@_@...Let me get back to you after I grab some music lessons.
oh sorry! I wasn't trying to be confusing
The grades of voice are as follows:
Soprano (Chiaki)
Mezzo-Soprano (Saeko Chiba)
Alto (Yuriko Kaida)
Contralto (Keiko Kubota)
Countertenor (me)
Tenor (Pavarotti)
Baritone (most common male voice)
Bass (Paul Robeson)
Or more simply, you could just call them Soprano > Alto > Tenor > Bass, though most people are in effect mezzo-soprano or baritone. Countertenors and contraltos are very rare.
And generally, you have the main plot of a song (the melody), which is typically maintained by the highest voice in the harmony (collection of voices), which is in turn typically a Soprano.
Now there's a lot of argument as to what the purpose of the melody is, but generally it ends up being that linear bit of music that you hum when remembering a song... we should all have the same tune come to mind, if I am to say:
How come I must know / where obsession needs to go?Now, if we were all to sing this together, the men of btf would have to sing this originally soprano melody in baritone. One or two of us might even have to sing it even lower, in a low bass, and perhaps a few of the ladies would have to sing it somewhere inbetween, in alto. If we're all singing it together, it would sound o.k., but perhaps not as "musical" as you'd want it to, since you'd have the same melody being sung at 2-4 pitches.
So instead, you frequently have an alternate linear plot which follows the melody but with variations. I'm guessing this is what Sora means by "support", though imho that's a very poor description.
Sora seems to be arguing that more melodies ought to be written for lower voices, not just the soprano. The points I was trying to make were:
(1) people who sing at lower pitches don't usually mind singing off the melody; in fact, they often prefer it. Here We Stand is a good example, since it is a marvellous song originally written for a soprano, but it's hard (albeit possible) for an alto to sing. Songs which are written for lower voices (like
Old Man River, for bass), frequently end up feeling more subtle or understated (if equally powerful). Human voices are not purely random factors of pitch, they go with a certain personality / feeling.
(2) Kajiura herself is very good at providing long sections of songs devoted to alto or contralto voice, and that hasn't changed in recent years. This in itself is very unusual in a female vocal scene largely dominated by sopranos.
In short, if I were an alto in Kajiura's care, I don't think I'd be the least bit disappointed with her treatment of my voice!
