Jenny Lind
Röstens betydelse för hennes mediala identitet En studie av hennes konstnärskap 1838–49
av
Ingela Tägil
Akademisk avhandling
Avhandling för filosofie doktorsexamen i Musikvetenskap med konstnärlig inriktning, som kommer att försvaras offentligt
fredagen den 4 oktober 2013 kl. 13.00, Musikhögskolan, konsertsalen Örebro universitet
Opponent: docent Göran Gademan Stockholms universitet/Göteborgsoperan
Stockholm/Göteborg
Örebro universitet Musikhögskolan 701 82 ÖREBRO
Abstract
Ingela Tägil (2013): Jenny Lind. The impact of her voice on media identity. Örebro Studies in Musicology 1, 238 pp.
Jenny Lind was an opera singer in the years 1838–49. During this time she was given the status of an icon mainly due to her image. She was almost sanctified by the press. Her “private personality” was assigned a saintly purity, and she became a stereotype symbol of femininity. This dissertation investigates what factors interacted that made this possible, and highlight the importance of Lind’s voice for her image. Jenny Lind’s voice was a high soprano, but not very powerful. By positioning herself in a singing tradi-tion that corresponded to her voice’s advantages, she managed to develop an equilibrium, which she used well. Lind’s voice was often perceived as unusual; she had a particular voice timbre. She also had a vocal defect. Her tones from f’–a’ are described as “husky”, and sometimes hoarse. This means that her voice let through more air than her vocal cords could use. My argument is that it was the voice damage that created a unique timbre that the contemporary critics perceived as particularly “feminine”. Lind’s weak and damage voice corresponds to the nineteenth century’s female ideal: fragile and weak. Moreover, Lind needed to adept her roles to her damage voice and the consequence was that also her interpretations were perceived “feminine”. In other words, Lind exerted a gender performative voice processing. All of Jenny Lind’s roles became representatives of femi-ninity, regardless of whether it was the role’s purpose or not. Lind adapted all her interpretations to her weak voce, its strength being high notes, pia-nissimo dynamics and equilibrism, and gave all her roles a gender-stereotyped voice.
Keywords: Jenny Lind, voice, nineteenth century vocal technique, vocal technique, femininity symbol, gender-stereotype, Virgin Mary-symbol. Ingela Tägil, Musikhögskolan
