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From: John Alexander Blyth
Subject: Falsetto stuff, was Re: Speaking/Singing Voice (ranting about
countertenors :)
To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
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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