Last night someone asked me what it means when I describe something as vocal.
Everyone has a voice; every voice has a center that identifies it--a tone that is its heart, so to speak, meaning, the core of its register. This is even more true for the trained voice.
Mozart and Verdi did not compose their operas for abstractions but with specific singers in mind for each role.
By extension of that animal nature of sound the core quality is subject to change when the voice departs too far in either direction from its center.
On the piano there are many registers, each with its characteristic sound. The pianist responds to this specificity and to departures from it as if it is an extension of her own voice.
It is a very real quality but not one that is subject to analysis.
