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Because of the difficulty of singing in this style. In general the men are very large, and have very healthy lungs and vocal chords.
Activities such as smoking, will damage the lungs and make singing in this style almost impossible.
1. Levitin, D. (2007). This is your brain on music. New York: Plume P.
2. Ritzarev, Marina, Eighteenth-century Russian Music. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006, p. 255
3. Morosan, Vladimir Choral Performance in Pre-revolutionary Russia. UMI Research Press, 1986.
By: Ian Jones
The Russian oktavist is an extremely interesting vocal style that is not common in the modern period. It's use however is beautiful, and inspiring, evoking a multitude of emotions in the listener
Pieces requiring these performers are very rare outside of Russian Orthodox Church music.
Two notable compossers who have written for this voice however are Pavel Grigorievich Chesnokov, and Krzysztof Penderecki.
Excerpt of "Don't Forget Me In My Old Age
Russian Men's Choir
The oktavist is found almost exclusively in Russian church music.
They can ocasionally be found in men's choirs. Some african american church choirs also employ them.
The oktavist voice is one that is very hard to train. Because of the suppleness that is needed in the vocal chords, most singers are between 40-50.
Vibration of the entire chest cavity allows the vocal chords to create extremely low frequencies. This results in very low notes.
Oktavist singer: Vladimir Millar
Singing in this style is extremely demanding.
The amount of air nessecary to create these notes is tremendous. These singers are therefore usually large men who have been training for years.
Lung conditions, such as asthma, and smoking are two physical contraindications to this singing style.