Deepest/Lowest Broadway Singing?

[Oak2]

The thread on the highest notes had me thinking in the other direction, and realizing that while, after having listened to about 300 different cast recordings in the last couple months in the throes of my newfound obsession with this medium, I heard quite a lot of high notes, but not too much in the extreme lows. The only one that can directly come to mind as SUPER deep was "Ol' Man River" from Show Boat. 

Are Bass singers really that rare? Or are they just very under-used in Broadway? If so, is there a real reason for this? I just find it odd that the highest ranges seem rather common, but not the lowest - is not considered as impressive or appealing to hit a very low note? In any case, I intended this to hopefully spark a discussion on this, as well as a general curiosity - what are the other most notable Bass roles in Broadway, and what are the lowest notes you can think of that are required in musical theatre?

[starcatchers]

Itchy trigger finger. Sorry. 

[starcatchers]

The Workman at the beginning of "On the Town." "I feel like I'm not out of bed, yet..."

[gypsy101]

the bass solo in Nothing Like a Dame gets pretty deep.

As for why there isn't a plethora of bass roles in musicals, I kind of am also of the mindset that high belting is the most exciting type of singing (also I love a soprano hitting the crazy notes) so I've never been bothered by the lack.

[Broadwayhunk]

Ol Man River

[darquegk]

Andy Karl has some fantastic low notes and bass solos as the Bass in On the Record.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

We bass-baritones are an underused bunch in musical theatre. I guess high notes are more exciting than low notes. That said, there are some roles that go down to an F2 or so, such as Sweeney in Sweeney Todd, Czolgosz in Assassins (thanks, Sondheim), Audrey II in Little Shop...that's kinda it, actually. Javert goes down to around an F2 as well at the beginning of "The Confrontation," but it's otherwise a high baritone role...and there's Don Basilio or whatever his name is in Phantom, although he's a character in an opera. And he's onstage for like five minutes.

There's also Frollo in Hunchback but although it's a low tessa tura I don't think it has any real low notes.

 

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Double post.

[JBroadway]

Patrick Paige in Hadestown also comes to mind. 

[willep]

JBroadway said: "Patrick Paige in Hadestown also comes to mind. "

 

That was the first one that came to my mind too.

[nolanativeny]

I always think of the E3 at the end of "I'm Not That Girl" and how the first time I saw Wicked on tour the Elphaba barely croaked it out. I feel like I read somewhere that it's optional. Is that true?

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Oh yeah, Caiaphas! I knew I was missing one. That's definitely the lowest male role in a major musical.

[Call_me_jorge]

What was the last show to have a principle role who was a bass?

[TheGingerBreadMan]

While a pretty small role, Lurch in the musical adaptation of The Addams Family sang pretty darn low. I don't have the score so I can't say exactly how low he goes, but he is a true bass. 

[Mr. Nowack]

I much prefer Low voiced leading men. But they haven't been minting those since what, 1964?? It's a pity.

[Slick3]

Lurch in the Addams family stoops to a low D#2 which is the lowest note I’ve heard on broadway. Further more his tessiture remains true to low bass.

[aw42]

Patrick Page in Hadestown definitely sings a G1.

He describes this in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuUsRyRKIKY around 9:20

And the actual sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1VDxMe54Og 53 seconds in on the "why"

[Alex Kulak2]

Good lord, I don't think a "why" has ever given me chills like that before.

[Emmaloucbway]

Melvin Franklin in Ain't Too Proud

[Ledaero]

I would argue that legit bass parts are very uncommon on Broadway because low pitches are naturally unpleasant to the human ear. If we think about it scientifically, humans only have a small range of frequencies that are audible (25 Hz-25 kHz) and the further extreme the frequencies are the more muddled/unpleasant they are to the listener. In relation to the range, basses are able to get much closer to the bottom of the range than sopranos can get to the top. If a bass is singing an E2 (which is still a few steps deeper than your average bass part), that's 82 Hz which is really damn close to 25 Hz. If a soprano is singing a C6 (not uncommon for a coloratura part), that's 1.17 kHz which is still very far away from the upper cap of the human hearing range. So because of where these frequencies exist in the range of audible sounds for humans, it is far more unpleasant to hear a bass sing low than it is for a soprano to sing high (and a soprano is still solidly in the middle of the range, so it should never sound unpleasant).

With the rise of pop music and the decrease in classical background, composers have been eliminating bass parts because the music becomes about what sounds most pleasant/consonant for the listener rather than what is more interesting/logical for the story with the music. True bass parts really only exist from classical-background composers (with the exception of Anais Mitchell) which I think is such a shame, they do a lot for the story.

Some bass parts that come to mind that haven't been mentioned yet are The Boatman in Sunday in the Park with George, and Dave Malloy writes at least one legit bass into each show. Preludes has a crazy bass part sung by Joseph Keckler, Octet has Adam Bashian on the really low bass part, and even Brent's part in Ghost Quartet goes lower than most nowadays. Anais Mitchell set the record for lowest bass part in Broadway history with Patrick Page singing Hades, which is very cool for many reasons (the musical storytelling devices of the devil singing so unpleasantly low is so awesome).

Article for reference about frequencies: https://www.ece.iastate.edu/~alexs/classes/2016_Spring_575/HW/HW5/files/piano-key-freq-wikipedia.pdf

[Ledaero]

With the rise of pop music and the decrease in classical background, composers have been eliminating bass parts because the music becomes about what sounds most pleasant/consonant for the listener rather than what is more interesting/logical for the story with the music. True bass parts really only exist from classical-background composers (with the exception of Anais Mitchell) which I think is such a shame, they do a lot for the story.

Speaking of which, look what was just posted in the NYTimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/22/theater/broadway-pop-musicals.html

[morosco]

Chita hitting those low notes on the lyric "scratch my back" during The Apple Doesn't Fall from THE RINK.

[Alexander Lamar]

I don’t know much about voices, etc. but the role of The Bus in Caroline, or Change sounds pretty low to me.

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Ledaero, that was fascinating, thank you!

[AADA81]

Voice type has also been characterized into role type, to a certain extent.  Ingenue-Soprano, Young Male Lead-Tenor, Mother/Older Woman-Alto, Father/Villain-Bass, with contraltos and baritones spread among the categories.  I'm not saying it's always like this or that it's quite this simple, but that's a fair characterization of many of the classic musicals in terms of voice casting.  A bass voice in a lead role is typically something like Tevye in Fidder or Tony in The Most Happy Fella.  With altos or contraltos I think it's been different because many of the great female stars have had deeper voices, i.e., Merman, Channing, Lansbury, Rivera.