"THE SHAKE"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 343, 18 January 1946, Page 5

"THE SHAKE"

Sir-I would like to congratulate your commentator in "Radio Viewsreel" on his paragraph entitled "The Shake," and would also like as an ordinary listener to ask local singers not to indulge in this bad habit when singing over the air, His remarks about the destruction of pitch, tone and sense are only too true, and I recently heard a woman singer who had developed a tremolo to such a degree that her voice ranged over a whole semitone, so that it was difficult to know which note she was meant to be singing round, and the melody and harmony of the song were completely lost. But bad though the effect can be in a solo item, it is twice as bad when used in part singing, especially when each voice vibrates at a different frequency. Even boy sopranos are not immune these days, and there can be absolutely no excuse in their case, as a boy’s natural voice is perfectly straight and true. The trouble about singing is that, like so many arts, it is subject to the whims of fashion. People seem always to notice and strive after affectations and miss true artistry. In addition, there is the | usual British weakness, in such matters, for apeing the foreigner, a good example being the slavish imitation of the IrishAmerican tenor, It would appear that the tremolo originated in the Italian opera, with its excessive emotionalism, and, though singers have long given up the latter, the tremolo remains.

E. D.

FORESTER

(Kumeu).