LONDON – The Decca music label is looking for a singer who can sing a note believed to be lower than anyone has sung on a recording before – a low E, which is nearly three octaves below a middle C on the piano.
Paul Mealor, the Welsh composer behind the surprise British Christmas chart hit Wherever You Are sung by The Military Wives Choir, has written a composition called De Profundis( Out of the Depths I Cry to You, O Lord). It features a low E, which is six semitones lower than the B flat from Rachmaninov's Vespers.
"My setting of De Profundiscalls for a rich and powerful voice; a voice that can not only touch the heart with its sincerity and truth, but also make every fabric of the human body resonate as it plunges into the very lowest parts of the vocal spectrum," Mealor said in a statement.
The search for this bass voice will be conducted through trade magazines on the internet.
According to Guinness World Records, the lowest known note produced by a human voice is a low F sharp, achieved by American Roger Menees in 2010.
Singers have been invited to send in demo tapes or upload recordings of their voice to howlowwillyougo.com.
Voices will be judged by Mealor and Grammy-award nominated producer Anna Barry, an authority on Russian choral and vocal music, which is one of the composer’s main inspirations. The record is set for international release in the spring.
Mealor rose to prominence after being selected to compose music for last year’s royal wedding of Britain’s Prince William to Kate Middleton, now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. This is his first choral work since then. – (Reuters)