Debunking the Myth: Operatic squillo is not produced by constricting the throat AKA

through “twang” (twang ≠ squillo)

**IF NOT INTERESTED IN PHYSIOLOGY AND JUST WANT THE TLDR, SKIP TO
BOTTOM**

One myth that has contributed to the “mosquito-like” pinched voices in opera today is
that “squillo” or “ring” of upper harmonics is achieved through constricting the throat.
The myth assumes that an opera singer must add “twang” in the sound in as a kind of
necessary “ingredient” for chiaroscuro. This is the myth we are debunking today.

But first, what is twang? Teachers employing twang don’t always settle on a clear
physiological definition for what it is (there is an interesting reason why which will be
explained shortly). Some explain that when twanging, the aryepiglottic sphincter
constricts via the aryepiglottic muscles and so has nothing to do with nasal resonance.
Others say rather than constrict, the epiglottis folds down over the larynx to “channel”
the resonance like a “hose”. Others say it involves tilting the thyroid cartilage, others say
it involves adding nasality or sometimes ”sinus resonance” (lol) and other explanations
exist. Despite the changes in definition, they often agree that it involves an intentional
constriction to achieve that “ring”. Or more importantly, they seem to agree on the
general sound and general exercises for producing twang, regardless of definition: 0:28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERAFQic5A-4

Exercises such as saying whiny and nasal NYA NYA NYA, cat meows, telling the
singer to “place the sound forward/in the mask”, “witches’ cackling” etc. are given. The
thought process when applied to opera is that the singer learns to lower the larynx
(sadly with no understanding for lowering the larynx CORRECTLY in a way that doesn’t
block the throat or compress the larynx), and then adds “twang” to “balance” out the
darkness of the low larynx with twangy brightness. These are the kinds of lies you will
hear from teachers who claim to be teaching a physiological process of opera, but sadly
has little to do with a real chiaroscuro technique, and we shall see why this idea is
nonsensical.

Twang seems to have become a buzz-word (pun intended) that was incorporated at
some point into operatic pedagogy because research shows twang to be an efficient
way to increase volume. While this may be true in a certain context, the problem is that
this idea is decontextualized from the environment of opera and unmiked voice
projection, and doesn’t consider that there are other highly efficient methods of
increasing volume in a way that doesn’t kill the purity, size and depth of the sound
(released chest voice and real squillo). If you were to call out to someone in danger, lost
in a rainforest etc., would you use a nasal, pinched, constricted twangy voice or would
you call out with released chest voice and a deep opened sound? One reason
chiaroscuro is so efficient is because when you couple the dark, projective and open
pharyngeal resonance with the energizing clarity and brightness from the chest
voice/squillo, you get a very well projected sound (also because of the release of
constriction which lets the voice truly vibrate freely and sonorously). This video
demonstrates this analogy through clapping at 0:52
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcOupCh3h7I (This analogy also explains why twang is wrong; it
adds brightness, but at the cost of scuro.)

Interestingly, the kicker is that we now know that the sound quality called twang that is
produced through all of the above exercises like NYA NYA NYA is nothing more than
pharyngeal wall constriction, as explained by this new and interesting investigation into
twang vs ring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT6-g4QKMbc

As the video explains, in twang, the middle pharyngeal constrictor muscle constricts and
comes inward, closing the piriform sinuses, and creating a boost in harmonics above
the 6,000 hertz area:

The video continues, mentioning that this boost is actually associated with a “rough” and
“noisy” quality to the sound. This kind of roughness and noise never had much to do
with opera, which is in most situations structured on producing a clear, beautiful,
resonant, cavernous, and ringing sound.

What is more ironic, is that the muscles in the throat previously thought by some to
constrict to produce the “twang” don’t even really exist. New studies confirm that the
“aryepiglottic” muscles do not even insert into the epiglottis at all, but rather the tongue,
meaning that even the constriction of the aryepiglottic sphincter (AES) is not done
through an intentional constriction in the throat! In other words, the AES can’t exactly
“constrict”, but is altered via the tongue.

Because twang is just constricting the pharyngeal walls and lifting the larynx, we know
this sound and coordination has little to do with opera. Why? Because we know that in
operatic singing, we must learn to greatly open the pharyngeal space, lower the larynx
greatly (correctly) and enhance pharyngeal resonance, the primary vocal resonator.
This is what allows the old-school opera singers to have such big, opened, cavernous,
deep, mellow, resonant, released voices, and sound “dark” regardless of voice type and
personal anatomy. (It must be clarified that “dark” means increased pharyngeal space
and vertical depth, which makes a tone a lot deeper, fuller and darker than speech, so
yes, even a coloratura soprano or leggiero tenor has great pharyngeal openness and
“darkness” in the sound, relatively speaking). Think about it like this: Opera singing
involves opening the pharyngeal space and lowering the larynx. What does twang do? It
involves constricting the pharyngeal walls and lifting the larynx up. So even in that
sense, the concept of opera being “low larynx + twang” is like saying opera singing is
opening and then closing the throat...Silly and illogical and only yields small pinched
singing.

Aurally, it must be pointed out that great singers of the past did not have as much
“noise” nor a constricted/pinched “mosquito-like” quality to their sound, and if they did at
specific moments or in their worst years (which they did, as no singer is perfect), the
major takeaway here is that the technique was NOT built on constriction AKA “twang”
like it is often today. From here on, we should view twang/constriction as perfectly
synonymous.

(Del Monaco, chiaroscuro vs some added constriction)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZLfh4kPcQg

Instead, the real technique is built on attempting to reduce constriction as much as

possible, and being able to open and keep the biggest, fullest, chestiest, clearest, and
LEAST constricted sound biologically possible through the whole voice through training.
Let’s compare a few examples:

*In all examples, it might help to slow the speed down to really hear the difference*

In Di Stefano’s singing, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BHp8R30Wtk at 1:46, and

also at 4:03, pay attention to how the tone is clear, and the “ring” or upper harmonics
are always in harmony with each other. There is little discernable “noisy” quality. The
sound also has a noticeable “open” and free-flowing quality, and there is warmth and
depth to the sound because of the opened pharyngeal space and low larynx (correctly
achieved!), which is responsible for beauty and size of the sound.

Now comparing to Florez, at 1:46 and 4:11 on the high note,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKQ28VtPEnU we hear in comparison how much
“noisy buzz” is present in the sound. The harmonics are not consonant to the
fundamental pitch because the constriction causes vocal noise. If and when there is
squillo achieved, it is also tarnished by the noise and lacks clarity. In addition, because
the constriction pulls him away from his chest voice, all of the harmonics lose intensity,
including the fundamental pitch. The constriction also causes a great loss to the
openness, depth, size, “darkness”, cavernousness and beauty to the sound that comes
with an opened pharyngeal space and low larynx.

So, we have a clear physiological argument for why Florez’s produced sound is NOT
simply “what his voice is”. No matter what voice type Florez calls himself, no matter
how lightly and constricted he speaks, we simply know it is not his full, opened and
chesty sound, because rather than opening the pharynx to its full potential, he is
constricting and causing the noise and pinched quality. That the noise is present is
indicative of a loss to the full degree of opening the sound and singing with his true
operatic voice, like Di Stefano is. What is more, we know he is not muscularly
DEVELOPED. If you take a man with a chesty, rich, deep, clear, masculine speaking
voice, and then make him always constrict and lighten his voice, his voice will atrophy
and likely continue to become more and more feminine in quality (which is not a social
commentary on femininity, but rather an opera singer must have a strong, clear and
developed voice if he wants to sing opera and with his full capacity, like the greats).
This same argument applies to all modern singers who have this noise and pinch in
their sound; They simply are not singing with their real opera voice, and in many cases
not even remotely close to the full depth, size and power attainable once having
muscularly trained the right muscles and weakened the wrong. One may also observe
that the introduction of constriction creates a sense of a lack of “ease” or free-flow to the
sound. This is because the singer must push against this constriction that is not as
present in great singers, and also tends towards a “pressed” phonation if attempting to
still sing chesty. Ironically, chest voice is healthier, easier, and more efficient, despite
being a much bigger and visceral (exciting) sound, which is one reason why many great
singers who did not have their technique corrupted stayed in excellent voice in old age.

Gigli 3:43-end, you will notice again, like Di Stefano there is great openness and warmth
to the sound. All of the harmonics are pure with little noise. Gigli was not a big voice,
yet that did not stop him from singing big, dark and chesty, and he sings beautifully in
accordance with his real anatomical capability.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke810vds_Vc

Camarena, another example of a noisy, constricted “mosquito” voice. Note again the “pinched”
quality and element of noise, particularly in the top at 4:16.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjgPiBu_wXY

Interestingly, singers who employ such noise and constriction are also frequently nasal,
regardless of voice type. It is my personal hypothesis that one reason (but not the only)
these singers often combine twang with nasality is because nasality muffles and dulls
the sound. In this way, nasality can serve to balance out the harsh twang and noise
through muffling the voice in a vain attempt to pass a harsh and muffled sound as
beautiful, pharyngeal, ringing chiaroscuro singing. Contrary to another myth, nasality
does not cause any “ring” or clarity in the sound. It does the opposite. It muffles every
vowel and reduces clarity in the voice the more nasality is present. Ever notice that
many deaf people have dull sounding voices and their vowels are frequently impossible
to distinguish? It is because they never learned to naturally lift the soft palate, and so
the voice is nasal. (You can easily test this, however, by simply speaking while covering
your mouth with your hand completely). this video demonstrates this sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BljEQFD594s

So what actually causes squillo in the voice if it isn’t twang or constricting the throat?
Well, I will not make any definitive claims as I don’t know everything (I am here to make
arguments and seek the truth), but as the video on ring and twang argues, squillo is
achieved through altering the shape of the AES via a highly specific tongue coordination
aided by the hyoglossus muscle. We now definitively know that operatic squillo or
“singer’s formant” is a completely different coordination than twang, AKA pharyngeal
constriction. These two coordinations can be performed at the same time, meaning a
singer can have some degree of both twang and ring, but in opera, we want the ring, not
the constrictive twang.
 This means that all exercises that employ witches’ cackle, nya nya nya, cat meows etc.
for opera need to be discarded, as it only serves to teach how to constrict the voice, lift
the larynx and weaken the real chest voice, and is properly served for learning a
mousey Broadway style or a country accent.

We also know that IF the aryepiglottic sphincter and/or epiglottis does have a role in
producing real squillo, it is not achieved through constricting the throat, because as
mentioned, the “aryepiglottic” muscles in the throat don’t actually insert into the
epiglottis, but rather the tongue. As the video demonstrates, singers attempting to
produce ring simply could not do so without using the back of tongue in a specific
coordination. In this specific coordination, the back of the tongue is still very forward
(very important, in order to open the oropharyngeal space behind the tongue) but there
is just a small bit of the back of the tongue that is pulling back to shape the AES to help
achieve the squillo.

(This image shows that the root is properly forward out of the tongue, but just a bit of the
root is going back to help alter the AES for squillo)

Interestingly, if true, this would place the accomplishment of squillo in relation to tongue
defects we have discussed, such as “knodel”. It may be argued that these are vocal
defects that may arise from the same goal; trying to produce squillo. We might call
knodel squillo’s ugly cousin, because in a search for the right tongue coordination and
shaping of the vowel for squillo, the singer accidentally blocks the throat to a degree
and distorts the vowel, regardless of if squillo is achieved or not. It must also be pointed
out that the real chest voice (which the singer must eliminate constriction to access) is
what increases intensity of all harmonics. It seems that altering the AES with the
tongue is also in part responsible for increased the adduction of the arytenoids,
meaning it may have the dual role of being tied to strengthening what we call chest
voice, or increased vocal cord mass/adduction. So, if the singer is able to produce
some squillo in the sound, increasing and developing the chest voice on top of that will
also amplify the squillo.

To summarize, it appears that squillo is achieved through both engagement of the chest
voice, removal of constriction, and possibly specific vowel tuning and shaping of the
tongue. Douglas Stanley (who conducted studies on Martinelli, Melchior etc.) in his
book Your Voice seems to imply some awareness of shaping of the epiglottis/AES and
back of the tongue as a means of tuning the pharyngeal resonance for the desired
boost in harmonics: “"When the back cavities (the pharyngeal cavities) are used as the selective
resonators of the voice, interadjustment between the laryngeal, oral and nasal pharynges, and variations
in the size of the opening to the mouth, between the uvula and the epiglottis or the base of the tongue
make it possible for the singer to “set” the resonance system with great precision and sensitivity for all the
frequencies which should be resonated. The mouth, which is a single cavity, cannot interadjust" (page
70).

The opera singer MUST learn how to open the pharynx greatly to achieve a real
operatic sound and achieve real scuro and beauty, and this simply is not possible with
the employment of twang. In fact, lowering the larynx correctly does not allow the
pharyngeal walls to constrict, because it begins to be too hard to lower the larynx fully if
the pharynx is constricting, as the video points out at 1:03:16.
There are some silly things said in the video (such as saying that the singer must
constrict in the high notes, which again misses the whole picture and we should do our
best to eliminate unnecessary constriction), but remember this is coming from someone
who is not an expert on operatic singing. She does get bonus points for pointing out
that Fleming has a knodel problem and Kaufmann has ingolata, and she also gets
bonus points for addressing that Florez’s sound is primarily based on twang and not
squillo.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, it should be a great relief and freeing to those
learning the real chiaroscuro sound that you need not attempt throat contortions and
exercises and attempt to constrict the throat to produce squillo. This is and has always
been counter to operatic singing and doesn’t allow you to sing out with your full,
beautiful pharyngeal opera sound. No singer sang without some constriction. It’s just
the greatest singers sang with the least. They had extremely developed and clear
voices and expertly coordinated resonance and release of stiffening, deadening
constriction. The muscles that open the throat (breath, laryngeal, and tongue) were
developed to be very strong, and so was the chest and head voice. And this is how
they could achieve chiaroscuro- Incredible open pharyngeal depth, and real pure clarity
and ring that could sing to 100,000+ people unmiked. Twang/constriction does not
allow for true chiaroscuro. Let’s call the nasal + mask technique by its real sound:
Scialboduro (dull + harsh)!

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These two articles are excellent, and focuses on what makes an operatic sound
superior to another; namely the clarity and purity of the sound and of the vowels:

https://www.thesilversingingmethod.com/2011/11/what-makes-one-singers-sound-
superior.html
https://www.thesilversingingmethod.com/2011/11/what-makes-one-singers-sound-
superior_26.html

And an excellent video with a demonstration of how “mask singing” is nothing more than
“constricted singing” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5fAuKZDsR0

And of course, one of the greatest channels on YouTube. In this video, we have examples of
real chiaroscuro, and a glimpse into the sounds of private teaching. Watch more videos on this
channel for more ear training on the difference between mosquito voices and real chiaroscuro.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYxc0el-tys

***TLDR:

-Twang and squillo are different. Twang means constriction. Squillo means ring. The
characteristic sound of twang is achieved through exercises like NYA NYA NYA, cat
meows, witch’s cackle, etc. This creates a noisy, harsh, whiny, small and “mosquito”
and “masky” sound.

-Twang is actually simply pharyngeal wall constriction, or squeezing the pharynx and
lifting the larynx, which is not good for opera, because we want an open pharyngeal
sound and low larynx. Twang and constriction are synonymous. Squillo is achieving a
boost in upper harmonics not done through pharyngeal wall constriction.

-It appears squillo may be achieved through reshaping of the aryepiglottic sphincter
(AES), which is not the same as twang!

-Interestingly, the aryepiglottic muscles have been found to not exist as we thought;
rather than inserting into the epiglottis, they insert into the tongue, and so the AES
doesn’t actually “constrict”, but rather is altered via a specific coordination of the back of
the tongue.

-Chest voice intensifies all harmonics, so is highly important in increasing the intensity
of the fundamental pitch and also the overtones/squillo once achieved. Interestingly,
real squillo may also help increase the function of the chest voice through increased
adduction.
-An highly open pharyngeal resonance is needed for opera, and achieving correct and
profound darkness and depth through the entire voice is necessary to help make sure
that the singer isn’t trying to get brightness through constriction, and so is crucial to
setting up the proper environment for correct squillo and chest voice.

-The main argument: trying to produce squillo via intentional constriction in the
throat is incorrect, because twang is not the same as squillo, and squillo is not
produced by constricting the throat, nor “constricting” the AES, but instead
possibly via a specifically coordinated tongue coordination. Because of all of
this, exercises like nya nya nya etc. are merely teaching pharyngeal constriction,
and so for opera should be discarded. Rather than attempting to constrict the
sound searching for brightness, the opera singer should instead search for the
vastly and correctly opened pharyngeal resonance, and then correct squillo and
chiaroscuro may found through keeping the pharyngeal space open; otherwise,
the singer is only constricting and pinching the sound and leading towards the
wrong sound. Developing the ear for the proper sound of your voice is critical,
because if in your head you are still thinking of a pressed, pinched and mosquito
sound that is smaller than your real voice, you simply will constrict and never
find the true and released open-throated chiaroscuro sound of *your* voice. This
is also why it is unhealthy to hold back the true size and power of your voice and
make it smaller than it really is. This is also why learning through imitation of the
old-school sound was so effective in teaching. Because when a teacher can
demonstrate the right sound through exercises, the singer can intuitively come to
find the same and right coordination, regardless of that singer’s particular
instrument and sound, whether lyric, dramatic, spinto etc, it will be based on the
same coordination of great, dark open pharynx and released, clear ringing chest
and head voice.