#“So I know some people think I lied about being a contralto… and I just want to let you know...” [fake sniffles] “no I didn��t.” [sOb]

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

Sometimes I listen to a famous guy sing/talk and I go “Oh! I sound just like him!” But then I listen to a recording of myself for comparison, and I become aware of the soul-crushing reality that I’m a mezzo and not a baritone.

[darsynia]

Trust Fall | ch4b سورج کی روشنی

(MCU, Tony/OC 'terrorists made us fall in love,' IM1 timeline)

Summary: Emory Autumn works as a PA to pop star Rory Fall. While they’re in Afghanistan performing for the troops, Emory is taken prisoner along with billionaire Tony Stark. The terrorists think she’s Rory, and they’re expecting a ransom...

Length: 2,249 ((this chapter is in 2 parts))

Also! All chapter titles translate in some way to 'Sunlight.'

ARC reactor image by Eury Escodero on Unsplash | image by 'neverfeltbetter' on wordpress

In this chapter... The head terrorist shows up with one of Rory's CDs and demands that Emory sing from it...

I’m shy as hell about saying this but if anyone wants to be tagged or ask me to write something please do! Tags: @starryeyes2000 @raith-way @arrthurpendragon

Trust Fall Masterlist | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Chapter Four: سورج کی روشنی

Emory heads back to her cot with a lot on her mind.

She wishes she had just put her hand on his chest below the magnet, and pushed him out of the way! That would have left her feeling less exposed, less like she’d directed that magnet to point at her body, instead. Can Stark even help it, the way he looks at women? Is it the same for everyone? She has to assume so. It’s not like she doesn’t know she’s often relegated to the ‘nice boobs in a dress’ role when going places with Rory.

It had happened so often recently that she actually feels like she might have lied to Stark about not being used to being on display. But it was always like being on a shelf, someone to look at and not touch, a facet of time spent with Rory Fall, her quiet PA with the big breasts. 

Emory had hated being on the periphery like that at first, but people didn’t notice her after a while, and they’d say and do things that they wouldn’t have, if they’d known she was listening. She’d never have done the competition show at all if she’d known what that aspect of show business was like. No, Emory wants to do shows, musical theater, her favorite part of high school. She’s auditioned a few times, but nothing has come of it. It’s a shame, because as a contralto, her voice is valued but rare, and there isn’t as much competition for those roles.

Nothing had come of her association with Rory, none of the strings pulled like they’d been promised. Emory had told herself it was any number of things, but now as she sits in a cave in Afghanistan, the truth is so clear it’s embarrassing.

Rory needed her, and that was all that mattered. It was clear to everyone. Was it Rory or the execs that made a discreet, discouraging phone call?

Did it matter?

She takes off her shoes and throws them. At 20, 22, 24, those were the perfect ages to break in. Now she’s 25, and it’s not old, but if it takes five or so years to work up from ensemble, that makes her 30, 32, 33 by the time she gets that chance.

Stark is looking over. He stands up, and she scrambles to her feet.

“Don’t.”

“Oh, I’m not much of a gofer,” he says, grabbing something from the other side of the table.

Emory feels like a complete idiot.

“I’d kick them over, but the little rocks can really stick in there,” Stark adds, as if that helps smooth things over. “That and you look like you could probably set off one of these rockets with just your eyes,” he mutters.

“I want something to do,” she says.

“Well, you can’t help carry, but you can find an organized place to put that stuff?” he suggests, gesturing to the collection of objects on the table.

“I’m plenty strong for my size,” Emory says, but she walks over, snags her shoes, and meets Stark at the table. He gestures to the things he needs to stay, and she grabs a rectangular metal box from against the wall, cleans it out as best she can, and puts the rest of the items inside it.

“Your cot is the one in the middle of the room?” she asks, as Stark and Yinsen start carrying a missile over.

“Mmhmm,” Stark says, straining a little.

Emory notes that the way they have to carry the thing does actually press it against their torsos. That’s… not an available option for her, unless she varied positioning.

“What if I kept this under mine? I don’t want you to lose these things if they come in and start moving things around.”

He dusts off his hands and looks at her, his brown eyes assessing. “Ok. Thank you.”

Only after she puts the box with an inch or two sticking out at the foot of her cot does she realize that she’s put herself into the rhythm of his work as a matter of necessity. When he needs those things, he’ll have to come over to get them, whether she’s helping, or not.

Emory’s out of things to do but watch Stark, so she backs off out of his line of sight and leans up against the wall to do that. He’s removing screws that hold on the tail, always careful, especially when he has to turn the body of the thing to access the next tiny screw.

“How many languages do you speak?” he asks Yinsen. The interpreter rattles off many different ones, his tone implying a reluctant respect for the number of men the group has assembled, from so many various sources. Stark asks Yinsen what they call themselves, and Emory winces when Yinsen’s reply is to call them loyal customers of Stark Industries. He names the organization Ten Rings, which Emory’s never heard of before, but she’s not surprised. To say she and these people travel in different circles would be an understatement.

A shout sounds on the other side of the doors. Stark puts down the battery pack for a cordless drill he’d just examined, and Yinsen gets up to stand between them and the door. They open, and the bearded man comes in with a CD jewel case in his hand.

Emory’s heart sinks. Is this it? The point where they compare her face with Rory’s? She waits for the man to look at her, then at the jewel case, and frown-- but the last part doesn’t happen. He comes towards her, Yinsen trailing behind, and grins, saying something while shaking the CD case.

“He says he wants you to sing something from it.”

Stark’s standing behind the two of them, his expression grim, but Emory smiles at the terrorist. It has to be the ‘Watching’ album, her first. The album cover is of the back of Rory’s head and shoulders as she looks out on a beach scene. They’d styled her hair exactly like Emory’s is now.

“Which one?” she asks Yinsen, who passes the question along. Stark’s waving her off with subtle hand movements, which she’s grateful for considering the cameras are presumably still active. She ignores him, tossing her head to draw the terrorist’s attention to her hair, which she knows he likes.

If she can buy time acting the way he expects, she will.

The man shrugs when Yinsen passes along her query.

“Okay,” she says.

“Don’t you need instruments?” Stark asks. Emory’s pretty sure he’s doing it to get her out of the assignment, like he thinks she’ll fail miserably and he’ll have to watch her get shot and it’ll ruin his day, or something.

He’s wrong, though. She’s the one who taught Rory all of these songs.

She decides to sing the title track, because it’s kind of ballad-y with minimal accompaniment. The song is a low, sultry plea to the singer’s lover to come back to her, to stop worrying about the things that keep them apart. It’s one of the most emotional songs on the album; Emory’s heard that it’s harder for people to kill their victims when they see them as humans with emotional ties to the world and others. She can’t build something out of a stockpile of weapons, so Emory Autumn’s going to fight with the tools she has.

She doesn’t have perfect pitch, but she has relative pitch, so she starts in what is almost certainly the correct key. 

I can’t go about my day

No shower, no coffee, no train

Nothing’s been the same

Since you pulled away

I get your life’s a mess

I don’t travel in your set

Can’t afford the right dress

That don’t make this hurt less

What good’s the money without love

Headlines don’t touch your face at night

Do you drive your Ferrari with the top down

Feelin’ the wind like my hands in your hair

Do you smile for the cameras knowing I’m watching

Do you sit alone and ache like I do

Premieres, interviews, fundraisers

Every girl you touch calls you sir

Your kingdom of subjects, empty as air

While this pauper watches from afar

What good’s the money without joy

Magazines can’t make you cry out a name

Do you drive your Ferrari with the top down

Feelin’ the wind like my hands in your hair

Do you smile for the cameras knowing I’m watching

Do you sit alone and ache like I do

I want you to know I’m watching

Counting the frown lines I’d have soothed

I want you to know I’m crying

Thinking about how perfectly we moved

Money ain’t memory, sweetheart-- you can’t take it with you

Can’t make you care more about your heart than your legacy

So I’ll just be here watching

Watching

Emory had gotten carried away around the second verse, closing her eyes and focusing on the words. At first she’d been remembering trying to get Rory to understand the word ‘pauper,’ arguing with her that her fans would not assume she was saying the word ‘puppy.’ But once she’d hit the words she loved most from the song, about the wind feeling like a lover’s hands, she’d thrown everything she had into the song.

When she’s done with the last, resonant low note, she opens her eyes. The bearded terrorist was waiting for her cue, it seems, because as soon as she looks at him, he grins, clapping his hands vociferously. He babbles a bunch of things out in a rush, nodding at Yinsen.

“He says you will be worth every penny.”

“What a compliment,” Emory says, her knees suddenly weak with both relief and deferred fear. She stumbles over to the table they eat their meals on. The man starts for the door, tossing a comment over his shoulder that makes Yinsen wince.

“Better than the recording, he says.”

“Yeah, that’s for a reason,” she mutters, scrubbing her hands over her face. “Fuck, that was terrifying.”

“You have an amazing talent,” Yinsen says quietly.

“Much good it’s done me, but thanks.” Emory sighs. “Are there any more chunks of bread?”

“Yes, sit, I’ll bring you some.”

She sits, suddenly cold. Looking over her shoulder towards her cot, Emory kind of wishes she could just will her blanket over to her.

“Rory can barely sing at all,” Stark says. His voice sounds strange, almost like he’s struggling to breathe. Emory shifts her gaze from her cot to the table where the billionaire is standing, staring at her.

“That’s not really true. She’s a soprano, but she can fake singing low, singing like me, and that’s what the execs have asked her to do for years. It fucks up your vocal cords, straining like that,” Emory says. She’s usually far more angrily defensive when talking about her friend, but there had been a moment where she’d thought she was going to die just by virtue of not being Rory. It’s still fucking with her head.

Years of Rory having to pretend to be Emory, vocally. At first, they’d tried to get her to act differently, too-- less excitable and fashion obsessed, more sexy and aloof. It had almost been a compliment for Emory, the idea that this might have been what they saw in her personality… but none of that really mattered. She’d just been a template, overlooked, likely discarded had it not been for Rory’s initial desperation and sense of guilt.

These things had been easier to ignore when she’d been working with Rory every day. Now? Some of the things she’d let go for years are proving that they’ve only seemed harmless. She’s been sweeping them under the rug for so long the dust bunnies have grown teeth.

“Does she pay you to do that? Explain away all her flaws?” Stark asks. He’s come over to the table.

“Here, they’ll bring more tomorrow, and it’ll be stale by then,” Yinsen says, handing her a large chunk of bread.

Emory takes a bite and looks up at Stark. He looks shaken, but she supposes that makes sense. The song is about a rich man, something she hadn’t really considered in context with Stark until just now. Because of his accusatory tone and seeming shock at her level of talent is nonzero, she feels loose and combative.

“No, she doesn’t pay me to tell the truth about her singing voice when someone disparages it to me, I just do that because she’s my friend.”

“Is she your friend, at this point?”

“Song hit a little too close to home, Mr. Florist?” Emory asks, tipping her head to the side and smiling sweetly.

Stark inclines his head, seeming to accept her jibe.  “So hey, what happened to the ‘it’s better with feelings’ guy?” he asks, leaning his palms on the table, looking at her intently.

“Long-distance didn’t work out. Which kind of bears out what I said, doesn’t it?” she says, holding his gaze.

“Who left?”

“I did.”

He looks at her for many seconds, tracing his eyes across her face, along her hair, across her chest, and back up at her eyes. “It was a tour, wasn’t it? She took you on tour, and you lost him.” Stark’s smug certainty pisses her off.

“Fuck you,” she says, getting up and walking away.

“Imagine what a force of nature you’d be with someone who deserved that level of loyalty!” he shouts after her.

Next chapter, Emory's ruse is discovered, and Tony relies on his reputation as a womanizer to request that he be allowed to 'keep' her as a 'distraction.'

[you-turn-it-into-light]

Kalafina Singing Analysis

I have been watching a lot of Kalafina live recently, and I thought it would be fun to analyse how the girls sing, and how their abilities have changed throughout the years of them being in Kalafina. I will be covering each of the girls (in order of Wakana, Keiko and Hikaru). I would love any constructive criticism or any other points. 

Note: I am not a professional singer or a singing teacher. I just thought it would be interesting for analyse each of Kalafina’s members singing techniques, the good and the bad, with what knowledge I do have about singing. I have been singing for 7 years, been in many choirs both in school and out. I have been taught by different singing teachers. I am also not perfect, I have many flaws in my singing as well, but myself pointing flaws out in the girls does not mean that I am saying that I am any better. 

In order to clarify for later parts:

For the voice range information, I have recorded instances of all the girls singing not just in Kalafina Songs, but in FictionJunction songs and lives, as well as covers on TV, Kalafina Club Openings, and Wakana’s Solo Album With that, let’s get started.

Wakana has always been a soprano. There are lots of different sources on what the range of a soprano is, Choirly.com says that the soprano range is B3 - G6, but both wikipedia (including a cited source) and musicnotes.com says that the soprano range lies between C4 and C6. The highest notes I have recorded Wakana reaching is G5# in her falsetto/head voice and I’m sure she can reach higher. The lowest note she has been recorded to reach is F3 (in Kioku no Hito) but I do not consider that a low note she can reach comfortably, the note is very breathy and weak and barely audible, especially later in the song. The lowest note I would consider Wakana to somewhat comfortably reach, even though it is breathy, is A3. In terms of range alone, Wakana could be considered a Mezzo-Soprano, but I think her timbre is what sets her apart. Wakana’s voice is quite high-pitched. Even when she hits notes that are not particularly high for a soprano, it sounds high and impressive because her voice is so high pitched. This is a bit random, but a lot of people say that they believe Wakana’s voice took a full 180 in 2012, but I argue that it had been getting more high pitched for a while before then. Compare Wakana’s voice in ARIA from their Live in 2008 to the Red Moon Live in 2010, it does sound more high pitched.

More on tone, Wakana’s voice used to be a lot fuller than it is now. It had a lot more strength and power in earlier songs and lives, it has became a lot weaker over the years and I think this shows especially in the most recent lives, when her voice would almost jump off in between notes as if it was barely holding on (I take serenato and Kizuato from the 10th Anniversary Live as examples). Her voice is a lot quieter than Keiko and Hikaru’s even at her most powerful. Wakana’s voice was full because of her tone, but then her power became backed by a overuse of nasal placement. In the After Eden Live and Kalafina’s performances in the Type Moon Fes. 2012, Wakana’s higher pitched voice accompanied by a honky tone was there for a while until late 2012 to 2013, where her voice almost seemed to lose power almost completely. Wakana’s voice is incredibly thin and weak during the consolation live and similarly in the 2014 live tour and the FictionJunction elemental tour. Her voice has somewhat recovered since then to a place where she sounds mostly comfortable in her current voice tone. She still has some honky moments, which I don’t think sound nice at all, but when her voice is clear I find it to be the most beautiful (i.e. most of Ai no Hana). I disagree when some people say that her current voice sounds like her ‘old voice’, because there are so many things that are different and she will probably never be able to sound like how she was back in the early Kalafina/FictionJunction days, but that’s not a bad thing necessarily.

Now let’s talk about technique. There are some parts of her technique that I find professional, she doesn’t move around a lot when singing particularly hard parts, her feet are always grounded and her posture is straight. However there are some parts (a few actually) of her singing technique that bothers me. Her breathing is quite loud and inconsistent. When breathing in between lines, you should keep your shoulders level and your breath sharp, almost as if you’re gasping or yawning so that you can open your diapghram and breathe deeply, but Wakana usually lifts her shoulders and her chest is shown to expand more that her stomach area most times when she takes a breath, this leads to her voice being strained and weak in certain instances and isn’t good for professional singers. Additionally, Wakana keeps her face quite strained when she sings. Her eyebrows are almost always furrowed. I don’t know if it’s just a habit that makes it easy for Wakana to sing or if it’s a sign that that she has trouble singing, but it can cause trouble for her. Wakana also tends to keep her head down when she sings particularly high notes, both in her high voice and falsetto. This is NOT a good way to sing high notes, your head needs to be level so that you’re not straining your vocal chords. And especially because she mostly sings from her chest, this can be very straining on her voice. Whenever she is singing, Wakana is usually still. Her feet stay in place, but she is constantly moving the top of her body as she changes lines and hits certain notes. She can move rather violently whenever she breaths quickly, especially because it’s from her chest. This causes a problem in control.

I know my analysis does sound mostly critical (maybe a bit petty) and negative, but I do think Wakana has come strides and I still love her voice most of the time. I’m very proud of Wakana for overcoming her obstacles and being mostly comfortable with where she is now, both voice and career wise. In fact I think she sounds the best now than she has in years.

Keiko’s voice is the only one of the three members to have not changed drastically over Kalafina’s career. Based on range alone, I would consider Keiko to be either an alto or a mezzo-soprano. She can reach notes in a chest voice that mezzos or sopranos can reach. The highest note in her chest voice I have recorded is an E5 from Yuki Kajiura’s Vol #1 Live almost 11 years ago, but her chest voice range has decreased about half an octave since then. Keiko has the widest (recorded) range out of the three girls being 2 and a half octaves (Wakana being 2 octaves and Hikaru currently being 1 and a half). However based on timbre, Keiko is very obviously an alto or contralto. Her voice is very deep and it is her most distinguishing feature, it can make notes sound lower than what they actually are. For example, her solo notes in 'to the beginning’ range from C4 to E4 and you wouldn’t be able to tell those notes are in her middle range unless you measured it (As a soprano, I certainly think they were low).

Keiko’s voice is incredibly versatile. She can sing very quiet or very loud and everything in between. Her voice is very full and her belting is incredibly powerful, but she can also pull her volume back and sing very delicately. Keiko can sing happy songs, dark songs, sad songs and so much more. Although she can sing low, her voice gets breathy below E3. Her falsetto is also quite full, probably the best out of the group; Keiko uses lots of support and it is very resonant. Keiko’s voice has not changed very much throughout her years in Kalafina, except becoming more full and controlled. In the studio recording of 'Kaze no Machi e’, her voice is quite breathy. I’m not sure if this was a stylistic choice, but she has certainly changed it. About 4 years into Kalafina’ career, from around 2011 - 2012, Keiko started singing in a kind of 'shouty’ way. This is especially evident in the After Eden 2011 Live, very much so in 'Mune no Yukue’, 'destination unknown’ and 'fantasia’ which is very belted and loud (almost unnecessarily so), this has most certainly been changed in later years with later performances being much more controlled. Keiko also frequently does what’s not professionally called 'vocal hiccups’, which is where you end a note with a squeaky note (it’s really hard to describe but she does it a lot). This is usually used to express emotion and in my opinion she does this a little bit too much, she has been shown to do it when the notes are in her middle to low range (I use the second chorus of 'destination unknown’ from the Blue Day LIVE 'stone cold’ from the Yuki Kajiura LIVE Vol.9 as examples). 

I think that Keiko’s techniques are very admirable (except the vocal hiccups I mentioned earlier), She exercises a lot more than Wakana and Hikaru and she certainly has a lot more stamina and can afford to exert a lot more energy and power in not only her vocals but in her stage presence. Keiko’s energy has changed quite a bit over the years, she has become much more reserved in her energy when singing energetic songs, but she is still able to run and jump across the stage while singing even though she doesn’t do it much anymore. Her stance while on stage is usually good; Her posture isn’t perfect but it is usually very consistent, along with her breathing. Whenever Keiko breaths it is usually very sharp, quiet and even across her chest and diaphragm. I have seen her sometimes breath only through her nose before a line and I find that very interesting. Her diction isn’t very consistent though, she usually smiles to get a wide sound on her 'a’ and 'e’ sounds and makes her mouth narrow for 'u’ and 'o’ sounds, but she is very quick to change the sound of the vowels when she gets happy and really smiles and her 'u’ becoming tight. Normally this is a stylistic choice; her vowels get more narrow when she sings happier or poppier songs ('Samidare’ from 9+ONE LIVE, 'Kimi ga Hikari ni’ from Type Moon Fes. LIVE), and when she sings dark songs she lowers her jaw significantly in order to get that dark sound ('lirica’ from 10th Anniversary LIVE 'Kagayaku Sora no Shijima ni wa’ from Lisani LIVE 2017 w/ LiSA). The only times these choices really bother me is when they aren’t necessary for the tone of the song, which some people call her 'cutesy voice’ (she also makes her pitch higher when singing like this), especially during sad songs and honestly it bothers me sometimes as well. 

Overall, I don’t think there is much to criticise when it comes to Keiko’s singing. Her voice is certainly my favourite because of its deep and powerful tone and how versatile it is and I think her techniques and consistency is a lot to admire. I certainly look forward to what she does in the future. 

Hikaru’s singing voice is an interesting case of almost a complete 180 in tone and range, both good and bad. Near the start of Kalafina’s career, I would consider Hikaru a mezzo-soprano based on her range (she is still considered that , but Hikaru has been an alto in my eyes (and ears) for almost 6 years now) Hikaru used to be able to sing up to almost an E5, but now she can barely reach an F4 or higher without sounding strained. This is almost an octave erased from her chest voice range in six years. She does sing notes higher than this but they are in a region that sounds too strained and almost like she’s shouting. It certainly isn’t a comfortable range (I take 'Manten’ or 'Hikari no Senritsu’ from the 10th Anniversary LIVE as examples of how strained her voice sounds). The tone of Hikaru’s voice has changed a few times over the years. At the very beginning of Kalafina, her voice was high pitched, but from around 2009 - mid 2012, her voice deepened. After late 2012 - present, her singing voice has returned to being much more high pitched as her chest voice range has decreased. I would consider Hikaru an alto, because even though her low notes don’t sound as deep as they used to, she cannot sing nowhere near up to Keiko’s head voice range. I hate to compare her to another singer, but to someone who used to be a mezzo-soprano compared to someone who’s supposed to be an alto, even contralto, these differences cannot be ignored. 

Continuing with the tone of her voice, Hikaru is able to be quite loud. I have not heard her sing live myself but I think through what I’ve seen, when she sings notes in her comfortable range she can almost belt the notes. When singing in a range that she’s not comfortable in, she becomes a fair bit quieter because she isn’t able to back herself up and it becomes almost like shouting. Hikaru’s control of her voice has remained mostly the same throughout her career. It seems quite hard for her to lower her voice when she is singing in her higher comfortable range (I use 'Tonbo’ Studio Version, 'Gogatsu no Mahou’ from 9+ONE LIVE as examples and 'Haru wa Kogane…’ from the Red Moon LIVE as examples). I really hate how she just belts out random notes sometimes when they get to be a little higher instead of keeping a controlled tone, I think it’s the weakest part of her technique and is one of the main reasons why I hate listening to 'Tonbo’ so much,One thing I think has improved in her voice is the nasality. In the early Kalafina years, her voice was very nasally and that was where some of the support for her high notes came from. You can hear it sometimes when she sung 'n’ sounds, the note was almost completely omitted. As her voice range changed over the years, so did her use of nasal in her voice. It is still there sometimes, but more in the background. A point of interest for many people for Hikaru’s voice is her falsetto and it’s interesting, she basically doesn’t use any support in her  voice when reaching those notes. This leads to those falsetto notes being light, airy and very quiet. I think this is very strange in a professional singer, but it could be just a stylistic choice. I think it is one of the weaker aspects of her voice. 

In a technique aspect, Hikaru has both strong and weak points, much like Wakana. Her breathing is very even across her diaphragm and her chest, and so her breathing is quiet (except for when she’s tired, obviously). Her stance is mostly very still and although she does move around a lot during energetic songs, her feet stay grounded no matter how she’s standing. Hikaru used to keep her head very level as she sung, but now she sings with her chin way up, which is a little weird but I can’t really comment on it because I’ve heard both good and bad things about it. Her facial expressions are interesting. Her eyebrows are usually furrowed in order to display emotion when she’s singing (and even when she’s not), her face is rarely relaxed. I have heard some criticism about Hikaru “focusing more on looking angry rather than singing” and I think that’s true to an extent. It seems really important to Hikaru to convey emotion to the audience in any way she can, and it doesn’t seem that it particularly bothers her. In many other songs when she struggles on a verse or a line, her facial features slacken a little so a neutral expression, so its almost like she focuses when she really needs to. On the other hand, Hikaru tends to scrunch her face up when she’s straining high notes sometimes, which is a little worrying, so overall its a bit of a mystery to me. Additionally, her dictation is good, not too wide and not too small - overall pretty consistent. Although one part of Hikaru’s technique that has formed more recently is her posture. Hikaru used to stand up straight, but she has started to sing with her back hunched over, and this is a general 'no-no’ when it comes to singing techniques. Singing with a hunched back results in a lack of control and she has been doing it for a few years now (I use sprinter from the Arena Live as an example).

Overall, I don’t like Hikaru’s voice as much as I used to and that’s mainly a matter of preference. However I do believe that she can improve and sing songs that are more in her comfortable range so she can work to improve her technique and not damage her voice in the long run. My analysis of Hikaru has been quite negative, but I still love her to pieces!

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Thanks for reading this far! If there is anything I’ve said that’s wrong or you would to offer any criticism, I would love to hear what you have to say :)

[yourfaveisabaritone]

Blog FAQs

Q: What is this blog?

A: This is pretty much Exactly What It Says on the Tin, my swing at one of them “this character is [insert adjective here]” blogs. Except for sad baritones and people who want to see their favorite characters proclaimed to be baritones.  

Q: What is a baritone?

A: A baritone is a type of classical singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice types. Baritone refers to this voice part or a singer possessing a singing voice in this vocal range.

Q: Why tho?

A: I am a baritone and I want to spread some bari-positivity.  To be honest I have seen a lot of people who are clear baritones refuse to acknowledge it or typecast into playing for ex only tenor parts because they “look like a tenor”, often to the detriment of their voice.  As a baritone who looks nothing like well, what one would expect a baritone to look like, this is my humorous and lighthearted way of combating some of that, and having some fun with people’s expectations of what a baritone is.

Q: I want to see my favorite character on here! How can that happen?

A: Great news friend! You can send me an ask requesting a character and I will make a post with them and add it to the queue. If you want to see them up there faster you yourself can make the post and submit it using the lovely submission feature @staff hasn’t destroyed yet.

Q: That sounds great! Is there anything I should know before submitting or suggesting a baritone?

A: You should check out the Rules and Guidelines page! It has, well, all the rules and guidelines as well as good information to know before sending something in.

Q: Can I submit even if I’m not a baritone?

A: Sure! Send me your favorite baritones anyway! Share ‘em with the world!

Q: What if I just want to say hi or ask you something?

A: Send me an ask! I can’t guarantee I’ll answer in a timely fashion, but I’ll do my best.

Q: I sent in a request/submission and you haven’t posted it, did it get lost?

A: I’m just one person with a blog, and I have to create each graphic for requests. This website is a garbage pile of funfetti code strung together with gum and blue tack, so it’s entirely possible I didn’t get it. Wait a week or so before sending another ask please.

If you haven’t seen your pre-made submission on the blog, there’s a possibility it was rejected due to not fitting the template guidelines; for ex. not including the characters source. If you think that’s the case, feel free to check out the Rules and Guidelines and re-submit.

There is a small chance that your submission was rejected due to my personal discomfort with the character, but this probability is extremely marginal unless you’re a troll submitting things so

Q: Why is this a “tenor-free blog”? 

A: Think of it this way, I was once in a show where as written, three of the leads were baritone parts. Two of them went to tenors who couldn’t reach the notes because they were “leading man/love interest” parts. After three seasons of the company casting a tenor as the lead man despite it being a part written for a baritone. This is not a tenor hate blog, some of my best friends are tenors! Tenors are welcome as long as they play nice and are humble and respectful of this a space for baritones. 

Serious answer? It’s humor poking fun at the somewhat arbitrary divisions we make amongst ourselves as performers and the way tenors are seen/perceived to be full of themselves or haughty because of the fact that all the leads are written for them. If anything its more a joke at the perception of tenors and the kind of parts that are written for them than any kind of statement about real-life tenors.

Q: But why is the alto clef in the header then? Or the treble clef, sopranos and altos use that!

A: Sadly because of the different sizes of header shown on mobile, desktop, and depending on monitor size, the banner is cut off, and I have yet to find a size that doesn’t do that somewhere. But rest assured those are the C clef tenor clef and the vocal tenor clef. Altos are very much welcome on this blog! Alto/Baritone Solidarity is my jam. Sopranos can come hang out too!

Q: [Insert character name here] is from a musical/sings in the media they’re from and they are canonically [a soprano/alto/contralto/countertenor/tenor/bass | not a baritone]! 

A: Well they are now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Seriously tho it doesn’t matter. I’m gonna be real with you, it really doesn’t matter to me. Especially if they’re a character from a musical/play with songs/light opera/opera, because none of that is sacred, any director at any point can choose to cast them as a baritone. I once saw a production of Pinafore where Buttercup was a baritone, don’t test me.

Q: [Insert character name here] is a girl/woman, she can’t be a baritone, that’s a men’s voice part!

A: Listen,, I’m a baritone and I’m not a man. Many people who are not men, even women, are baritones. This is literally one of the reasons I’m making this silly blog, for people who aren’t traditionally thought of as looking like/being baritones.

“The season [at Tulsa Opera] comes to a close with Mozart’s Don Giovanni which will make history as it will feature the U.S. debut of female baritone Lucia Lucas.”

Q: No really, women with that kind of low range are contralto profundos or bassos.

A: Here at Your Fav Is A Baritone, we welcome and support vocal self identification. You or people you know may consider yourself/themselves a contralto, others may not. These are fictional characters, they are not real and so do not care how we categorize their voices.

Q: I don’t like this blog concept.

A: Good news not-friend! You can move your cursor to the little “x” at the top right of your screen and press it. Once you do this blog will be removed from your view and you can forget all about it.

Q: This is making fun of sexuality/gender ‘your fav is’ blogs!/This is making light of lack of actual marginalized representation which is the point of ‘your fav is’ blogs!

A: It’s not that deep friend, this is just a silly blog run by an even sillier person who likes their voice and being a baritone and sometimes feels bad for that.