Judy Garland
Vocal Type: Middle-weight contralto
Vocal Range: 2 Octaves 3 notes (D3-G5)
Tessitura: E3-Bb4
Whistle Register: No
Vocal Pluses:A fantastically identifiable voice – best known for her roles at MGM Studios, but also for her extensive back-catalogue; the entire voice has a warm, rich, incredibly velvety quality.
The low notes, encompassing a D3 [Old Man River] have a darkness that pervades much of the voice, and as most contraltos tend to, this part of the voice seems incredibly easy for Judy to hit both from the beginning of her career [F3 in Over the Rainbow original] until the end.
The middle range, starting at about B3 and up until Ab4, had that same richness, only now with more variations for volume than the lower range offered. Her voice sat incredibly easily in this part of the voice, and didn’t show any signs of fatigue even into her later years [Judy and Liza at the Palladium].
The high range, when executed using a ‘belting’ technique as she did through most of her later career, had an incredible capacity for power and dramatic highs, though they generally had to be built up to in the later section of a song. The belting range could be taken up to D5 [Get Happy], and the same rich and full tone that the rest of the voice had stands true in the high range, even moreso than the middle. She also showed in her earlier years that she could mix her voice brilliantly [White Christmas, Where There’s Music), thereby getting a sweeter, less overpowering sound, which she used in later years as well, though less frequently. When Judy decided to use head voice, though rarely displayed, it still shone with surprising brilliance and ease [Opera Spoof], encompassing at least G5 if not higher. The head voice lost no tone or warmth, taking on a nearly operatic quality that was incredibly full and bright.
Overall, though she is renowned for being an emotive singer, her technique was quite brilliant, and that she could even sing by the late 60s given her use of drugs and alcohol is quite amazing.
Vocal Negatives: The voice in later years began to lose some of the ease that her younger self had, though this is due in part to ageing, drug/alcohol abuse, and a natural lowering of the voice after her 20s. Some found her style of singing to be too abrasive and blaring, though this is entirely a personal taste.
Thanks so much to Marty M for putting this together!!
*I'll add some audio clips at some point, but here is a documentary about the singer for now:
She was a lower set mezzo, I'd say a very sizable lyric mezzo soprano.
ReplyDeleteNothing about her voice suggests contralto, not even a hint of an androgynous texture.
Her voice is more cavernous than anything.
DD, did you get my email for Hailey Reinhart?
ReplyDeleteI always thought of her as a dark, lower mezzo as well. But I think people view her informally as a contralto since she would be a choral "alto" and sang in a tessitura consistent with contraltos.
ReplyDeleteShe's one of those people that are viewed as contraltos on the basis of range, in my opinion. Because there seems to be a misconception that contraltos are these very limited singers because of them have a lower tessitura.
ReplyDeleteWell, I think she started as more of a mezzo, but progressively acquired the tone of a contralto, especially in her last decade. Her voice during the Judy Garland Show onward had the darkness and androgyny expected of a contralto, as well as a size larger than a lyric, but not quite a dramatic voice.
ReplyDeleteHow nice to see a profile of Judy. Thank you Marty ( whomever you are ;-) )
ReplyDeleteYaaaaaay Oh my goodness, Miss Judy Garland! My childhood :D Thank you Marty who are ever you may be thank you, thank you very much, from the bottom of my ever beating heart. Oh god you don't know how happy i am right now xD.
ReplyDeleteGod I meant to say *who ever you are* sorry the computer I'm currently using is a dinosaurs and has a couple bugs :/
ReplyDeleteI'M SO GLAD THIS FINALLY GOT PUT ON HERE. Judy garland is my favorite singer of all time. I look up to her for everything. Emotion, performance, belt, everything. She was a true vocalist. DD or Marty M check her version On The Sunny Side of the street. She pops into head voice at the end.
ReplyDeleteAlso she was not a natural contralto. Her voice when she was 16 (wizard of oz era) had a soprano/mezzo sound.
ReplyDeleteYay, Judy! I'm glad you put up a profile of a non-pop diva :)
ReplyDeletewhat do you mean a natural contralto? isn't it natural for the voice to change especially in the puberty stage?
ReplyDeleteWhat i should've said is even when her voice did mature it was more of a mezzo voice not a contralto. Though i feel after A Star Is Born her voice did lower tone wise due to her smoking and drinking. She might've ended up a contralto but was not a natural.
ReplyDeleteSuch a beautiful voice so underrated.
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She's a coloratura / lyric contralto.
ReplyDeleteTo be a coloratura, she would need to have a lot of flexibility and ability to execute incredibly fast vocal runs and trills, which she never showed. To be a lyric contralto, you need less power, and more finesse, which though she had in plenty, her voice bloomed and grew incredibly large and powerful when she ascended to dramatic highs. In a sense, that defines the 'spinto' voice type - lyric as a default, but with incredibly powerful highs when required, and because there's no such name as 'spinto contralto' (though it makes perfect sense that all voice types have more than two/three vocal weights), that's what Judy was. On the lighter side, but she blew out some microphones in her time.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit confused. The profile states they her mid voice starts at b3 and extends up to g#4. It also states she is a contralto, but all below E/F3 for contraltos are low notes and G3 up is where the middle modal voice sits. The same can be said for low-mezzos. B3 is a bit high for her mid voice to start there considering her tessitura.
ReplyDeleteIf she is a higher contralto/low mezzo, I believe her mid voice will start around F#3/G3.
You used the words "incredibly" and "incredible" five times in that profile :)
ReplyDeleteIf DD would reply to my email id be happy to make a liza minnelli profile:)
ReplyDeleteJudy Rules.... STILL! There are amazing voices out there in the world but nothing like Judy. When she performed live at Carnegie Hall at age 41... she was flawless and never sounded better. Her voice was Divine. Listen to a recording of it, especially "Zing Went the Strings and Chicago" and it is nothing short of something I read several years back. It read; "When Judy sings, God speaks." I could not agree more.
ReplyDeleteShe is so underrated as a vocalist. No one ever takes into account what she can do with her voice. She was amazing. There will never be another Judy Garland.
ReplyDeleteI think the greatest vocalists were all influenced by her in some way...I mean, everybody knows "somewhere over the rainbow".
ReplyDeleteWhere did her voice resonate the mask, or the head?
ReplyDeleteNow that we have a Judy profile how about one for Eydie Gorme? She was just as amazing as judy
ReplyDeleteAdd her daughter, Liza Minneli on here, she's amazing!
ReplyDeleteWhat you said actually makes perfect sense, I never thought of it like that. So, in that case, would you say that Whitney's voice deteriorated from a Spinto Soprano to a "Spinto Mezzo" after 1995? Or did she just become a Dramatic Mezzo? I tend to think that she became a full Lyric Mezzo with a steely edge because her voice stilled possessed lyrical attributes. But I think I'm wrong...!?!
ReplyDeleteAlso, is mariah carey still a light lyric soprano, even today?
Whitney's voice deteriorated downwards due to drugs and alcohol, true. I would have called her a middle-mezzo by the end, though perhaps lyric would have been more accurate, as her voice lacked any power whatsoever in the last few years. Judy's was an unusual case where drugs and alcohol did break her voice, but even in her last years, she still sang with absolutely strange amounts of power in a low, almost masculine voice.
ReplyDeleteMariah's voice is quite special, as it hasn't decayed so much as it has become constricted due to nodulation. She's still a light-lyric soprano, yes, because that's where her voice still sits and sounds at its best, for were she to remove her nodes, her voice would bounce back to the light, girly tone of the 90s, albeit with slight darkening and mellowing out.
Did Babs copied Judy's styling? i hear similarities but im not that familiar with judy's catalogue much
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't think she "copied" anybody.I'd say Barbra's styling is unique.
ReplyDeleteJudy's styling I would think was pretty much the general styling of singers of her generation.
But I would think any singer is naturally inspired and somewhat influenced by the singing they grew up listening to.
One of the difference between the great and the very good singer imo lies in them not being guilty of "copying".