Contraltos

The contralto’s singers are not lacking today, not more than in the past; they have not "disappeared" ... But: - « I think the big problem is that there is an international disease of ‘high, light, bright» David L. Jones, vocal teacher & pedagogue. Why ? For various and related reasons: The fashion of high (virtuosity, spectacular aspect, challenge), the incomprehension of this voice (nature, functioning, role), the small repertoire that is attributed to it. Why ? Because the soprano voice (more brilliant, charming, attractive, more representative of the female voice is put forward (1st role: young girl, beautiful lover, "jeune première") -the more the voice is low, the more the roles are in the background (maid, mature woman…), but also, because the archetypes of the Christian religion have been widely conveyed in classical music (music of the past): Clear was synonymous with beautiful, good, dark, of ugly, dangerous, evil, limited to "witches, bitches and britches" stereotypes (after the expression of James Edward Hughes), transvestite roles or relegated to austere roles (old woman, religious songs, or songs about death, melancholy ...). - They are not identified, forced to sing in another tessitura. Those who manage to reach the high range have a strained voice, without dynamics, without harmonic, without vocal richness and can not thus make a career, beside the others who sing in their true range. They malfunction their voice, push on their vocal cords, which can cause health problems more or less serious in the long run. Singing in a false tessitura is extremely detrimental to the voice; it can never recover. More, these singers have a bad image of themselves, a false one, believing they do not have a beautiful voice, they are zero ... and sometimes abandon themselves singing. All of these reasons can help to understand why singing teachers evade this voice, pushing their students to sing as high as possible. That's why this voice has been erased, eternal absent from song contests, prizes ... never even mentioned anywhere ... gone ... But STILL ALIVE in the shadows…