Money note

Last updated December 04, 2023

A money note is a music industry slang term which refers to a part of a live or recorded singing performance which is subjectively judged to be very dramatic or emotionally stirring. Created from a confluence of composition or improvisational and performance quality, this is usually at a climactic point of a song or aria, in which the singer's melody makes a large interval jump to the song's highest note (especially for female soprano singers or male tenor or countertenor singers) or falls to its lowest note (especially for male bass or baritone singers). In some cases, a section or phrase of a vocal melody may captivate the listener's interest because of the tone quality of the singing - either because of the strident emotionalism or due to the quiet sensitivity of the voice. As well, a "money note" might be an impressive vocal display or a note which is held for a long time with clear pitch and expressive vibrato.

In classical music

In classical music, the term is associated with opera. In opera, the star singers often have a much higher billing than any of the other participants in the performance, including the conductor of the orchestra. Some opera roles have high notes, such as high "C" notes for sopranos, that are hard to hit in a live performance. As such, the audience enjoys going to see the performance and find out if their favorite performer will be able to sing these high notes with accurate pitch, strong projection, and a clear tone. In this sense, the high notes sung by the opera singer are the "money notes" that the audience is paying to see, and for which the opera singer commands their high salary.

While "money notes" are often high notes, in some cases, the hard-to-hit notes are low notes sung by a mezzo-soprano or alto female singer, or low notes sung by a bass-baritone singer. Many of the well-known "money notes" written for the tenor voice are from the bel canto era, such as Donizetti's sequence of 9 "C"s above middle C during La fille du régiment . With Wagner came an emphasis on using the tenor for vocal heft for in protagonist roles, with this vocal category described as Heldentenor , a heroic-sounding, bold male voice that listeners find to be very dramatic.

Achieving "money notes" poses a particular obstacle for classical musicians, as compared to pop musicians, because opera singers do not usually sing with a microphone. While both pop and classical musicians aim at producing well-sung notes with a good tone (with the respective stylistic norms appropriate to each idiom), the pop musician does not have to sing loudly at high sound-pressure levels to be heard, because the amplification of the PA system speakers does this for them. In an opera hall, though, a classical singer has to project their voice over the accompaniment of a symphony orchestra without a microphone or PA system. In trying to project the voice with at such high volumes, a classical singer may find it harder to maintain an attractive tone quality and correct intonation than a mic-wielding pop singer. To ease the pressure on classical vocalists' voices, major opera halls of the 2000s are increasingly using electronic acoustic enhancement, a subtle type of sound reinforcement system.

As with pop singing styles, the attractiveness or exciting qualities of a live opera vocal performance or recording are subjective and vary between listeners, cultures, and time periods. A soprano singing in the 1930s would elicit praise and applause for hitting a high note in a way that would be deemed unacceptable in the 2000s, because of the use of performance practices such as doing a long, drawn-out glissando up to reach the high note and then using a wide vibrato, wavering on the pitch so much that it is hard to discern which note they are singing.

In pop and rock music

In pop music, the term is used because "money notes" on a CD help to 'sell' a song for a listener, and also because singers capable of performing these emotionally stirring passages are able to make income from the performance.

One of the most well-known examples of money note can be found in Whitney Houston's version of the Dolly Parton song "I Will Always Love You", at the beginning of the third rendition of the chorus, there is a pause, a drum beat, a key change, and then Houston belts out the emphatic line " And I will always love you." The Céline Dion song from Titanic "My Heart Will Go On": the key change that begins the third verse — "You're here / There's nothing I fear." In the realm of musicals, money notes can be common elements in songs, often becoming as well known as the song themselves.

The attractiveness or exciting qualities of a singer or recording are subjective and vary between listeners, cultures, and time periods. Different vocal styles are considered to be desirable in different cultures. In Southeast Asia, for example, female pop singers sing with a very high-pitched, nasal tone; while this singing style would be unlikely to create positive responses for most Western listeners, for Asian audiences, the sound of the most popular singers hitting high notes creates a physiological response of emotional excitement. Even within a single culture, the singing styles vary widely from one style to another. Within the death metal fan subculture, the low, guttural sound of a well-performed "death grunt" is widely admired; for a typical Western pop or rock listener, though, this type of singing would elicit only puzzlement, not excitement.

Related terms

In film production, the slang term "money shot" is used to refer to the most expensive scene of a film, such as a special effects sequence, especially in films from before the era of pre-Computer Generated Imagery, when special effects were done with explosives and stuntpeople rather than computer software. In a 1950s action-adventure film about Pearl Harbor, for example, a costly sequence which depicts the bombing and sinking of US destroyers by exploding and sinking actual, decommissioned vessels would be called the "money shot" of the film. The audiences would expect to see this sequence, given the title of the film, and the financial outcome of the movie would depend on whether the sequence was well done.

In 2008 the French singer Camille released the song "Money Note," which references Dolly Parton, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, and Mariah Carey. In the chorus Camille swears that "I'll hit the money note," which she does at the end with a piercing, nearly inaudible shriek.

Related Research Articles

Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterized in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied.

A soprano is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately Middle C (C₄) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A₅) = 880 Hz in choral music, or to "soprano C" (C₆, two octaves above middle C) = 1046 Hz or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which often encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, soubrette, lyric, spinto, and dramatic soprano.

A countertenor (also contra tenor) is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of the female contralto or mezzo-soprano voice types, generally extending from around G₃ to D₅ or E₅, although a sopranist (a specific kind of countertenor) may match the soprano's range of around C₄ to C₆. Countertenors often have tenor or baritone chest voices, but sing in falsetto or head voice much more often than they do in their chest voice.

The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian, historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In 4-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in choruses by either low women's or high men's voices. In vocal classification these are usually called contralto and male alto or countertenor.

A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below middle C to the G above middle C (i.e. B₂ to G₄) in choral music, and from the second B flat below middle C to the C above middle C (B♭₂ to C₅) in operatic music, but the range can extend at either end. Subtypes of tenor include the leggero tenor, lyric tenor, spinto tenor, dramatic tenor, heldentenor, and tenor buffo or spieltenor.

Vocal music is a type of singing performed by one or more singers, either with instrumental accompaniment, or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered to be instrumental music as is music without singing. Music without any non-vocal instrumental accompaniment is referred to as a cappella.

Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person whose profession is singing is called a singer, artist or vocalist. Singers perform music that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir. Singers may perform as soloists or accompanied by anything from a single instrument up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Different singing styles include art music such as opera and Chinese opera, Indian music, Greek music, Japanese music, and religious music styles such as gospel, traditional music styles, world music, jazz, blues, ghazal, and popular music styles such as pop, rock, and electronic dance music.

A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; Italian:[ˌmɛddzosoˈpraːno]; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above (i.e. A₃–A₅ in scientific pitch notation, where middle C = C₄; 220–880 Hz). In the lower and upper extremes, some mezzo-sopranos may extend down to the F below middle C (F₃, 175 Hz) and as high as "high C" (C₆, 1047 Hz). The mezzo-soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, lyric, and dramatic.

Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave.

A male soprano or boy treble is a young male singer with a voice in the soprano range, a range that is often still called the treble voice range no matter how old.

Head voice is a term used within vocal music. The use of this term varies widely within vocal pedagogical circles and there is currently no one consistent opinion among vocal music professionals in regard to this term. Head voice can be used in relation to the following:

Vocal range is the range of pitches that a human voice can phonate. A common application is within the context of singing, where it is used as a defining characteristic for classifying singing voices into voice types. It is also a topic of study within linguistics, phonetics, and speech-language pathology, particularly in relation to the study of tonal languages and certain types of vocal disorders, although it has little practical application in terms of speech.

A voice type is a group of voices with similar vocal ranges, capable of singing in a similar tessitura, and with similar vocal transition points (passaggi). Voice classification is most strongly associated with European classical music, though it, and the terms it utilizes, are used in other styles of music as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vocal pedagogy</span> Study of the art and science of voice instruction

Vocal pedagogy is the study of the art and science of voice instruction. It is used in the teaching of singing and assists in defining what singing is, how singing works, and how proper singing technique is accomplished.

There is no authoritative system of voice classification in non-classical music as classical terms are used to describe not merely various vocal ranges, but specific vocal timbres unique to each range. These timbres are produced by classical training techniques with which most popular singers are not intimately familiar, and which even those that are do not universally employ them.

Vocal harmony is a style of vocal music in which a consonant note or notes are simultaneously sung as a main melody in a predominantly homophonic texture. Vocal harmonies are used in many subgenres of European art music, including Classical choral music and opera and in the popular styles from many Western cultures ranging from folk songs and musical theater pieces to rock ballads. In the simplest style of vocal harmony, the main vocal melody is supported by a single backup vocal line, either at a pitch which is above or below the main vocal line, often in thirds or sixths which fit in with the chord progression used in the song. In more complex vocal harmony arrangements, different backup singers may sing two or even three other notes at the same time as each of the main melody notes, mostly with a consonant, pleasing-sounding thirds, sixths, and fifths.

A bass is a type of classical male singing voice and has the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a vocal range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C (i.e., E₂–E₄). Its tessitura, or comfortable range, is normally defined by the outermost lines of the bass clef. Categories of bass voices vary according to national style and classification system.

Falsettone is a term used in modern Italian musicology to describe a vocal technique used by male opera singers in the past, in which the fluty sounds typical of falsetto singing are amplified by using the same singing technique used in the modal voice register. The result is a bright, powerful tone, often very high-pitched, although the sound is still different from and more feminine than what is produced by the modal voice. The term falsettone is also used for the mixed vocal register that can be achieved using this technique.

This is a glossary of jazz and popular music terms that are likely to be encountered in printed popular music songbooks, fake books and vocal scores, big band scores, jazz, and rock concert reviews, and album liner notes. This glossary includes terms for musical instruments, playing or singing techniques, amplifiers, effects units, sound reinforcement equipment, and recording gear and techniques which are widely used in jazz and popular music. Most of the terms are in English, but in some cases, terms from other languages are encountered.

In vocal music, the term voce faringea describes a historical singing practice developed and used especially by the bel canto tenors of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century to extend the upper range of the voice by modifying the falsetto, which is typically heard as a weak or feminine sound, into a vocal quality that is more tenoral and powerful.

Money note

Contents

In classical music

In pop and rock music

Related terms

Related Research Articles

References

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