Monday, June 29, 2015

Homage to a beautiful voice

The other day I was driving around the DMV listening to NPR when the voice of the new lady who does the credits for NPR came on. I reached for the knob and turned the volume up just to hear her voice.

It wasn't the first time that I had done that in the last few weeks, but this time my brain became aware of what I was doing: I was turning the volume up on the radio just to hear the voice of an unknown person... just to hear her voice... and she was essentially doing an ad!

What the heck? That's a little weird, right?

But then the sound waves of her hypnotizing voice flowed over the 88.5 WAMU airwaves, and it captured me once again. This time, aware of what I was doing, I awaited the tiny "ehh" sound that she makes as she skillfully breathes in between long sentences, as words, like tiny silk webs, flow out of her throat. That little "ehh" somehow was able to make me smile.

I don't know who the anonymous voice over for NPR's funding credits is, but I do know that she has the most beautiful voice on the planet. I would bet that she is somewhat tall (a voice like that needs an appropriate vehicle) and I just know that she has a long, elegant neck. Not as long as Parmigianino's Madonna dal Collo Lungo (Madonna with Long Neck), but she'd make a perfect model for a contemporary interpretation of that Mannerist masterpiece. It takes a breath-taking neck like that to deliver the melody that is her voice.

Whoever and wherever you are: thank you for giving me such a wonderful and unexpected pleasure on a daily basis.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG! I know what you mean! I thought I was the only one who noticed how amazing that lady's cadence and delivery is!

Linda

Anonymous said...

This is your voice diva: http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/138274/npr-tries-new-underwriting-voice-again

She does have a beautiful voice.

Sally