chenweijie81@y... wrote:
chenweijie81@y... wrote:
> does that mean hautes contre sing relatively comfortable in a
> range which is much lower than counter-tenor and at the same range
as
> a normal tenor???Do hautes contre have better and easier switching
of
> head voice to chest voice or the other way round than the counter-
> tenors???
Most hautes contre's normal speaking voices are almost like a woman's,
they are so high. Their singing range is up to an E5 at most. The
range is somewhere between a regular tenor and a regular countertenor,
as is their technique. By definition, a haute contre must have an easy
break. I should mention Pavarotti used to be capable of this kind of
singing, performing the very high Donizetti parts. It is a different
kind of technique than most tenors, who never switch out of heavy head
voice which is built as an extension of the chest voice.
Some countertenors have an easy break, others don't (so they use
falsetto for their whole range. The higher you change, the harder it
is, usually, since the upper chest is so much louder than the upper
voice in its lower range.
> From what I asume,true counter-tenors are those who don't
> use falsetoo to sing their notes and maybe using the same method of
> using their head voices like mezzos.The only difference between them
> and tenors is that they are singing an octave higher than the
tenors.
> Nevertheless it is difficult to determine who is the real counter-
> tenor cos u must have a really good hearing and deep knowledge of
> counter-tenors whether they are actually using falsetoo to sing.
There is a lot of debate about what is a real countertenor. Currently,
it refers to men who use *mostly* the upper register and switch around
Db4 or so - a good fifth lower than most hautes contre. The upper
voice is not exactly like a mezzo's head voice since the larynx of a
man is different, but the concept is similar in that the vocal folds'
vibrating lengths are shortened by "zipping" up some of the length.
Most people call this falsetto, which is fine, although the term
bothers me since it has negative overtones. It also bugs me since it
is a different production than a purist version of falsetto, which
uses full length vocal folds... but whatever! :-)
Tako
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