Deller on the Threshold

May 25, 2011 9:43 PM

The unearthly countertenor of Alfred Deller, and the Deller Consort. "The most visible icon of the countertenor revival in the twentieth century was Alfred Deller, an English singer and champion of authentic early music performance. Deller initially called himself an "alto", but his collaborator Michael Tippett recommended the archaic term "countertenor" to describe his voice. In the 1950s and 60s, his group, the Deller Consort, was important in increasing audiences' awareness (and appreciation) of Renaissance and Baroque music. Deller was the first modern countertenor to achieve fame, and has had many prominent successors." And here in a 4 part interview "on the countertenor voice!" 1 :: 2 :: 3 :: 4
posted by puny human (12 comments total)

I've always admired P.D.Q. Bach's works for bargain counter tenor.
posted by hippybear at 9:53 PM on May 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

and don't miss this rather brilliant six part South Bank documentary on the countertenors -- 1 :: 2 :: 3 :: 4 :: 5
posted by puny human at 10:16 PM on May 25, 2011

"Ai! Ai! Monsieur Deller! Vous ete eunuch!"

"I think you mean unique, Madame"

Thanks for this!
posted by cromagnon at 12:40 AM on May 26, 2011

Wonderful! I saw him in 1963 in Royce Hall at UCLA, and while making such beautiful music, he was supremely entertaining. A true giant. Also try this, this, and this.
posted by carping demon at 1:25 AM on May 26, 2011

Here's a bank of modern countertenor singers on askmetafilter if anyone's interested.
posted by _superconductor at 3:44 AM on May 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

Lots of pop countertenors in that very good list, hippybear, but if anyone's interested in classical performers, you can have David Daniels, Philippe Jaroussky, Ian Howell, Brian Asawa, and of course, Andreas Scholl.
posted by sinnesloeschen at 3:59 AM on May 26, 2011

Only the tiniest aural margin separates a beautifully enjoyable countertenor like Deller from dry chalk scraping on a blackboard. I wonder what it is? A countertenor is either really great or deeply annoying. You can enjoy a mediocre tenor or soprano singing Bach -- after all it's still Bach -- but anything less than the tippy-top shelf of countertenors (a sparsely populated shelf) is unbearable. Why is that?
posted by Faze at 4:30 AM on May 26, 2011

Oh man, gonna have to come back and listen to all this later. Thanks for posting.
posted by immlass at 6:50 AM on May 26, 2011

Lots of pop countertenors in that very good list, hippybear

I neither made nor linked any list of anything in this thread. I'm terribly confused.
posted by hippybear at 7:26 AM on May 26, 2011

Very nice, but he's no Vitas.
posted by wittgenstein at 8:57 AM on May 26, 2011

Here's a bank of modern countertenor singers on askmetafilter if anyone's interested.

Isn't a countertenor more like a guy with a very high chest voice than someone who can sing in a sustained falsetto, as many of the people on that list seem to be?
posted by kenko at 10:14 AM on May 26, 2011

My favourite Deller track: Esurientes implevit bonis from Bach's Magnificat in D.
posted by cbrody at 1:06 PM on May 27, 2011