Pavarotti: King of Second Formant Tuning

Most people with even a small interest in opera have heard of the late Luciano Pavarotti, often called the "King of the High C's." He gained this informal title by genuine achievement, which was followed by the fame that came from well-attended performances that reached still larger audiences through broadcasts and recordings. In truth it was not so much the high C's that made him famous. For one thing, C's alone cannot do that. There are many other tenors who can reliably produce a big C5 (at 523 hertz, or cycles per second) who have failed to become famous. And although high notes were a prominent feature of Pavarotti's popular appearances, these seldom were C's. The marginally lower B-flat (466 hertz) appears far more frequently in tenor arias as a climactic note, offering ample opportunity to display power, beauty, and triumph in meeting the challenge of extended range. Clearly, the high note in an operatic aria is not simply an event like the pole vault, where the one who clears the greatest height can claim the title of king. Nonetheless, the athletic challenge of the high bar is an undeniable factor in the experience of opera, and Pavarotti, something of an athlete himself when young and slender, was adept at thrilling audiences with perfectly executed leaps to climactic heights.