Wide vocal intervals

To my post:
>
>>Your observations remind us that musical intervals are not really
>>"distances" but "agreements." In that sense, the octave is the "same pitch"
>>and has "gone nowhere" (almost).

John Link responded:
>
> I think you may have missed my point. From a singer's point of view moving
> an octave is not going nowhere. It is a substantial movement and requires
> quite an adjustment of the vocal apparatus. I meant to suggest a way to
> increase one's ability to sing large intervals. I should have used a
> different interval, say a major tenth, to illustrate my point. And if
> anyone would ask, where is a singer ever asked to sing a major tenth, I
> would reply that it is required several times in Chopin's Nocturne in Eb,
> Opus 9, No. 2, which will NOT be on my forthcoming CD (maybe the next
> one?). And if one can sing a major tenth with ease then the usual sort of
> big intervals will be a breeze.

Thanks, John, but I didn't really miss it. It simply reminded me that when
singers think of intervals--even wide ones--simply as pitch changes rather
than traveling "distances," the execution is vocally easier. As you likely
know, carrying the "weight" of low register pitches into high register
pitches, as many singers try to do, frustrates the attempt. Thinking of wide
pitch changes as "slow vibrations" to "fast vibrations" helps to keep vocal
"weight" out of the picture. That's what I meant by "gone nowhere," and the
"almost" was added to acknowledge the skill that it takes to execute such
distances effortlessly.

Since this has little to do with tuning, perhaps we should (if you care to)
continue this thread off List.

Jerry