Throwing a wobbly!
QUESTION Why do opera singers’ voices have to be so wobbly?
THE vibrato — a rapid, slight variation in pitch that sounds wobbly — is an important aspect of opera singing.
Singers must be able to use their voice for a considerable amount of time without damaging it. For example, Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg lasts four-and-a-half hours and puts a great strain on the voice.
Vibrato is an effective way of ensuring your muscles are relaxed while singing, which in turn creates a fuller sound, projects further and protects the voice.
It is not exclusive to opera. Most singers have a natural vibrato rate of four to eight cycles per second.
Popular singers tend to use less vibrato because they sing through a microphone and so don’t need to project as much. However, in Asian pop music, a wide vibrato is fashionable.
German opera singers are considered to use more vibrato than their more sprightly sounding Italian counterparts, which might be a reflection of their language’s ‘harder’ sound.
The Greek-American soprano Maria Callas was loved for the wide wobble in the top of her voice. On the other hand, the Italian mezzo-soprano Celia Bartoli has a shimmering vibrato with lots of brilliance in the tone.
Too much wobble can suggest a flaw in technique and indicates an over-use of the muscles of the larynx.
Dot Williamson, Lewes, E. Sussex.
QUESTION Is it true that King John considered converting England to Islam?
KING JOHN’S (1166-1216) poor reputation as a tyrant was well-deserved, but betrayal of his country and his faith is probably a charge too far.
The claim was made in the writings of the St Albans monk Matthew Paris (1200-59) in his Chronica Majora. Paris stated that in 1212, the king sent ambassadors to the ruler of southern Spain and Morocco, the Almohad caliph al-Nasir (1199-1213).
‘He [King John] sent secret messengers, the knights Thomas Hardington and Ralph fitzNicholas, and Robert of London, a clerk, to the emir Murmelius, the great king of Africa, Morocco and Spain, who was commonly called Miramumelimis, to tell him that he would voluntarily give up himself and his kingdom, and if he pleased he would hold it as tributary from him, and that he would also abandon the Christian faith, which he considered false, and would faithfully adhere to the law of Mahomet.’
Paris claimed to have heard this from Robert of London.
Historians either dismiss this account as malicious fiction or accept there was an English diplomatic mission to Morocco, but do not agree there was an offer of conversion or subjugation.
It is known Matthew Paris was illdisposed towards King John. He wrote: ‘John was a tyrant rather than a king, a destroyer rather than a governor, an oppressor of his own people, and a friend to strangers, a lion to his own subjects, a lamb to foreigners and those who fought against him.
‘He was an insatiable extorter of money, and an invader and destroyer of the possessions of his own natural subjects.
‘He had violated the daughters and sisters of his nobles; and was wavering and distrustful in his observance of the Christian religion.’
Paris’s account of the 1212 visit is not corroborated, despite sources surviving for other diplomatic missions. If such a visit took place, it was at most the offer of a defensive alliance to help offset the French invasion of his realm.
G. Butterworth, Kendal, Lancs.
QUESTION Was James Doohan, who played Scotty in the original Star Trek series, a war hero?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, which described Doohan’s role in the D-Day landings, the future actor was not an officer in the Canadian Infantry Division before he was sent to England.
He was a gunner when he arrived in 1942; after six months’ training at Alton Towers, he was commissioned.
The assertion that he was shot by friendly fire is not corroborated. In his autobiography, Doohan wrote: ‘I was 24 and if the Germans had been marginally better shots, I wouldn’t have seen 25.’
Karen McCreedy, Bognor Regis, W. Sussex.
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