I love Christmas carols, and this week I’ve been listening to different versions of the song ‘O Holy Night’.
Now, if you’ve ever had to sing this song, you’ll know it’s a tricky one. There’s more ways to butcher it than to do it justice.
When you hear the same song sung by different people, you can start to get a better understanding of the demands of the song itself. In turn, you can also start to hear how different singers leverage their vocal abilities across a given song.
Domingo and Pavarotti
This is being sung in Eb. This places the top notes, the “money notes” on a G, and they both take a Bb for later climaxes. Note that both of these singers in their prime could take notes MUCH higher than this, and yet they have opted for this key – why? Because it gets the melody to lay across the voice in a very favourable way. The G is a critical note for any great tenor, and the Bb is a lovely but not back-breaking option to have.
David Phelps
David Phelps is an excellent tenor in the US. He is famous for having sung with Christian group the Gaither Vocal band, and has an excellent instrument. He actually sings this in F (a whole tone higher than Pavarotti and Domingo), and THEN does a key change to Gb.
Phelps can be overly wide on many vowels, but he is so fortunate with his instrument that he can (unlike most mere mortals) get away with this. It’s still a truly impressive performance.
Josh Groban
This is in B, so 4 semitones lower than Pavarotti/Domingo, and 6/7 lower than Phelps… and yet, it doesn’t suffer for it at all. Sure, it maybe isn’t as bombastic as Phelps’ version, and it maybe lacks the sheer power of Pavarotti/Domingo, but then very few of us could deliver that, whatever key we happened to be in.
Conclusion
I really enjoy all of these versions. All the singers have put themselves in a key and arrangement they feel comfortable in, and each rendition has it’s charms. If there’s anything to take away from this week’s article (beyond me hoping you enjoyed these performances) is that there is no prize for singing a difficult song in the original key, or the same key as some other singer… there is only a prize for sounding good. Pick the right key to let your voice shine, and the audience ears and your voice will thank you for it!