Freddie mercury voice range. Best Frontman Ever: Science Recognized the Greatness of Freddie Mercury's Voice

On September 5, Freddie Mercury, the legendary Queen frontman, would have turned 72 years old. It is difficult to imagine the Great Pretender as an old and feeble rocker in retirement, surrounded by children and grandchildren. “I have no desire to live until the age of 70: this is probably a very boring occupation,” - he once said in an interview and.

You don't need to be a great specialist to understand: Mercury's vocal abilities are exceptional. Even science has recognized the greatness of his talent. In 2016, Swedish, Austrian and Czech scientists from Palacky University proved the singer's unique vocal range. The research results were published in the scientific journal Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology.

To analyze the voice, the scientists took studio recordings and archival interviews. During the experiment, the researchers found out that by nature Mercury was a baritone, although he became famous as a tenor. Scientists also proved that the singer's vocal range was more than 3, but less than 4 octaves (ordinary operatic baritones sing within 2 octaves).

An interesting fact: once Freddie jokingly refused to sing a duet with the opera diva Montserrat Caballe, as he was worried that fans would not recognize him singing in a baritone and would no longer come to concerts.

Montserrat Caballe and Freddie Mercury, Barcelona

Also, scientists studied the "growling" singing of Mercury and came to the conclusion that the singer involved not only the usual vocal cords, but also the ventricular folds (the so-called false ligaments). This technique is mastered by masters of overtone throat singing from Yakutia, Tuva and Tibet. Finally, the Queen's vocalist was distinguished by unusually fast and uneven vibrato (periodic changes in timbre, strength or pitch).

The combination of these data, as well as a completely wild, powerful and sensitive soul, helped Freddie create a charismatic stage image. Each casually thrown phrase was frank and mystically fateful. This is probably why they touch the living no less than his songs.

Here are some quotes from the artist.

“I think that in the eyes of the audience I appear as a person from the stage, very arrogant, very aggressive, surrounded by brilliance, so whenever people talk about me and see me in society, they do not doubt my arrogance. To some extent, this is even good, since I do not want everyone to know about my true feelings, because this is my personal life. "

“I didn’t want to do anything else, therefore, in order to achieve success, I was ready to experience any difficulties and hardships that fate presented me in the future. It doesn't matter how long it takes to succeed, you just have to believe it, and I did. At the same time, it is necessary to have a certain amount of selfishness, arrogance and self-confidence. "

“What will I do in 20 years? I will be dead! Doubt? "

“If I am destined to die tomorrow, I will not regret. I really did my best. "

Yes, Freddie, you really did everything and more. Geniuses are not forgotten. Thank you! Happy Birthday!

1. Born on the island of Zanzibar to a Parsi family (an ethno-confessional group of followers of Zoroastrianism in South Asia), Farrukh ("happy") Bulsara attended St. Peter's School in Panchgani (500 km from Bombay). The name "Farrukh" was inconvenient for his mostly English-speaking classmates, and they began to call him "Freddie".
2. In 1947, a photo of one-year-old Freddie received the title of Photo of the Year at a competition in his hometown.
3. Freddie's father worked as a cashier at the Supreme Court of England and Wales.
4. Of all the sports available at school, Freddie preferred hockey, boxing and sprinting. In addition, he won the school table tennis title at the age of 10.
5. The director of the school drew attention to the interest in the music of the future singer, he organized piano courses for the boy, as a result of which Freddie received the fourth degree in theory and practice (Piano Grade IV).
6. Mercury created his first rock band (together with four school friends) in 1958. She was called The Hectics and performed at school events and anniversaries.
7. In May 1966, Freddie entered the department of graphic illustration at the Ealing College of Art in London, where he began to study in the fall. It was there that he met bassist and vocalist Tim Staffel, who invites Freddie to rehearsals for his band Smile. There, Mercury meets with Brian May and Roger Taylor.
8. In the year Queen was founded (1970), the singer officially changed his first and last name. He was now Frederick Mercury on his passport.
9. Despite the piano lessons he received in childhood, Mercury never considered himself a good pianist. For this reason, he always felt insecure when playing keyboards on stage (in particular, from the first part of Bohemian Rhapsody). In the future, Freddie began to use the piano less in the studio, and at concerts most of the keyboard parts went to the invited musicians, which allowed the frontman to concentrate on the show.
10. Freddie was fond of philately.
11. The musician's vocal range was 4 octaves.
12. Although Mercury had a microwave in his house, he did not use it, because he did not know how.
13. Contrary to rumors and some Queen songs, Freddie spoke only two languages \u200b\u200b- English and his native Gujarati.
14. A passionate cat lover, Mercury dedicated his solo album Mr. Bad Guy, and also loved talking to his favorites on the phone during tours, with the help of his longtime girlfriend Mary Austin.
15. One of the main characters in the Guilty Gear fighting game series, Sol, was inspired by the image of Freddie.
16. Mercury was afraid to fix his famous malocclusion and remove polyps on vocal cordssince I thought it might damage the voice data. Nevertheless, Freddie quit smoking only in last years life.
17. On the singer's last birthday (September 5, 1991) the premiere of the film “Freddie is Dead. The Last Nightmare "from the series" A Nightmare on Elm Street ".
18. Energetic and open on stage, in life Freddie was a rather reserved person and rarely gave interviews.
19. The song Crazy Little Thing Called Love (the only one during which Fredia played the guitar at concerts) was written by Mercury in the bathroom.
20. A song from the album A Kind of Magic called Princess of the Universe became the theme song for the film and television series Highlander.
21. Freddie's last performance in front of the public took place on October 8, 1988, when he, in a duet with Montserrat Caballe, performed Golden Boy, How Can I Go On and Barcelona at the La Nit festival in Barcelona.
22. The last song written by Freddie is A Winter's Tale. The last lifetime recordings of the singer's vocals can be heard in the song Mother Love.
23. On November 25, 1996, a monument to Freddie Mercury was unveiled in Montreux, Switzerland. The opening of another one took place on June 18, 2003 in London near the Dominion Theater, where the musical We Will Rock You is regularly staged.

Why are so many people excited when listening to Freddie Mercury singing? What seems to be in his voice human ear so seductive? The research team decided to approach this issue scientifically. Here's what they found out.

Scientific analysis

Analysis of the great singer's vocal range showed that he was able to quickly modulate his voice. This means that it was in his ability to make himself sound both soft and rough at the same time. By the way, this applies not only to singing, but also to ordinary conversation - for example, interviews. The results of the study were published in the journal Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology.

Amazing ability

The effect was most likely achieved by rapidly changing the pitch. This skill is beyond their capabilities for most classically trained vocalists. In addition, perhaps Freddie was able to control the so-called ventricular folds of his larynx (the little "wings" within the vocal cords).

All this led to the fact that Mercury was able to produce "subharmony" - a combination of sounds that the overwhelming majority of people are unable to reproduce. They can only enjoy this sound from the mouth of a genius. The research team likens this to a sound system running at its limits, calling the singer "following the path to chaos." The researchers concluded that these traits, combined with the fast and irregular vibrato, may have helped create the eccentric and flamboyant stage image of Freddie Mercury.

It was rumored that the vocal range of the Queen soloist spanned four octaves, but an international team of researchers did not find any confirmation of this. But it is absolutely certain that the amazingly talented Freddie Merecury had an incredible voice, and science has only once again confirmed how truly original he was.

On September 5, 2018, the legendary singer Freddie Mercury could have turned 72 years old. It is noteworthy that the musician himself was sure that he would not live to see these years.

And if all people, as a rule, dream of living as long as possible and even look for ways to prolong their youth, this is what Mercury said:

“I have absolutely no desire to live to be 70 years old. I think this is a very boring activity. "

Someone believes that with such a bold statement, he himself predicted his fate. But it is worth noting that almost all legendary people died very early.

Until now, research related to the life and work of Freddie Mercury continues, and his exceptional talent has been scientifically proven. In 2016, a group of scientists from the Czech Republic conducted research related to the singer's vocal range. Its results are impressive!

For example, scientists have established that Mercury was a baritone, but became famous as a tenor. His vocal range was over 3 but less than 4 octaves. While operatic baritones usually have voices within 2 octaves.

The opera singer Montserrat Caballe, who performed with him as a duet, was amazed to learn that Freddie was her longtime fan and collected her CDs. An even greater discovery was that he is not just a talented musician, but also a person who seriously studied music.

When Montserrat asked Mercury why he didn’t sing with his beautiful baritone at performances, the singer joked that in this case his fans would not come to his concerts.

The incredible popularity of Freddie Mercury is explained not only by his unique vocals. He possessed a strong, crazy energy. On stage, Freddie created a vivid, memorable image, which, combined with his talent, gave fans great pleasure from each concert.

Here's what the musician said about his life and death:

“If I am destined to die tomorrow, I will not regret anything. I have done everything I could in this life "

And, indeed, he did everything he could and even more, completely giving himself to the stage. Many years have passed since his death, but his memory will always be alive!

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Freddie Mercury's farewell song - "Mother's Love"

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The legend that Mercury could beat dishes with his voice on high notes was launched by Queen bassist John Deacon.
In the spring of this year, two seemingly unrelated events took place: according to the results of a survey of listeners of Radio Luxemburg (it is believed that this music radio station most accurately reflects the tastes of the “average European”), he was recognized as the best singer of the 20th century Freddie Mercury, more than 30 percent of the respondents voted for him. Elvis Presley, ranked second in the ranking, received just under 15 percent of the vote. And on the Internet auction eBay was sold a very strange tape recording. That is, at first glance, there was nothing special about it: slightly creaking, an instrumental piece of some jazz orchestra sounds on the tape. And somewhere in the second minute of the recording, a man's voice is clearly audible: “Damn it, how long can I call you! It's time to get to work! "
As it turned out, it was a recording made in 1972 by Norman Sheffield, owner of the Trident recording studio. He was re-recording the Count Basie Orchestra's vinyl record when he was called to work in the studio. And the man who barked so that the sound vibrations of his voice were transmitted to the arm of the turntable and recorded on a magnetic tape - Freddie.
Then in 1972, Queen recorded their first disc in London's Trident, and the owner of the studio decided to take a break from work for that re-recording. But just imagine (or even better, try it yourself) how strong the voice must be in order to mechanically influence the work of the "turntable"!
The legend that Mercury could beat dishes with his voice with his voice was launched by Queen bassist John Deacon: in his first interviews, and then in his author's article for Record Collector magazine, Deacon claims that at least twice “Freddie uttered a cry of such force and volume that crystal glasses burst on the table. "
And although, except for him, no one confirms these facts, Queen and Freddie fans do not doubt them. The range of Freddie Mercury's voice was four octaves, which is twice as wide as the voice of an average person, and with three octaves one can already think of a singer's career. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the American singer Tim Storms holds the palm for men - six octaves, the Brazilian Georgia Brown holds a female record of eight octaves. But as the famous vocal teacher Janet Edwards (her clients include Leona Lewis, Mariah Carey and Mel C) says, “With training, the range is brought to three octaves, with four you can only be born. Relatively speaking, from two octaves to three one step, from three to four - the distance as from the Earth to the Moon. "
In the case of Freddie Mercury, the main thing, according to Edwarts, is not the range of voice and not even his strength, but the production, or rather, its complete absence!
“Unlike most rock singers, Mr. Mercury sang in what is called a long belly breath,” explains Edwards. “This is the school of opera singing.
But Freddie learned this technique on his own, and since he never had his own teacher, his manner is far from ideal, but it is precisely in this, so to speak, defectiveness that lies his charm and uniqueness.
In rock music, singers sing with their chest and sing in short phrases, and Mercury demonstrated the so-called continuous exhalation, we hear this in Barcelona and Bohemian Rhapsody. How does it differ from, say, Mr. Ian Gillan? In his youth, the Deep Purple singer also knew how to strike high notes, but those were just notes in the upper register, and Freddie Mercury sang the lyrics at these extreme heights, articulated phrases. " The only rock singer, according to Edwards, who tried to work in the manner of Freddie, is Rob Halford of Judas Priest, "but his small voice, compared to Freddie, lets him down."
It is interesting that Freddie Mercury himself did not consider his voice unique and certainly did not boast about it. As Brian May recalls, “in 1986 we were rehearsing 'A Kind Of Magic' for a concert at Wembley, and Freddie suddenly resisted: 'You play too high, I can't take it!' We say that we play in the usual key, that he sang like that a hundred times, and he: "Well, to hell with you, sing it yourself!" Roger and I sang, and then he mocked our bleating for a whole year. "
How unique Freddie was, it became clear when Queen was invited to sing Paul Rogers: a three and a half octave voice, seemingly a worthy receiver, but ... Breathing, and breathing again! Rogers sings Queen's songs the way any professional rocker would sing them - with feeling, with excellent afterburner and even uses the so-called non-closure of the ligaments (a difficult technique of throat singing), but the effect “There is no continuous exhalation!
As Robbie Williams, who at one time also auditioned for Freddt's place, said, “all of us, in comparison with him, are ordinary mourners of rock, we can do a lot of things, we even feel his presence behind us. But to sing like him is not given to anyone, it is better not to try. "
The great Luciano Pavarotti once said: “I was tempted to sing“ Another One Bites The Dustu ”, and I even began to rehearse this piece, and suddenly I discovered that in the second verse I was constantly drawn to falsetto! I listened to the original and made sure that Freddie Mercury sang this piece not in falsetto - high, but not in falsetto. It is very difficult, almost impossible, I know only two or three tenors who could repeat it. "
This is also a rather strange conclusion - if only because Freddie is considered not a tenor, but a baritone, but who in his right mind would argue with Pavarotti!
But the most surprising thing is, perhaps, in whom Mercury was guided at the beginning of his singing career - this is John Lennon!
According to Freddie, Lennon's vocal part in "Twist And Shout" is "the ultimate dreams of a rock singer, a standard of expressiveness and expression, or to sing or not sing at all!"

INTERESTING FACTS

★ It is believed that the person with the widest range of voices was the American vaudeville performer Charles Kellogg (1868-1949): judging by the records left after him, the range of voice was 12.5 octaves, he could imitate birdsong and went to ultrasound (14 thousand Hertz ).
★ According to some experts, Freddie's voice had qualities "inherent in the voices of the great Italian castrated singers of the 17th-18th centuries: a wide range, equal strength in the upper and lower registers, the ability to change timbre coloration."
★ According to Brian May, Freddie easily sang the part from Sergei Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil, which uses the lowest note of all the world's choral singing.
★ Freddie Mercury was one of the few major league rock singers who never used a vocal coach / coach.

Ksenia POLINA