I should clarify what my concept of a whistle register is.
From what I understand (and I don't have this ability or register or whatever it is, so this is what I've heard from friends and biographies), most sopranos can produce notes around a high C (and up into D, E, and F -- sometimes G, like Natalie Dessay) in both full-voiced head tone and falsetto. But some sopranos have a totally different-feeling type of production, that gives them the high A, B, and C-above-high-C. From what I know of their descriptions, it's a sudden shift into a different placement, and the notes fly out with no strain. One friend described it as gear shifting -- you're singing along in chest voice, and around an A4 or B4 it's too high to sing without strain -- so you shift into head voice, and around a D6 or E6 it's too high to sing without high-larynx strain -- so you shift into whistle, and it's free and easy until you run off the piano. I'm calling C4=middle and C6=soprano high C.
The other friend who can sing these freaky notes discovered this register when, trying to sing a high E at the end of the Bell Song, she missed the note completely and found herself singing the A above that, totally accidentally.
There are many sopranos who simply have a high top, and can sing high F's and G's in their normal (although they may shift concepts and placement around a bit) head voice -- but it's still head voice, and the production isn't radically different.
So, to my definition, "freaky-high whistle register" is a totally different way of using the voice, as different from head voice as the flip-falsetto is. So you couldn't, for example, hit your B above high C in whistle, then swell it into head voice.
But then, I don't have these notes, so I can't say for sure. Are there any Vocalisters with a high A or B who can provide a better description of what it feels like?
Isabelle B.
===== Isabelle Bracamonte San Francisco, CA ibracamonte@y...
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