"Lloyd W. Hanson" <lloyd.hanson@n...> wrote:
> I say this because I have not found any research which would
> suggest that it is possible for a baritone or bass, given the
> size and length of their vocal folds, to produce the pitches
> necessary for the countertenor range without the use of a
> falsetto configuration of the vocal mechanism. Tenors would
> not, for the same reason, be so restricted.
I'm wondering why you set the cutoff to be between baritone and
tenor? It seems to be that size and length of vocal folds isn't the
be-all end-all of ability to access head voice, or even its range. We
know there are women with very low speaking voices with high head
voices (some dramatic sopranos).
Since the head voice does not use the full length of the folds, it
stands to reason the ability to use head voice is dependent on
whether the singer can zip the folds together into the head voice
configuration, and the range is dependent on how much zipping up
there is. I can see how a larger mechanism would make this harder,
but probably not impossible (compare to high string bass hand
positions, maybe?)
My guess is that a greater difference between bari-countertenors and
tenor-countertenors is not their innate ability to produce head
voice, but their ability to mix the chest and head registers. A bass'
root voice is low enough that it is difficult for him to make a
transition to pure head voice, if it has a high range. In some cases,
there might be some notes missing between the two registers. A tenor
doesn't have this problem, with a good octave of overlap.
For a bari-countetenor, there's less opportunity to learn how to
connect the head voice to the breath, since this skill is often
learned in relation to building the mix. Hence the typically hootier
or falsetto-like sound of the bari-countertenor. The exception might
be the bari-countertenor who learned to connect the breath to his
upper voice as a boy, and kept this skill through puberty. In fact,
many successful countertenors were successful boy sopranos.
Tako
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