"sweetened ditones"

From: "Rosati" <dante@pop.interport.net>

>I think the urge to do this is so deeply built into our ears, both physiologically and >psychologically, that you would have to put a gun to most singers heads to get them to sing
>ditones a capella.

I agree that the urge is there, but the "gun to the head" exists in the
form of choir/choral directors (in my experience, the vast majority of
them) who exhort their charges to sharpen major thirds and leading
tones, and make diatonic semitones very narrow in a cappella singing.
After a few years of this, the poor singers just accept that these
"professional, trained" directors must know better, and abandon their
urges.

- Fred

>From: "Rosati" <dante@pop.interport.net>

>>I think the urge to do this is so deeply built into our ears, both
physiologically and >psychologically, that you >would have to put a gun to
most singers heads to get them to sing
>>ditones a capella.

Fred Reinagel wrote,

>I agree that the urge is there, but the "gun to the head" exists in the
>form of choir/choral directors (in my experience, the vast majority of
>them) who exhort their charges to sharpen major thirds and leading
>tones, and make diatonic semitones very narrow in a cappella singing.
>After a few years of this, the poor singers just accept that these
>"professional, trained" directors must know better, and abandon their
>urges.

>- Fred

That's right, and that goes for most string ensembles as well.