notion that voices and roles can be classified, and then matched with each other according to that classification. What is a "dramatic" role? Who has a "dramatic" voice? What voice considered dramatic should take on what role considered dramatic? The "fach" system cannot answer these questions, but it can certainly give people a false sense of what they can and should do.

2.) Did Mozart say that his Queen of the Night was written for "Dramatic Coloratura Soprano"? Don't you suppose he just thought he wrote it for a soprano with an extended range, great flexibility, and the ability to convey the character? Who cares what we call her? I doubt that Mozart cared.

3.) If Isabelle Colbran was called a "dramatic soprano" in her day (who called her that, by the way?), but we would not call her that today, doesn't that show that classifications are rather beside the point? The point is: she could sing the music well. If _Jiminy Cricket_ can sing the music well, more power to him, whether we call him a dramatic or a coloratura insect.


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