The Bass Sound in a Male Voice

"You know, there's nothing like a male voice choir; the bass sound in a male voice choir is very rousing, I think." Richard Armitage,  DIY Interview

I have to agree that there's nothing like a male bass voice and Armitage has that male bass voice that is very rousing indeed.  

Thorin and the Dwarves singing the Misty Mountains song in the first Hobbit movie has inspired other bass voices as well:

"Misty Mountains Cold" from The Hobbit, live by the U.S. Marines from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar

I have an earlier post somewhere on the blog that was inspired by an earlier interview when Richard Armitage talked about the Russian  male choir, and I talked a bit about my family history listening to Russian male army choirs. I grew up in a family that loves the arts and so I grew up going to all sorts of live performances, including the opera. Several members of my family were big opera fans and as a child and even later, I tagged along for many wonderful performances. If only I would have appreciated it more at the time, but I certainly appreciate the memories now. 

Though not an opera fan like some of my relatives, I have a few favorite operas and favorite arias, and have always appreciated the bass voice more than the tenors. Here are two of my favorite arias, one performed by a male choir and the other by a great opera bass singer of an earlier generation.

Welsh Male Choir Nessun Dorma from Puccini's  Opera Turandot 

Italo Tajo "Madamina, il catalogo è questo"  The Catalogue Aria, Don Giovanni  

Richard Armitage can relate to the "mille et tre" with his growing legion of fans.

We have to remember that Richard is a musician and knows much better than I the power of music. I have my hopes up that we'll hear him sing more in the next Hobbit film this December.  

I also started volunteering for arts and performing arts groups at an early age, when I was in High School and later college. I remember volunteering for a time for the Washington National Opera sorting tickets and mailing them out to subscribers. A group of us would be in a room backstage sorting through all this while the evening's performance was on stage. We could listen to, though not see, the entire opera from loudspeakers in our windowless room. 

Going back to Armitage's comments on the male bass voice and male choirs, below are more examples of the power of the voice and the deepest of male singing voices: 

Russian basso profondo - Russian choir



Serbian basso profondo - low voices of Serbia



Canto Gregoriano - Monjes de Santo Domingo de Silos, Burgos, Spain



In conclusion, my favorite male choir-  Richard Armitage and The Hobbit (Dwarf Cast):

Thank you Richard Armitage for the inspiration. 

From the DIY Interview - the entire quote:

"I suppose an extended version of the boot camp was when all the dwarves went into the studio and started singing. But because I had to work on that little bit of singing on my own, we did work on a sound for him. I didn't want him to sound like he was any kind of trained singer, he was just somebody who had a voice. The dwarves were notoriously good singers though... it was very nerve-wracking! You know, there's nothing like a male voice choir; the bass sound in a male voice choir is very rousing, I think." Richard Armitage

For the entire interview click HERE

Thank you to Richard Armitage Central and RichardArmitagenet.com for the pics/scans.

(apologies in advance to all the opera aficionados for any mistakes in opera terminology)