Money Note - in Classical Music

In Classical Music

In classical music, the term is associated with opera. In opera, the star singers often have a much higher billing than any of the other participants in the performance, including the conductor of the orchestra. Some opera roles have high notes, such as high "C" notes for sopranos, that are hard to hit in a live performance. As such, the audience enjoys going to see the performance and find out if their favorite performer will be able to sing these high notes with accurate pitch, strong projection, and a clear tone. In this sense, the high notes sung by the opera singer are the "money notes" that the audience is paying to see, and for which the opera singer commands their high salary.

While "money notes" are often high notes, in some cases, the hard-to-hit notes are low notes sung by a mezzo-soprano or alto female singer, or low notes sung by a bass-baritone singer. Many of the well-known "money notes" written for the tenor voice are from the bel canto era, such as Donizetti's sequence of 9 "C"s above middle C during La fille du régiment. With Wagner came an emphasis on using the tenor for vocal heft for in protagonist roles, with this vocal category described as Heldentenor, a heroic-sounding, bold male voice that listeners find to be very dramatic.

Achieving "money notes" poses a particular obstacle for classical musicians, as compared to pop musicians, because opera singers do not usually sing with a microphone. While both pop and classical musicians aim at producing well-sung notes with a good tone (with the respective stylistic norms appropriate to each idiom), the pop musician does not have to sing loudly at high sound-pressure levels to be heard, because the amplification of the PA system speakers does this for them. In an opera hall, though, a classical singer has to project their voice over the accompaniment of a symphony orchestra without a microphone or PA system. In trying to project the voice with at such high volumes, a classical singer may find it harder to maintain an attractive tone quality and correct intonation than a mic-wielding pop singer. To ease the pressure on classical vocalists' voices, major opera halls of the 2000s are increasingly using electronic acoustic enhancement, a subtle type of sound reinforcement system.

As with pop singing styles, the attractiveness or exciting qualities of a live opera vocal performance or recording are subjective and vary between listeners, cultures, and time periods. A soprano singing in the 1930s would elicit praise and applause for hitting a high note in a way that would be deemed unacceptable in the 2000s, because of the use of performance practices such as doing a long, drawn-out glissando up to reach the high note and then using a wide vibrato, wavering on the pitch so much that it is hard to discern which note they are singing.