How racism affected Marian Anderson's vocal billing | Marian Anderson | American Masters | PBS

[@patriciaadams4171]

My poor working class life would have been utterly penurious without PBS Documentaries; and as a singer myself, Ms. Anderson is a North Star. Wish more folk directed to this!

[@jayjaychadoy9226]

My grandmother was looked at as unique. Her contralto voice was prized due to the deep richness of the sound. There were many women who were grateful to have the contralto sound as it was the popular sound of the day. The sopranos had kind of had their day, so it seemed. Main parts were always soprano, strange when the lower female voice was so beautiful.

[@Lunna-wp2fr]

Fact is that contraltos are very rare in nature. Most women are sopranos.

[@petergraham8681]

Listening to Anderson now I also suspect that her vocal category, range, & sometimes even timbre might have been developed differently had she come along in more recent years. She certainly had a contralto depth evident in pieces like DER TOD UND DAS MÄDCHEN but so did Ljuba Welitsch, in SALOME for example. Early recordings of Anderson indicate that her instrument might have been trained carefully to develop its upper register to a greater degree. Her timbre though, through most of her career, was centered lower, for reasons that remain controversial, however, her voice was memorable whichever way one perceives it.

[@kalebnbrown]

Thank you PBS for your fine work and thank you youtube algorithims for directing me here! I'm definitely wathing that documentary!

[@galanis38]

There are some very famous female leading roles that are usually sung by mezzos or contraltos -- Carmen, Delilah, Amneris come immediately to mind. Plus many other important supporting roles. In Anderson's early years the term contralto was still used often interchangeably with mezzo. Anderson's voice truly did have an unusually wide range, including brilliant high notes. But she also had a rich lower range that few sopranos or even mezzo-sopranos have. Contralto is probably the aptest way to describe such a voice.

[@greenwoods798]

No way that Marian was a soprano!! G5 isn't a soprano note, a good operatic contralto should be able to sing it! Marian was a dramatic mezzo soprano with contralto's low notes

[@dadevi]

Sure, ignore the word of a professional opera singer who knew Marian Anderson when she was alive and sang with her.

[@greenwoods798]

@dadevi Were you one of them?)..

[@onigbajamo]

Why would this have been important if she barely sang any opera at all? She wasn't singing contralto roles onstage either.

[@dadevi]

Because the world of music was bigger than opera. Today it doesn't matter as much, and most people don't realize Toni Braxton is a contralto and Ariana Grande is a soprano. But back then, people read music and a reasonable person could follow along and sing.

[@onigbajamo]

​@@dadevi I don't think you know what you're talking about

[@direfranchement]

Marian Anderson was not a soprano. There are classically trained contraltos that have a high C, Ewa Podles is an example that immediately comes to mind. No soprano could manage the low notes that Marian had, and you hear them most readily in her Spirituals. Racism affected career her across the board, and she wouldn’t have been allowed on the opera stage in her vocal prime as a leading lady with a white love interest, but she was not a soprano, and she knew this. She was asked to play Aida and turned it down. She said “Why Aida?”.

[@wordforger]

Some say she's what you'd call a "soprano sfogato" aka "a contralto that can also sing in Soprano range."

[@robertoramossempere7252]

¿Quizás por que le ofrecían un rol en que la protagonista es de color? ¿Cómo evidentemente pasó en su debut en el Metropolitan? Sin embargo en sus conciertos incluia también arias de soprano. Lauri-Volpi definió su voz como una amalgama de los tres registros: contralto, mezzo y soprano. Si Marian Anderson hubiera tenido las oportunidades de Ewa Podles, hubiera sido una de las grandes sopranos absolutas de la historia de la ópera.

[@dadevi]

You really need to do more research. Some vocalists, like Whitney Houston, for example, could sing equally well in all ranges. But an ignorant person like you would claim it's impossible because she is famous for her high notes.

[@direfranchement]

@@dadevi You don't even know what you're talking about. What is "all ranges"? Do you even know what you're saying? Of course not, you're just spewing. Every voice has a tessitura. Do you know what that is? We can assume not. Whitney's voice wasn't particularly high by the way, she was a mezzo-soprano who comfortably capped out around A5, but you wouldn't know that either. Just because a voice CAN do something doesn't mean that it SHOULD do it if the singer wants to have any hope of longevity. Marian Anderson understood that because she had a musical education, which you clearly do not. Run along now. Toodles.

[@EmilyGloeggler7984]

I’m sick of the race baiting. Let’s focus on the fact she had a three octave singing range!

[@ItsmeCR-g8j]

Talking about race baiting regarding a woman who was refused acceptance to schools to cultivate her talent based on race is insanity. This woman was born before the civil rights movement during the height acceptance of discrimination and racism. Racism/discrimination dictated how lives were lived at that time. Focus on both…as both were major factors of her life. I’m so tired of the cries to white wash actual history because ppl don’t want to acknowledge the racial component. It is what it is.

[@EmilyGloeggler7984]

@@ItsmeCR-g8jShe herself said she wanted people to focus on her voice. I do.

[@dadevi]

You want to ignore history. You would never have known about her if she didn't fight for Civil Rights. Time for you to ask yourself why you want to ignore history to make yourself comfortable.

[@demontra29]

I definitely understand what Madame Graves is saying. Marian Anderson sing many of the soprano Arias, I don’t hear a natural placement in the soprano Voice I hear a woman who has great range to sing in the soprano register. However, there’s a difference in singing in a soprano register or someone who’s actually has the natural Tessitore and placement to be a soprano. Mary Anderson have something so special in that lower part of her voice. When she sings two of my favorite spirituals, “Poor Me” and “He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands” the depth, power and the richness that’s in that lower register is unmatched

[@SubFlow22]

No one cares. Overusing and misusing important words causes them to lose their meaning.

[@LoneWulf278]

Read a book. 🙄

[@autumnlashai]

Clearly you do care since you responded 🤷🏾‍♀️