The Fredösphere

For solo work, the demand for high voices always exceeds supply.  Is the same true for choirs?

Vocal ranges are distributed according to our old friend, the bell curve.  Most singers are mezzos or baritones, so we'll always have plenty of those.  Women's voices are more flexible than men's, so a mezzo can sing almost all first soprano parts that choral composers dare to write.  The occasional very high written note need only be sung by a few of the highest voices -- don't worry, it will be heard!  True alto voices are rare, but again, teach a flexible mezzo how to use the chest voice discretely, and that part is also covered.

What about tenors?  They are famously in short supply, right?  That is true for many small church choirs; however, if your choir is large enough, and can attract singers of ability, I've found you can count on a few tenors showing up.  Furthermore, the life of  a tenor is a refining fire:  your tenor section may be half the size of the others, but they'll take care of themselves.  The high range, the training, and the egos will guarantee they'll be heard.

Last, and least (in volume) are the low basses.  This is it, people:  this is where the perennial shortage is found, in all choirs but for the few will truly broad, regional recruiting reach.  Once you've heard a professional choir that can thunder away on the low end, you realize the low-end weakness of even very good amateur choirs.

Which begs the question:  what can we do to fake it?  Is there some kind of anti-helium which, when inhaled, with thicken the chords and deepen their sound?  We've all discovered that a virus can do the trick; alas, that's not a practical solution.  I want a pill, or an injection, or something to snort that will do the trick like magic.  I want a doping scandal!

Hey, here's a solution:  build an artificial singer!  In a related direction, I've tried adding a string bass to an otherwise unaccompanied choir, with good results.

Lots of googling has turned up none of what I'm looking for.  Anybody out there know the secret?  I did find a quixotic campaign to return pre-20th century music to its original, lower tuning (that's reasonable) since "the natural C=256 tuning is grounded in the physical laws of our universe" (that's nuts).  I also knew a German guy from graduate school who said you could buy yourself an extra half step on the bottom by turning your head slightly to the left while singing.  It's only a half step, but it works.  Of course it did -- he was German!

How do the Russians produce their contra basses?  I suspect that's the culture doing an excellent job of recruiting, but I don't know enough to rule out genetics absolutely.  To borrow (and mangle) a term from the recording engineers, Russia is one big bass trap.

Finally, this bears re-linking:  the lowest of the low -- the profunder wonder -- the reach-up-to-touch-bottom Russian ultrabass Viktor Wichniakov (hat tip Alex Ross).  As a bonus, I offer you the Russian bass world's unintentional self-parody, the hard-drinkin', low-singin', large-livin' Ivan Rebroff!