Customer Reviews

Standard Vocal Literature - An Introduction to Repertoire: Baritone (Vocal Library)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have the Baritone edition. It is a good collection of songs from a wide variety of styles and languages. However, there is a pretty important issue with the transpositions in some cases. In some of the pieces, the highest note is a D. Of course, a baritone would never be expected to reach high D, but this leaves you with the octave-down range. This would be just fine, but the songs just sound too low and don't match recordings of other baritones performing the same pieces. It basically seems that some (not all) of these songs are actually written (or transposed) for a bass - not a baritone. Usually, songs written or transposed for baritones reach E flat at a minimum, often an F. These are "classical" songs, for the most part, and a classical baritone should reach the occasional F (at least) with little difficulty.

Also, and this is a minor point that I deal with fairly often, most of the songs are written on the treble clef. Baritones and basses normally use the bass clef.

Later addition: I talked with my voice teacher about this and he says I'm wrong! For this type of song, I should not be going too high and the keys in this book are in fact appropriate. So, I should change my rating to at least 4 stars.

This is a fantastic book for anyone who is a baritone. There is great variety with classical, baroque, languages, and folksongs. Any singer should buy this book because it is outstanding.

This overall is an excellent collection of arias for the aspiring Baritone. The range is good, the selection overall is excellent. The slightly disappointing sections are the Italian Art Songs/Arias as well as the Opera selection. Also, the tempi on the CD can be quite akward at times, but the pronunciations are overall, quite good. I highly recommend this collection because despite it's faults it contains some truly great literature such as "Widmung" by Schumann.