Love In Toronto

Is your singing voice a different octave than your speaking voice? Perhaps you are ‘Bass Baritone’? I’m not sure but I think Paul Potts is a Bass Baritone. What exactly is a BASS BARITONE VOICE? Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division had a Bass Baritone voice. That is to say his singing voice shared certain qualities of both the baritone and the bass. You can really hear those qualities in the hit song: Love will tear us apart, again.

The ‘bass baritone’ terminology arose in the late19th century to describe the particular type of voice required for Wagnerian roles. The term arises again with the release of the movie Control - a feature film by rock and roll photographer turned director Anton Corbijn; Control is based on a book by Deborah Curtis, and chronicles the rise of Joy Division and the demise of Ian Curtis. The movie opens tomorrow, Friday October, 26 2007, at select theatres with links for show times and a Tribute.ca synopsis below.

Ian Curtis had a bass-baritone voice distinguished by two attributes: first, he was capable of singing comfortably in a baritonal tessitura. Second, his voice could resonate lower range melodies typically associated with bass melodies. For example, the role of Wotanin Die Walküre covers the range from the F# above middle C to the F below the bass clef but only infrequently descends beyond the C below middle C. Ian Curtis’s speaking voice was actually one octave higher pitched.

The movie Control explores the Manchester music scene in late 1970’s. It features the legendary spoken word poet John Cooper Clarke on stage reciting ‘Evidently Chickentown’ to a room full of punk rockers - who are mesmerized by the spectacle… and of course it raises the question, again, did Tony Wilson really sign Joy Division to Factory Records in his own blood? In the movie Control, Tony Wilson faints from lack of blood in a restaurant after the event…blood. But is this the truth ? The answer is NO! No contracts were ever signed. This myth first emerged in 2002 from the mouth of Tony Wilson himself in the run up to the release of 24Hour Party People, where the scene is also portrayed.

Check out the movie listing at Tribute.ca here: http://www.tribute.ca/movies/Control/15091.
For show times and location check here: http://www.tribute.ca/by_movie.asp?name=Control&movie=15091

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 25th, 2007 at 11:13 pm and is filed under A&E, movies, music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.