Hardest Song You've Ever Had to Sing...

So yeah, I just got finished doing a concert of Bernstein Music... and... we did a medley from MASS...

and, I had to sing Fraction: Things Get Broken, and I have to say... it was definitely the hardest song I have EVER had to sing. It has a HUGE range, and it is almost 15 minutes long. And, you have to act it out... AND it has to be JUST right or it doesn't make any sense.

hardest song i had to sing was any song i have to sing because i DONT sing :P

"The Oldest Established" from Guys and Dolls is really hard to perform the first time. My high school just performed that musical, and I was one of the crapshooters. It is sooo hard, because, like "Fraction" you have to act while you're doing it, and the tenor line is insanely high to sing after you've just been jumping around the stage and carrying a guy on your shoulders. I think musical theater composers purposely write music like that to give the performers a workout :P

and the tenor line is insanely high to sing after you've just been jumping around the stage and carrying a guy on your shoulders.

How high is it?

"Qual Guerriero en Campo Armato," by Broschi... is the hardest thing I've ever sang (which I'm currently working on, btw). There are 4 leaps of a 7th in quick succession (which lead up to a high C), endless scales and arpeggios, a really mean part where one has to practically trill between high G and the C in the middle of the treble clef, a section where there are leaps of a 10th, and to top it all off, at the very end of the song, there's a 30 measure run that ends with a soprano B to the B in the middle of the treble clef that repeats itself 5 times.... That's the A section... but the B section is really easy.... and this is all in chest or middle voice (my teacher would kill me if I used falsetto).... this is what I get for being a soprano.

Some song from phantom of the opera. I sung the phantom's part for that particular song. It goes insanely high for a baritone and is sustained for about 20 seconds. I had to cut it to about ten though to make it possible. ;)

Some song from phantom of the opera. I sung the phantom's part for that particular song. It goes insanely high for a baritone and is sustained for about 20 seconds. I had to cut it to about ten though to make it possible. ;)

Sounds like "Music of the Night". It's the musical theatre equivalent of the Prologue to Pagliacci when it comes to high baritone parts.

Samuel Barber: M

Well I never had any true difficulty singing when I had a really good voice, but probably Credeasi Misera, from I Puritani.

How high is it?

I have a feeling it goes to about a G above the staff and stays there for a long time. I don't have the music anymore, so it's tough to tell.

The one I'm studying at the moment for my HSC... the Telephone Aria from Menotti's opera, "The Telephone". It's scarily fun to sing - basically a coloratura ditz singing a one-sided phone conversation - but staccato between high A and C? A gliss running to a sustained high D, and then a chromatic run downwards? I know I'm not a coloratura or anywhere near good enough to be considered thus, so I don't know why I'm singing it - but it's so much fun!

One of my other pieces is rather avant-garde; nearly completely atonal (ever tried singing one atonal melody to an atonal accompaniment?) and the voice part is half spoken and filled with odd quirks like note bends and Sprechstimme. It's just hard to get out of the classical mindspace and into this weird piece.

I must say, this year my choir at school did Carmina Burana, and that is hard to sing. Its that the rythems or anything is hard, its the fact that you need so much energy for 25 movements and the range for all the singers is insane.

I was blessed to sing it, but i was hard!!

The Competition Duet from The Four Note Opera.

Basically, it's the tenor and soprano trying to one-up the other on a simple four-note phrase that gets more and more complex.

Also "Flying Home" from Songs for a New World. Full-voiced high Fs for the tenor.

(By the way, the Phantom's part in Phantom of the Opera is considered a tenor role. And it's not very high - only an Ab. Nor is a high G. The hard part of the Phantom's songs, and indeed most of that show, is that Andrew Lloyd Weber put his high notes on awkward words.)

(By the way, the Phantom's part in Phantom of the Opera is considered a tenor role. And it's not very high - only an Ab. Nor is a high G. The hard part of the Phantom's songs, and indeed most of that show, is that Andrew Lloyd Weber put his high notes on awkward words.)

that's not how I'd categorize that action... but I know there are still people here who LIKE A.L.W.

Also "Flying Home" from Songs for a New World. Full-voiced high Fs for the tenor.

/QUOTE]

Ah, how I long for the times when those were a piece of cake to me... :P

Full voiced high Fs on the top line of the treble staff (not 8va down) shouldn't be easy for any male!

Except pre-pubescent ones...

And castrati.... yes, I was generalizing.

definitely 'litergies a la vierge noire' by poulenc, for a choir, it starts on unpredictable notes and moves suddenly to completely unrelated keys. and for solo soprano, the hardest i've ever had to sing was a recit and aria from wagner's 'siegreid'.

Full voiced high Fs on the top line of the treble staff (not 8va down) shouldn't be easy for any male!

Probably "For The Flowers Are Great Blessings," the tenor aria from "Rejoice In The Lamb" by Benjamin Britten.

It sits rather high and must be sung slowly and very legato and sustained, with great beauty and expressiveness. A well trained singer can readily fulfill a few of those demands, but it's exceedingly difficult to do it all. Of course, I believe it was written for Sir Peter Pears, who in his prime was abundantly capable of singing it exceeding well. I'm still not convinced I sang it as it deserves, but I did my best. I never want to sing it again.

Argento: I Hate and I Love

so hard to tune and just the parts in general!!!

But such a great piece!

Dominic has a Doll - Vincent Persichetti.

It really isn't too hard, except getting it right is a worry.

The highest note in the piece is a G above the staff (an octave above the G above middle C).

Im a male tenor...well, for that particular choir I was...and boy did I strain. He said we could go falsetto...but uhmm...haha, my falsetto is TOO good...like I sound like a woman. Really. Not even lying. Ill record it one day. But it's like...boy soprano.

Sooo embarrasing. So I just sang that song with strain in my voice. Wasn't the prettiest sound, but I could get it...with a red face.

Are you sure you don't just mean the G above middle C? I don't see why he'd write that an octave up for a choir - it'd be ludicrous.

Are you sure you don't just mean the G above middle C? I don't see why he'd write that an octave up for a choir - it'd be ludicrous.

no, i mean the tenor part sung that high in the last bars of the piece (the climactic end).

it was really centered around middle c for a majority of it...but yes, it climbed up to 2 G's above middle C.

Ill write the lyrics too, its based off an E.Cummings Poem.

Dominc has a doll

Wired to the radiator of his zoom doom

ice coal wood truck

A whistful little clown

who somebody buried,

upside down, in an ash barrel.

So of course

Dominic took him home

and Mrs Dominic washed his sweet dirty face

and mended his bright torn trousers

(quite as if he were really her...and she but.)

and SO thats how Dominic has a doll.

Dominic has a doll

and every now and then

my wonderful friend

dominic de paola

Gives me a most tremendous hug *this is where we got to 2 F's above middle C (top of treble stave).

Knowing, I feel that

(that G i talked about) We and worlds are less alive than dolls

And dream.

so yes.