5.7 Darkening vowels

Darkening vowels

Young voices tend to sing with too much shallowness and brightness in the tone. Modification of the brighter vowels to a darker vowel will actually bring the voices to a desired vowel somewhere in the middle of the tonal color range.

Choirs can also successfully shade a vowel by thinking one vowel while singing another. The same effect can be obtained by implying one vowel while singing another. It is also quite easy to ask a choir to "feed a little oo" into an | i | (ee) vowel to help the depth of the tone.

Often the | i | (ee) vowel, for example, is shallow and piercing. Generally more room in the mouth is needed to give the vowel a deeper sound. In addition, the choir may be instructed to shape more for | u | (oo) and sing | i | (ee). Do not shape quite enough toward | u | (oo) to make the German umlauted | u | sound, however.

When one asks for a darker color one should not confuse this with asking for a darker quality, or what is usually known as throatiness. The vocal production can remain the same but the color of the vowel will be changed.

Another vowel that often lacks any true placement in young singers is the | I | (ih) vowel. If it is not properly placed it will sound blatant and will also affect the intonation. By placing some of the vowel | u | (oo) into this sound, it will have a better shape and produce a more pleasant tone.

Choirs tend to sing many words without much thought. One of the results of this is a lack of continuity in the vowel production. Some words will be dark, others bright, and others somewhere in between these two extremes. In order to create a more musical and flowing line, a conductor must have the ability to slightly alter vowel sounds. When one trims the harsh edge off a vowel sound or modifies one vowel to match others in the line, one will begin to hear the refinement in the tone that is desired.

Table 4.4 lists several vowels that often need modification with amateur singers. Judicious use of this chart will be an aid to a choral director. If the technique is overdone, it will, as will the extreme or misguided use of any method, have adverse effects on the sound of the ensemble.