Kate's vocal range (update)

[IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]

     The initial search having stirred his interest, IED decided to
undertake a more thorough survey of Kate's vocal athletics, and his
efforts thus far have already necessitated significant emendations to
his original posting on the subject.
     Although he expressed doubt recently about the possibility of
anyone having a true "four-octave range", and claimed that anyway
Kate's own range appeared to extend fewer than three full octaves, IED
now admits that the second of these assertions was false, and possibly
the first, as well. In listening to Kate's first three albums and her
1979 live recordings he discovered two songs in which Kate topped the
high C which she sang on the track
_Don't_Push_Your_Foot_on_the_Heart_Brake_.
     In the Tour of Life performances of _Violin_ Kate capped her
vocal with a huge and wonderfully authoritative leap to
_the_E_above_high_C_, when she sang the final "Violin!" of the song.
Although this pyrotechnical feat is noticeably absent from the later
studio recording of _Violin_, Kate also reached the high E in an
earlier studio recording: _James_and_the_Cold_Gun_.
     IED has also found that Kate's voice reaches below the low E-flat
which he had earlier claimed was Kate's lowest sung note (found on the
extended mix of _RUTH_). On the _Lionheart_ track _Coffee_Homeground_
Kate in fact sings (albeit with some uncertainty and only on a rather
minor bass harmony backing-vocal) a _low_D-flat_. This can be heard
during the brief bridge leading out of the first chorus of the song
into the second set of verses. Kate accompanies the instruments with a
series of "la-la-la"s, and these extend, in the lower of Kate's two
overdubs, to a definite low D-flat.
     The sum total of all this is that, while he earlier stated that
Kate's range was two full tones shy of three octaves, he can now
announce, after only an incomplete search of her recordings, that her
voice extends at least one-and-a-half tones _beyond_ three full
octaves. Even though this still leaves Kate's range well short of the
legendary four octaves so often ascribed to her, IED would not be
surprised to discover, in the course of his continuing research, that
Kate has "pushed the envelope" even further.

-- Andrew Marvick

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