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Found this clip of the woman with the largest vocal range on the planet, and who has reached the highest note for a human voice ever.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=P6wSyIdwCFM

My question is, what the hell is the point of displaying this kind of range when A) it is never called for in music and B) even if it was, the singer would normally need to use syllables instead of simply shrieking as she appears to be doing in the clip? I mean, great, she has the range, but is there any real use for it?

EDIT: At least Tim Storms can articulate syllables in his extreme low range (to great effect): http://youtube.com/watch?v=LFbjtmubBFQ

Fleet Admiral JD wrote:Found this clip of the woman with the largest vocal range on the planet, and who has reached the highest note for a human voice ever.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=P6wSyIdwCFM

My question is, what the hell is the point of displaying this kind of range when A) it is never called for in music

Says who?

and B) even if it was, the singer would normally need to use syllables instead of simply shrieking as she appears to be doing in the clip?

Not really. She's basically doing what other instruments like the violin or lead synths do. Vocals can be used for more emotional fare than just understandable lyrics, else all vocalists might as well be rappers.

I mean, great, she has the range, but is there any real use for it?

Yeah, it's another instrument, a means of adding musical notes to a song. You can also use vocal sounds to add textures and feels to songs, and even percussion (in the form of human beatboxing).

To give an example of purposefully obscured lyrics for thematic effect I give you Until the World Stops Turning. If you consider the music as a text of sorts, you can analyse it for the methods you can use in it to achieve different points, i.e. in this one, he sounds, well, possessed and fucking angry, he's singing something about the end of the world, etc.

His anger is meant to be more important than the words themselves (in fact, they never publish the lyrics) and so the vocals are arranged on that principle. The only bits you can make out in fact, are the parts where the apocalyptic title is chanted, to force the listener to participate in the music, apply their own interpretations and force them to come up with the meaning in their own minds (though dropping enough hints with the rest of the music as to a general area of what to expect and think about).

The voice is just another instrument, really. You can get the notes out of it that you want in order to build whatever "audio painting" you want.

EDIT: At least Tim Storms can articulate syllables in his extreme low range (to great effect): http://youtube.com/watch?v=LFbjtmubBFQ

That's fucking awesome.

I don't know if it's relevant, but isn't there some distinction between syllables and words? Sorry if that sounds weird, but having watched RoTS recently, I was reminded of some of the music in it. Voices, but no words.

The comments claim that she can't actually sing for shit.

Haha, she sounds like a theremin.

I can do a pretty high train whistle, but she just blows that away by well over an octave. Very cool, though, admittedly, has about as much use as a piccolo.