Vocal Type: Robusto Soprano
Vocal Range: 2 Octaves 7 notes and a semitone E3-D6
Whistle Register: No
Vocal Pluses: Voice is strongest in the midrange and in the lower chest register (up to a D5). Unusually the chest voice retains its power, volume and strength despite its timbre thinning somewhat as it pushes higher. As a whole, the voice is a dynamic one that can be oppressive and domineering one moment, and soft and sweet the next. It has the dexterity to sing complex melodies and vocal runs, but also the stamina to hold notes, while maintaining its quality, at length.
Vocal Negatives: The lack of vibrato sometimes makes the higher chest notes sound too sharp and piercing, thus becoming overbearing at times.
G#3( on the word "and")
Chest notes:C5
E5(Background vocals.)
F5
F#5
G5
Head voice:A5
D6
E5
I think there is a mistake here. Björk's vocal range is wider. She can go lower than G3 in Oceania (in songs like Pneumonia -in the verse "to not want them around anyMORE"- or Isobel -in the verse "tiniest SPARK"-). I couldn't tell which notes are but I can definetly tell they are lower. I think she has whistle register, if you listen to some live performances such as It's oh so quiet or Gotham Lullaby(Coachella), she makes this very high note like a bat. So check this out!
ReplyDeletehello anon! thanks for commenting! I've found the note you were talking about and have added it, but its only a semitone lower.
ReplyDeleteAs for Bjork going higher, I'm inclined to believe you as her foray into the head voice is well noted as being a technique she implements more in her live performances. I wonder if any readers out there can direct me to any live performances were she goes higher than an d6!
Hello Anon,
ReplyDeleteI think Bjork can hit a G5 pretty easily. It's in the middle (it doesn't traditionally seem to be a bridge, does it?) of Hunter and in Sod Off. I've also heard her hit some nifty A5's in the background vocals of Ancestors.I hope my vocal parsing is accurate enough, hehe. Check the full-length version of those songs on YouTube, I bet they're fully available.
Also, Muffin Man, I would like to ask: are the high notes at the end of Pagan Poetry products of her head voice? Her voice is kept full even so high in her range that the notes are deceptively an expansion of her chest voice. Ditto for the climactic notes in Kata Rokkar, a track on her only vocal jazz album,Gling Glo.
ReplyDeleteI'm really sure that she has a wider voice, maybe 3 octaves cause she hit those chest notes so easily like in Bachelorette and Pagan Poetry~
ReplyDeleteI couldn't find the G5 in "Hunter" or "Sod off"- they sounded a semitone or so under. I did however find the A5-head voice- and a G5- which is uncontrolled- in Kata Rockkar. I think listening to the instability of these notes it seems unlikely that Bjorks range stems past them much further, but will post them anyway. Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteNow that I think more about it, does her powerful robusto soprano voice presuppose a limited vocal range? I'm not too sure anymore. Her vocal instability, though, has always been a non-issue to me, but technically it does posit a chief problem in pretty much all respects. Yes, it's possible that her chest range stops short of a good G#5 or perhaps an A5 (you still need to listen to the notes at the end of Pagan Poetry, in the apex of So Broken, in the background of Ancestors which as it appears is missing from YouTube lest you get to find it on Grooveshark.com). But there's also credence in the idea that she merely may be "flirting" with these "technicalities" with which she isn't bound (I don't think I'm saying she is exempt from scrutiny; it's that she is inextricably doing things her way). I would add that her voice isn't to all tastes in the Vocal Negatives section; then there is the primary speculation that her vocal prowess is uncannily limitless.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day, she is a singular voice, a gifted performer albeit drawn out with subterranean and perhaps naïve technique. Don't let that quibble fool you; I love her to death.
@anon, what with the freedom she uses her voice, I am in no doubt that her range is wider than what is stated. However, even if it turns out that this is her range, it just proves the point that range is not that important to a singer as brilliant, inventive, and as you said, "singular" as Bjork, whose voice is much more than the notes she can hit.
ReplyDeleteHmmm...listening to her low, chest and head notes, I think F#3 is her lowest note that she can touch but I'm really sure that she can catch a high notes.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, I love her! :)
Do you think her notes at the end of this song is mixed chest or head voice?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1Wwbw2gCcA
They are definitely mixed chest.
ReplyDeleteI think she can go higher too. Just haven't found any notes of her doing so.
ReplyDelete[Oops...that should be read as "are* mixed chest...". ] I thought so, too, but I can't be sure. Did she reach an apex of A5 there?
ReplyDelete"it's oh so quiet" live has a whistle register.
ReplyDeleteI can't seem to get the clips to work :(
ReplyDeleteThe hosting site i use is down, hopefully this shall be sorted soon :D
ReplyDeletesorry, but she has 3 octaves REGULAR! Live and issues notes above itshighest note, in the seventh octave ;
ReplyDeleteincluding the person who made this video there, she told me she missed several notes that he forgot to put on and some he did not like (u_____u)
she has a very beautiful music in the E6 'Bath';;not to mention the WHISTLE REGISTER super acquaintances that she always wears !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!in songs like "it's oh so quiet." "pluto". "Human Bahaviour (live)" etc.. and older songs, before the solo!
*---*
As the person who made that video, the only notes I didn't include were the screamed G5's in It's Oh So Quiet and the A5's in Kata Rokkur because they weren't belts. They were screamed falsettos. And the highest note in Bath is G5.
ReplyDeleteOooh she just posted on Facebook cancelling the rest of her tour because she has nodules!!! This is not good, she is one of my fav vocalists....hope she rests herself properly!
ReplyDeleteQueen of Electronic music in my opinion.
ReplyDelete"Homogenic" was a masterpiece, it doesn't even sound like it came from the 90s the production on that album exceeded its time. It sounds ahead of what's done now to be honest.
She has truly pushed the envelope on what is possible in music with each release. She has truly earned the respect she gets.
Exceptional album! Def my favourite album of hers, there is not a dud track on there!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, I'd say Homogenic and Vespertine are two of the best albums she has crafted. I wish she'd go back more so to the style of those albums, but I understand she likes to try new things so more power to her.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the song at 6:18?I can't find it!!
ReplyDeleteDid you guys know that Amy Lee's favorite singer is bjork. Cuz i didn't.
ReplyDeleteE3 to D6 is two octaves six notes. No one can have two octaves and seven notes because that is three octaves. The seventh note is the start of the next octave.
ReplyDeleteShe does seem to briefly enter and quickly descend from the whistle register in her TOTP apearance around 1:45. It's not sustained by any means so it may not count at all here. It's an unusual vocalization to be sure but there seem to be a few pitches in there above the range you have here leading me to wonder if she could develop it a bit more. Voice seems agile enough for the task. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydjE1jz3mlM
ReplyDeleteThe D6 is an scream not head voice
ReplyDeleteThere are E3s in "Pluto",
ReplyDeleteF3s in "Gloomy Sunday",
G5s in "Storm" in mixed chest,
exclaimed C7s in "Delicious Demon", "Blue-Eyed Pop", and "So Broken",
and a run of E7 in "It's Oh, So Quiet" live from the Free Jazz festival in 1996 (accordian version) in the line "Yoooooooooouuuuu'rrreee all alone"
I really could post some pros and cons about her, but I'm too lazy to do so. Maybe later.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of performances of "It's Oh So Quiet" with this kind of note, another example is her performance in Rio de Janeiro during the Festival Free Jazz Festival, around 2:45 you can hear the same note you mentioned. It's so different, looks like a dolphin and I think it tops the seventh octave, but it would be very impressive she could sing with this clarity in seventh octave.
ReplyDelete