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Freddie Mercury possessed a remarkably light voice,
capable of producing not only very high sounds but low sounds as well. If
we were to classify him according to the classic standards he would be a
light tenor or a lyric tenor. He had a most enviable vocal extension, with
an outstanding range of three octaves and a major sixth, including his
falsetto singing (F2
-
D6).
Since falsetto is not a part of a singer's
real range, his real full-voiced range was three octaves (F2
-
F5).
But
Freddie was actually a baritone. His lowest range, (below C3), it's
not a tenor tessitura. He was a light baritone, who was actually singing
in tenor's range. His passagio zone was, in fact, more similar to tenor's
than a baritone's.
He
usually kept his voice between G3 and G4, but his head voice
could go up to Bb4 easily, like in 'Somebody to Love', where
the fact that he does not make a great effort to get to that tone is
highly noticeable. In various songs you can hear him reaching C5
with his head voice, but there it is evident, both by the timbre and the
vibrato of his voice, that he is shouting, in a way, forcing his voice.
You can download an audio segment aprox. 10 secs long, where Freddie sings
in his usual range. This segment belongs to the song 'Sail Away Sweet
Sister' which we have chosen because in it Freddie´s voice flows most
naturally, with a very sweet and comfortable tone.
The link is
range.mp3
Further
ahead in his career, Freddie used to keep his voice between E3 and
F#4
as a comfortable range. Smoking habits
could have probably affected his voice, causing it to be a little deeper.
(As we know, age has considerable influence on the tone of voice).
Freddie
used to perform his passaggio to head voice around D4 / F#4,
and to falsetto aprox. between F4 / G4, even though those
notes are included in the normal and comfortable range of his head voice.
In 'Exercises in Free Love' he goes down with his falsetto up to
C4, which note I have found out to be his lowest in falsetto. In a
descending scale he goes down from A4 to C4, but when he
gets to D4 he makes a sudden change to his chest voice ( although I
say "sudden", it is not so noticeable; untrained ears cannot detect it)
and he ends up the phrase going down to C4, and resorting back to
the falsetto, but in this zone the sound is very weak. Next, I provide you
with the audio file so that you can notice the passage mentioned above:
C4_exercisesinfreelove.mp3.
This file needs 78 Kb, rated in 44.100 hz
and in 128 kbps. It is aprox. 5 seconds long.
When
Freddie spoke, he kept his voice between B2 and G3, baring
in mind the particular inflections of each accent (in his case, the
British accent), and the timbre and phonetic variations of each vowel. The
note he kept his speaking voice in most of the time was E3.
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