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From:  "Tako Oda" <toda@m...>
"Tako Oda" <toda@m...>
Date:  Mon Mar 12, 2001  6:41 pm
Subject:  Re: Falsetto in countertenors


thomas mark montgomery <thomas8@t...> wrote:
thomas mark montgomery <thomas8@t...> wrote:
>
> All countertenors sing in falsetto; it is the nature of the beast.
> That doesn't mean they are less of a singer or artist for it, but
> the validity of the voice type is not supported by misinformation.

I understand what you're saying here. If we were to define falsetto as
the sound that does not have a broad band at around 2800Hz (as chest
voice and tenor head voice), sure. Even some high tenors are using
what you would call falsetto at the top.

What I am saying is there is a difference between pure falsetto, which
uses full-length, loosey goosey vocal folds, and does not fully close
during each cycle; and a light mechanism head voice, which uses zipped
up tense cords, which does have closure. They may be related in that
the gauge of the cords is similar (and hence the simpler spectra), but
the second type can produce good volume, control dynamics and is not
breathy.

It's not that important what we call them, as long as we take care to
distinguish these different modes and are consistent. Of course, I
don't like the word falsetto, because of the negative implications.

Tako


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