![]() ![]() The singers were recorded using a Countryman Isomax B3 (Menlo Park, CA, USA) head-mounted microphone, worn at a constant mic-to-mouth distance of 6 cm and positioned approximately 45 degrees medial to the mouth to avoid the airstream during phonation. The fifth auditor performed as a dancer on Broadway, serves as Associate Choreographer and Production Dance Supervisor for a long-running Broadway production, and has assisted in casting for professional productions in the U.S. The fourth auditor serves as director and choreographer for theaters across the country, is Artistic Director of a regional equity theater, and is a voter for the Tony Awards. The third auditor is Associate Artistic Director of a regional equity theater and serves as assistant director of their musicals. The second auditor is a member of the Actor’s Equity Association as a stage manager and, as Producing Director of a regional equity theater, assists in casting for musicals. The first auditor performed as a dancer on Broadway and in national and international tours and now serves as Executive Artistic Director and director/choreographer for a regional equity theater. Though they have all been involved in professional theater in various capacities, none of them have extensive training in singing. The expert auditors who analyzed the sounds are all casting directors for equity music theater productions. Finally, it explores if, from the perspective of casting agents, there is a correlation with bright/dark and/or brassy/fluty to the above modes of singing.įor the study, the authors recruited four professional female singers, all of whom have performed in regional equity music theater productions, alongside seven additional female singers who were all in their first or second year of vocal study in a BFA program in either theater or music theater. Further, it examines whether pitch and/or experience level influences the ability of a singer to produce sounds that can be believably identified by those terms. It further examines how casting directors perceive these same sounds on a spectrum from belt to legit, bright to dark, brassy to fluty, and “no roughness” to “severe roughness.” In undertaking these tasks, the authors hope to investigate how close the perception of one group (performers) is to the perception of the other group (casting directors) when it comes to the terms belt, mix, and legit. The current study, therefore, examines the sounds CCM singers make (specifically, female music theater singers) when asked to sing in belt, mix, and legit styles. ![]() ![]() 7 Instead, belters avoid the timbral darkening that occurs as 2 f o crosses above F1 by modifying vowels to raise F1 as pitch increases and delay this crossing.Īnother study examined five “substyles of belting,” one of which was simply referred to as “brassy.” 8 At least one source for singing voice rehabilitation characterizes belting as both “bright” and “brassy” and, in a chapter called Speaking Voice Therapy for Singers, compares “safe yelling” to belting as both produce a “brassy quality.” 9 Yet another source compared belting to yelling since both are “loud” and “brassy.” 10 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 For instance, in one study involving casting directors and music theater majors, all of the participants reported that “belters needed a bright vocal quality to be considered elite.” 6 In this same study, the authors note that belters do not seem to employ “cover” as they ascend through the passaggio, which has been associated with a slight darkening of tone, as reported by Hertegard, Gauffin, & Sundberg, 1990. In the literature, belting is often associated with the perception of a bright timbre. Though these terms are regularly used by both voice professionals and music theater industry professionals, their precise meanings prove highly subjective. A third way of singing, “mix,” is often described as on a spectrum between bright and dark or brassy and fluty. The developing lexicon of common terminology has seen frequent use of the words “belt” and “legit” to represent ways of singing that often carry along descriptors such as bright and brassy or dark and fluty, respectively. A primary source of confusion is the lack of a uniform, codified language to describe these vocal sounds, which often leads to a disconnect between those in the vocal community (singers, voice teachers, voice scientists) and those in the music theater industry (directors, choreographers, casting agents). Despite the plethora of recent information, however, consensus has yet to be reached on many aspects relating to contemporary methods of vocal production. Research examining CCM styles of singing has increased significantly over the last fifteen years. ![]()
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