If A Baritone Married A Contralto And They Produced A Male Child?
Would the child most likely be:
1. a Base? 2. a Tenor? 3. a Falsetto? 4. a tone-death auto mechanic? 5. or whatever your imagination can come up with?
It’s just a fun question not to be taken seriously, but I have, over the years, noticed that the offspring of gifted, creative people seldom inherent the gifts of their parents. With the exception of families like the Wyeth’s (who have produced a long line of noted artists) or the Bach or Strauss composers, it is rare indeed.
So the real question here is: How many offspring of noted composers, singers, etc. can you name who have carried on, or even surpassed, their parents in a related field?
And to play fair you can't use the names I've already mentioned.
?2011-11-01T11:30:43Z
Favorite Answer
If a baritone & contralto had a child you'd get Brad Roberts of Crash Test Dummies. LOL!
http://youtu.be/yhuPiBZHvLE
How many offspring of noted composers, singers, etc. can you name who have carried on, or even surpassed, their parents in a related field? Not very many I'm afraid, & who outshines who is subjective really. Liza Minnelli daughter of Judy Garland comes to mind. Domenico Scarlatti might have out edged his father Alessandro. Maybe Arlo Guthrie son of Woody Guthrie. Both of Sammy Davis Jr. parents were in Vaudeville. George Harrison's father, Dhani Harrison was a musician. Ricky Nelson's father Ozzie was a bandleader. Marty Paich was the father of David Paich, an original member of Toto. Norah Jones is Ravi Shankar’s daughter. Rufus Wainwright's father was Loudon Wainwright. Nat King Cole was father to Natalie, but she doesn't come close to his popularity. Julio Iglesias is the father of Enrique Iglesias.
Vocal timbre is determined by the shape of your vocal tract from above the vocal folds to your mouth, and vocal classification is determined by the length and shape of the vocal folds and attending muscles.
Therefore, unless both parents have a recessive tenor or coloratura gene somewhere in their family tree, odds are the kid will be a bass, baritone, or a combination of both. Ü
Now for the fun part. In the opera world, the only example I can think of right now where a child followed in the parent's footsteps is Montserrat Marti, daughter of Montserrat Caballe, a soprano who does everything from Lucia to Turandot, and Bernabe Marti, a tenor who also seemed to do almost everything. Now the daughter is a leggera, which may seem weird at first, but if you listen more closely to Caballe, you'll notice that her basic sound, or her core, is actually rather slim. What makes her able to sing dramatic roles - aside from fabulous technique, of course - is the resonance or padding provided by her, well, padding. Even at her thinnest she was still twice her daughter's size.
Oh wait, I just thought of another, possibly better example!
The Garcia family! Manuel Garcia, Sr. - baritenor. His wife (don't know her name) - soprano Manuel Garcia, Jr. - baritone Maria Malibran - mezzo-soprano with formidable upper extension Pauline Viardot - mezzo-soprano
Hmm. Actually, that's probably a worse example, since during that time they didn't make distinctions between contraltos, mezzos, and sopranos - women sang everything they wanted to. haha But I think it would be safe to say that the children equalled their parents, and in the case of Maria Malibran, even surpassed them.
Well I hope that was fun for you. Obviously it was fun for me. haha
I'm going with either a 'basso', or possibly a bass-baritone - i.e. "Wotan", in Wagner's Ring cycle.
Though neither of the following two surpassed their more accomplished relative predecessor, they are still noteworthy, in their own right.
Siegfried Wagner, Richard Wagner's son, was a rather prolific composer; but nothing he wrote even begins to compare with that of his father; here's a You Tube video performance of his Prelude to "Sonnenflammen" - not great, but 'not bad' either, IMHO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SsULYf9VDc&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLDA8ED39717480F28
Christoph von Dohnanyi who has become a conductor of note during our time, was the grandson of Ernst von Dohnanyi, a noted composer and conductor, of his; here's his best known work: "The Variations on a Nursery Song": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv6xJBWnJMw
I found one research paper that could help you out: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0892199704001559 The study basically says that identical twins will have essentially the same vocal qualities with only very minor variations, which means voice is largely genetic. However I wasn't able to find anything in the scientific literature that linked vocal qualities to X or Y chromosomes or dominant or recessive genes.