Klaus Nomi, Countertenor - Hisotrical and Musicological Background [View all]

[panfluteman]

I was dismayed to see that the discussion thread on the Klaus Nomi video was locked, because I wanted to give some important background historical and musicological information on Klaus Nomi and what he was doing that none of the respondents seemed to be aware of. This material that I am providing here will put Klaus Nomi in the proper context, to facilitate a greater appreciation for what he is doing.

Klaus Nomi as a singer is actually doing nothing new. He is singing in the tradition of the Countertenor, which is actually a male singer, who is NOT castrated or physiologically / anatomically altered in any way, who has developed a high, quai-falsetto voice to the point where it has the power and beauty of a female singer. Before women were allowed to sing in choirs, boys, whose voices had not yet changed, sang the top or soprano part, and grown men sang the other parts - not just tenor and bass, as is now done, but the alto part as well. In fact the word "alto", which is literally Latin for "high" is an abbreviation of "contratenor altus", or the "high holding together part". Actually, the composer Handel, when he wrote the Messiah, did not originally write the alto part for women singers, but for male countertenors, of which Klaus Nomi is an outstanding example. Even some of the beautiful Arias or Airs for a lower female voice, which are from Handel's Messiah were originally sung by countertenors. A variation on and abbreviation of the old Latin term of Contratenor Altus is the word "Contralto", which is basically another term for the Alto vocal part.

The video of Klaus Nomi that was originally posted was of him singing an Aria by the early English composer Henry Purcell. What is not generally known about Henry Purcell was that he himself sang Countertenor - and so, naturally, he wrote a lot of music for that voice. One of my favorite recordings of old English baroque music is that of the English Countertenor Alfred Deller singing a suite by Henry Purcell entitled, "Come, Come Ye Sons of Art", complete with the backup of a full baroque chamber orchestra.

In the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods, the professional theater, music and entertainment worlds were not considered a proper and fitting lifestyle for a woman, and so, you had boys or men filling in for women whenever it came to singing in a high voice. In high opera, Castratti, or castrated men singers, often sang the female roles, impersonating women not only in their voices, but also in their acting and mannerisms.