| From: John Alexander Blyth Subject: Falsetto stuff, was Re: Speaking/Singing Voice (ranting about countertenors :) To: VOCALIST <vocalist> Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>
It seems simple to me: falsetto is the tone quality produced when the vocal folds vibrate, but don't approximate (come close to one another). Pure head tone, when they do approximate closely, making a basic sound rather like the double reed of an oboe. Most singers prefer something in between, where the vocal folds are either *fairly* close, or close at one end and not the other. There is a whole spectrum of 'in between'. I, a baritone, can sing a pure head tone up to a high Bb (only in practice, not repertoire, I hasten to add), and find it much easier than fatiguing falsetto, perhaps because the muscles are doing a less complicated dance in there? I always thought that Bjoerling (magnificent, wonderful!) had a bit more falsetto (read: less approximation of vocal folds) than many tenors, and that this lent his tone a poignancy that has often left me a blubbering mess. But then I think Callas had a hooty, unlovely falsetto, which nevertheless moves me profoundly, illustrating that the *great* don't need to be *good*, 'cos they're *great*.
john
.... in jerome hines book 'great singers on great >singing', nicolai gedda talks about the difference between head voice and >falsetto as being a matter of support rather than timbre. hines also mentions >somewhere that bjoerling supposedly claimed to have no falsetto. ... >mike > John Blyth Bass/Baritone (as opposed to Bass-Baritone) though I'm really a baritone Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
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