Chiaroscuro
and the Quest for the Optimal Resonance (turn volume all the way up...Logan's laptop cam wasn't working)
This was a pretty interesting article, as it references
concepts we’ve been learning about during the term, and applies them to
different techniques for finding the optimal resonance aka “chiaroscuro” or “bright-dark”.
The term was coined by Italian voice teachers Mancini and Lamperti, where this “chiaroscuro”
is the optimal resonance as a balance between light and dark timbres. This is a
difficult task for voice teachers as perceptions for light and dark timbres and
resonance differ from student to student, and each student’s voice is different.
However, one relatively constant variable to “chiaroscuro” is the variable of
fundamental frequency.
During balanced phonation, the vocal folds vibrate at a
fundamental frequency that produces overtones (both light and dark). At this
fundamental frequency measured in Hz, sound is at its loudest resonance. The
tones produced at these frequencies are often on one side or the other on the
scale of light and dark. A bright tone (which can be nice) often times dampens
lower frequencies and darker qualities. The same can be said with a dark tone where
brighter qualities are dampened and the sound loses a certain quality. When the
tone is in the middle where both bright and dark tones and qualities are
balanced, the phonated sound is the most resonant and balanced. The sound
naturally becomes richer, fuller color, stronger, etc.
One way students search for “chiaroscuro” is by using “placement”
terminology. The sound sounds to the singer as very resonant and intense
because the articulators and resonators act as a vibrator for the sound and
vibrate the singers’ head. The singer can “feel” the sound in their head and
seems very intense. Of course, the way phonation and resonation occurs is what
we’ve been studying all term i.e. breath, articulators, registration, etc. but all this changes at different
frequencies. For example, the embouchure changes when a singer sings a C5 and a
C6. The resonators and the articulators need to change and readjust to achieve
chiaroscuro.
There are a few new ways teachers are teaching/ visualizing
chiaroscuro to students. One way is a very visual way where teachers use spectrographic
technology to show resonant sound waves so students can test different
resonances and have a visual cue to what “sound” is chiaroscuro. Another way is
more aural. Teachers can have students sing the extremes of a dark tone and a
bright tone, hear what the extremes sound like, and find a middle point where there
is a balance between the two extremes. A third way (a really unusual way) is to
physically move your articulators i.e. your jaw and “tune your mouth” until you
can match pitch. Lastly, the final technique is “scurochiaro” which is “dark-bright”
where instead of adjusting resonance from bright tones to dark, it is adjusting
from dark to bright.
These methods are not a %100 guarantee to achieve “chiaroscuro”
but they are possibilities and tools for teachers to help students find their
balance. “Chiaroscuro” is a goal and these techniques are possible tools to
achieve that goal of optimal resonance.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRN9KrzGcGs
I have definitely seen the visual and aural ways used to teach chiaroscuro, but the physical way is new. Interesting!
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting use of the word, since in painting the term simply describes one technique, while here it is being used more to describe a sound ideal that various techniques must be applied to in order to achieve it. I think another way to think about it is that trying to apply excess brightness or darkness to your tone is just artificially messing with your most natural, healthy sound.
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ReplyDeleteI do a lot of renaissance music at church and we look for chiaroscuro. I'm experimenting with the feeling of it as the singer in my own voice.
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