Date sent: Tue, 8 Feb 2000 13:24:40 EST
Subject: Re: Speaking/Singing Voice (ranting about countertenors :)
To: vocalist
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

oak,
first let me suggest a few places you could look to get more
information; mark baxter has great book 'the rock and roll singer's survival
manual' as well as a very informative website at www.voicelesson.com. roger
love has a book with a cd, 'set your voice free'. he also has a website,
rogerlove.com however, it seems to be unreachable lately. you might also
check out dave stroud's website (sorry, i don't know how to get you there).
as to the use of 'falsetto', you could listen to any of the following;
caetano veloso, savage garden, brian mcknight, a-ha (one-hit wonder from the
80s), brian ferry w. roxy music. 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. in a
discussion with a laryngologist, the doctor told hines that bjoerling had
probably completely blurred the distinction. you can hear gedda's use of this
hybrid voice in goldmark's 'magische toene' and bjoerling uses it in the sop.
mez. and ten. trio in the verdi requiem (don't remember the text at that
point). others who seem to use this hybrid would be sherril milnes on ozawa's
recording of 'carmina burana', paul mccartney certainly. i think roy
orbison's high range is a good example as well.
i would seperate the intent of classical singing from most other types
of music in that classical singing attempts to reduce the acoustical
differences between vowels and also attempts to create a constantly larger
space. most other forms of music seem to be relatively more concerned with a
more speechlike tone so that the singer appears to be talking on pitch. i
hope this info is of use to you.

mike