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Post by poul on Sept 15, 2014 12:50:46 GMT
 High note on Wembley 79 |
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Post by Ausfan on Sept 15, 2014 14:24:58 GMT
hi Poul,
Your attachment has not worked - please try again.
Roxy
Australia
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Post by shoshin on Sept 15, 2014 15:55:25 GMT
Do you mean this one poul ;-)
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Post by poul on Sept 15, 2014 20:32:10 GMT
Do you mean this one poul ;-) Yes, shoshin that's the one. Thanks! In Neil and primohomme's comments on YouTube I can see it's called B5. Rips my heart out!  |
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Post by poul on Oct 10, 2014 14:58:21 GMT
Oh, for the perils of a new ABBA fan, who never visited another ABBA forum. I’ve just learned there are great experts of this topic, so as the thread starter here, I’ll allow a widening of the concept of high notes like that of video moments and such – all highs really. This one's for shoshin.  |
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Post by maxisaxi on Oct 10, 2014 22:14:30 GMT
Agnetha could certinally hit those high notes. Wow!!
Maxisaxi
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Post by shoshin on Oct 11, 2014 0:54:07 GMT
We're not going to dig out a higher belted solo note than the HIYS B5, but there's nevertheless plenty of mileage in this thread so thanks for starting it 
I would like to kick off with the climax of He Is Your Brother, live in 1977. I like the way Agnetha belts out a really solid and committed E5, then comfortably takes it up another tone, as if to say 'there's more where that came from':
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Post by shoshin on Oct 11, 2014 1:17:33 GMT
Tiger, on the same tour, also ends (well, last but one note) on a strong E5:
Although on the studio track it's another semitone higher (F5): |
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Post by poul on Oct 11, 2014 18:59:15 GMT
I would like to kick off with the climax of He Is Your Brother, live in 1977. I like the way Agnetha belts out a really solid and committed E5, then comfortably takes it up another tone, as if to say 'there's more where that came from':
That's quite some kick off, shoshin. 2.52 - 3.06. 14 seconds well spent of anybody's life, I'd say. Thanks!  |
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Post by shoshin on Oct 11, 2014 23:57:09 GMT
Also on the Australian tour is a lovely I've Been Waiting For You, though the movie unfortunately doesn't show it in full. The highest note is the D5 on the 'I've...' at the end of the chorus (at 1m 7s in the video clip below). However, my favourite note in the song, a semitone lower but with a wonderful purity, is the 'leave' at 12s: It is equally lovely on the studio track, which is in the same key. Although this note sounds pretty high within the context of the melody, it is very comfortable for Agnetha's soprano range. It might be worth noting that Frida sings just as high as Agnetha in this song when she harmonizes 'my lonely days are through'. Frida is a mezzo, so might be expected to struggle to match Agnetha. Yet in her marvellous live En Ledig Dag Frida reaches Eb6, well above even the Hole In Your Soul B5 of Agnetha. The difference is that Agnetha can use her chest to belt her high notes in full voice, whereas Frida is switching to her 'head' voice (a little like men do when they sing falsetto, though the terminology is controversial). As she demonstrates in En Ledig Dag, Frida has wonderful control of this vocal range, but it isn't really a viable solo instrument in a pop/rock setting. When Björn and Frida perform their Agnetha-less Why Did It Have To Be Me live, for example, starting from 'But baby, believe me' Frida is having to work quite hard. She changes the melody a little to side-step the two note leap to C5 on 'to forget me', which is almost an octave lower than Agnetha's Hole In Your Soul B5. Of course, if both girls had exactly the same vocal range, it wouldn't be ABBA. In harmonies, Frida is able to sing above Agnetha when she needs to, and Agnetha shows in Fernando that she can harmonize below Frida. It's a winning combination |
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Post by poul on Oct 12, 2014 9:18:48 GMT
Also on the Australian tour is a lovely 'I've Been Waiting For You.' It is equally lovely on the studio track, which is in the same key. It might be worth noting that Frida sings just as high as Agnetha in this song when she harmonizes 'my lonely days are through'. Of course, if both girls had exactly the same vocal range, it wouldn't be ABBA. In harmonies, Frida is able to sing above Agnetha when she needs to, and Agnetha shows in Fernando that she can harmonize below Frida. It's a winning combination...
'Winning combination' sums it up very well, shoshin. Choosing between the girls is like choosing between one's eardrums.
Two's better than one! |
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Post by shoshin on Oct 13, 2014 22:32:23 GMT
Lovely stills Poul I mentioned that 'Tiger' was sung in a slightly lower key in Australia when compared to the studio version. This is of course a far from unusual workaround when a vocally challenging song is sung live, which makes the Live At Wembley Arena rendering of As Good As New particularly impressive. Agnetha hits that E5 again at the top of 'I thought that our love...' But the thing is, this is a semitone higher than the studio recording! Live: Voulez Vous album: Very difficult to understand why the key was raised. It reminds me of the surgeon in The Naked Lunch, who deliberately endangers his patient so that he can show off his scalpel skills with even more aplomb  |
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Post by maxisaxi on Oct 14, 2014 0:04:07 GMT
I forgot those earlier songs as you pointed out on thecAustraluan Tour. This is why I would love a real ease of a full concert like we have with Wembley, I have always loved the concert version of He Is Your Brother and such a shame we only got a fraction of I've Been Waiting For You. Just a shame they never included the full video footage of this song on The Movie
Maxisaxi
New Zealand
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Post by poul on Oct 14, 2014 20:26:10 GMT
Very difficult to understand why the key was raised. It reminds me of the surgeon in The Naked Lunch, who deliberately endangers his patient so that he can show off his scalpel skills with even more aplomb 
Agnetha seems to disagree about the two eardrums here. I’m not sure if the still is from ‘As Good As New’ from the Milwaukee gig in 79
or if only the sound is original in the one I found. It's such a great song - parts I seem to have known always, although I just heard it recently.
I think Agnetha mentioned sometime that the boys got still more demanding in the high notes department as they went along.
“You almost have to scream,” she said. “Almost.” (sic.) Probably the girls let the boys call the notes most of the time.
Did it change much from when she wrote her own hits before ABBA, do you know, shoshin?
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Post by poul on Oct 14, 2014 20:53:11 GMT
I forgot those earlier songs as you pointed out on thecAustraluan Tour. This is why I would love a real ease of a full concert like we have with Wembley, I have always loved the concert version of He Is Your Brother and such a shame we only got a fraction of I've Been Waiting For You. Just a shame they never included the full video footage of this song on The Movie Maxisaxi New Zealand Perhaps ABBA should let Ludvig Andersson re-issue The Movie, too, maxisaxi He seems to be an able young man! And they did bring a lot of film then, I think. 
Tiger - Poland |
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Post by maxisaxi on Oct 14, 2014 22:20:50 GMT
Not a bad idea to be honest just imagine!
Maxisaxi
New Zealand
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Post by shoshin on Oct 15, 2014 23:59:07 GMT
I think Agnetha mentioned sometime that the boys got still more demanding in the high notes department as they went along...Probably the girls let the boys call the notes most of the time...Did it change much from when she wrote her own hits before ABBA, do you know, shoshin? Although I'm a big fan of Agnetha pre-ABBA, I don't have an encyclopaedic knowledge of her songs. I would be interested in hearing suggestions from other contributors of early songs in which she hits a particularly high note, so that I can compare it with her later work. My impression is that when she wrote her own songs she was conscious of her comfort zone. Nevertheless there are some stunning high notes in terms of vocal quality. One of my favourites is in Sov Gott Min Lilla Van, for which she wrote the Swedish words but not the music. The highest note comes at the end when she sings 'va hos mig' and it is beautiful. However, the note that literally brings tears to the eyes is the long 'mycket' at 2:03: Another favourite of mine is in her Swedish version of I Don't Know How To Love Him; the part that in the English original goes 'I never thought I'd come to this', but which is translated here as 'Have I learned to love now': Of course, there is so much more to Agnetha's voice than her range. The following Jesus Christ Superstar song, 'What's The Buzz', may not seem to display anything too special, but the precision with which she maintains perfect separation between the notes really shows her class. Especially when some bloke starts wailing away to a completely different melody in the background Martin UK
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Post by poul on Oct 16, 2014 19:54:06 GMT
Shoshin said: ... Of course, there is so much more to Agnetha's voice than her range. The following Jesus Christ Superstar song, 'What's The Buzz', may not seem to display anything too special, but the precision with which she maintains perfect separation between the notes really shows her class ...
Oh yes, very much more, but hard to nail down, I think. Still, there are very few "mezzoes" among my favourite female vocalists.
I discovered Agnetha late in life. Heard "A" before "Eleven Women In A House" and enjoyed her voice on the latter more for many of the same reasons that I enjoy Dusty Springfield. They're straight shooters. Having written one of the most played songs in Danish Pop Radio ever ("Tears Of Gold"), - much more than ABBA - it's surprising that she stopped writing altogether just when she got access to the ABBA machinery. |
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Post by meren1250 on Oct 1, 2017 15:05:34 GMT
Agnetha is a soprano.
Look at her high belted notes.
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