Low male voice repertoire in contemporary musical theatre: a studio and performance guide of selected songs 1996-2020 by

Classical Voice 
Musical Theatre Voice 
Convergent resonator – more open near the glottis and 
narrower near the lips. 
A settled larynx* 
A lifted soft palate 
Retain depth, vowel shape, and relative vowel 
closeness to achieve cover/turning over for fullness in 
the upper register 
Active vowel modification for close and mid-close 
vowels to avoid whoop timbre 
Divergent resonator – smaller in the pharynx and more 
open nearer the lips, horizontal mouth shape 
Larynx is in the mid or high positions* 
Narrowed pharynx for belt 
Speech approach to singing is maintained through the 
second passaggio, rather than modified or covered 
Tessitura of songs mostly reside in the speech range of 
the voice 
*While various sources reference these qualities, this is a matter of contention, particularly as there are those with professional 
success whose performances could be analyzed as not having these characteristics while singing in these respective styles 
Data adapted from Kenneth W. Bozeman, Practical Vocal Acoustics (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2013); 
Matthew Hoch, ed., So You Want to Sing CCM (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018), 25-28; Karen Hall, So You 
Want to Sing Musical Theatre (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), 66-74. 
Whoop timbre is a timbral effect – it occurs when the pitch one is singing in falsetto reaches the 
frequency of the first vowel formant. This timbre is characterized as “whoopy”, “hooty”, facilitating a 

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convergent resonator space.
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Pairing the justification for cross-genre training with the characteristics 
describe above, this document pivots to discussing strategies on repertoire selection. The following 
chapters will approach popular music styles found on Broadway from the viewpoint of both classical and 
musical theatre aesthetics and voice pedagogy. 
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Bozeman, Practical Voice Acoustics, 23-24. 

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