[78-L] Sing, Baby, Sing

[Harold Aherne]

My two centimes: I never base my judgment of a singer on whether they conform
to a particular genre or not, as even their existence can legitimately be questioned 
at times! Consider the studio performers at Victor from around 1910 to the early 30s--
are Olive Kline and Elsie Baker opera stars, concert performers, or pop singers
who sing in a manner associated with opera and operetta? Well, probably a little
of all three. I don't know that either ever sang an opera role on an opera stage, although
I suspect they had the talent to do so. Their repertoire on Victor is not terribly different
from many of Alma Gluck's selections, who she did sing opera for a while and
was granted Red Seal status, although she preferred the concert stage. And singers
like Kline, Baker, Lambert Murphy, Reinald Werrenrath, and sometimes even Lucy
Isabelle Marsh did their duties on the black label, singing the latest Broadway hits
(Marsh and Werrenrath are two of the select group to have appeared on black, blue, and
red Victor labels). Now, what was their genre again?
 
The apples and oranges argument does not convince me; apples and oranges certainly
can be compared--the point of debate is how productive such a comparison might be. I
have enormous respect for the talents of Lambert Murphy and Marvin Gaye, although
their respective gifts seem to be disparate enough to limit how much one might glean
from comparing them. What they both have in common are beautiful voices (however
we might define them), an ability to instill meaning into the words they sing (however
that works), and a captivating presence on their discs (equally hard to define). 
 
I also don't really think that certain singers interpret lyrics while others merely sing 
them. *Any* rendition is an interpretation in at least some way. We might well argue that
Bing Crosby and Connee Boswell "play" with the lyrics and their phrasing in a way that
Lambert Murphy or Franklyn Baur rarely do, but advocating the former methods assumes
that playing with the lyrics is always inherently good while those who do not are defective
singers in some way--or that they belong a different genre (that pesky word!). 
 
Personally, I love Nellie Melba, Nora Bayes, Annette Hanshaw, and Janis Joplin, while Rosemary Clooney's performances always leave me aghast and filled with horror. The 
reasons behind this may be as idiosyncratic and inexplicable as they would be for
any other person and lead us back to a Latin cliche: De gustibis, non disputandum est.
 
-Harold