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Influenced by the orchestrations of early Romantic composers, including Beethoven, as well as by the bel canto style of singing, both Wagner and Strauss wrote for the female voice in such a way that a non-standard classification, or Fach, emerged. This voice type has come to be known as the Zwischenfach. In vocal literature, the Zwischenfach has been long neglected as a female voice type. Further, in many of the vocal pedagogy texts currently in use, there is no category for Zwischenfach listed. In Training Soprano Voices and National Schools of Singing: English, French, German, and Italian Techniques of Singing Revisited, Richard Miller does mention the Zwischenfach singer briefly, but only as an in-between category from which singers would eventually move on to a more dramatic Fach, and he classifies it as a type of soprano voice.1,2 In Singing: the Mechanism and the Technic, William Vennard does not mention the Zwischenfach at all, nor does James McKinney in The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults.^4 There have been a few papers on the topic of the Zwischenfach, arguing that it is a paradox of two voice types5 and a "flexible vocal category."6
It is true that the Zwischenfach is currently viewed as a flexible designation by pedagogues and peers in the opera business, as certain roles are considered to be both mezzo-soprano and soprano. However, in studying the music of Wagner and Strauss, it is evi- dent that the Zwischenfach is neither a flexible nor "in-between" Fach, but rather, a specific voice category. Analysis of selected operatic works of Wagner and Strauss will answer the question about how and why the Zwischenfach emerged as a voice type, specifically in the roles of Adriano (Rienzi), Venus (Tannhäuser), Kundry (Parsifal), Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier), and the Komponist (Ariadne auf Naxos'), as well as enlighten musicians and the public about the history, development, special characteristics, and functions of the Zwischenfach. This article argues that the tessitura, range, vowel usage, and orchestration support the assertion that the Zwischenfach is neither soprano nor mezzo-soprano by 1) defining Fach, registration, and bel canto singing techniques; 2) detailing the new Romantic ideals of vocal technique and orchestration practices of Wagner and Strauss; and 3) studying the five aforementioned operatic roles. Moreover, the establishment...