Singing with Balance: Timbre (Tone Color)

PARAMETER THREE. BALANCED TIMBRE- CHIAROSCURO

Great painting always displays a balance of light and dark on every canvas, known as chiaroscuro.

Chiaroscuro, (from Italian: chiaro, meaning light, and oscuro, meaning dark) was a technique employed in European painting. The technique was introduced by Leonardo da Vinci in the late 15th century. Thereafter, chiaroscuro became essential to great art.

In the same way, a perfectly produced vocal tone will have a balance of bright and dark, known as squillo-oscuro. The squillo is the brilliance in the sound. The oscuro, the depth in the sound, is created with a relaxed throat space and low larynx, similar to the feeling of the beginning of a yawn (the incipient yawn).

We need both elements to create good tone quality;  the bright ringing squillo that is a result of good vocal fold adduction and vowel, and the oscuro or depth of the sound comes from a relaxed throat space and low laryngeal position.

A breathy voice will not have squillo present, due to lack of vocal fold adduction.  A high larynx and squeezed pharynx cannot produce oscuro.

Vocal tone displays chiaroscuro or squilloscuro due to a balance of F₁ and F₂.

F₁ is associated with depth or fullness of sound, called oscuro. F₁ can be affected by laryngeal height, tongue height, and jaw-dropping.

F₂ the chiaro or squillo is affected by the position of the tongue from front to back.

Vowels can also be shaded; a darker version of the vowel (adding more UH [ʌ]) provides more oscuro; a brighter version of the vowel (adding more [i]) can add more squillo, or brilliance and ring to the vocal tone. This is achieved by moving the tongue forward or back.

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