Prof. Hanson and List:
Allow me a brief follow-up to my post and your response.
In my post I repeated your description of 3 vocal registers (chest,
middle, and head) but then put a suggested range (for a male voice)
and wanted to know if I had understood you correctly:
would middle voice be the "passagio" range of about middle C to the
f-g above for certain tenors? (so about a fourth or a fifth)? And of
course a bit lower/higher for different male voices.
What would the range be of middle voice be for a typical (say
soprano)
female voice? I assume female head voice to start about e5/f5 - an
octave higher than for male head voice - correct?
So now a question: male "tenor" head voice sounds nothing to me like
female head voice. Whereas, another male register (see below) does.
Are you proposing that say "tenor" head voice and "soprano" head
voice
are the same phonantional registers in the two sexes, even though
they
sound quite different?
Finally, I also tried to explore the possibility of a higher male
register, described as the "pure upper" register by some - to me this
male register is more akin to the "soprano" head voice. I did not
clearly understand your view. I wrote, "There is for me a definite
feeling of making a switch to produce this register, and when I
listen to nearly all counter-tenors I hear a switch between the lower
voice and this voice."
In reply, you wrote, "My experience supports yours about the need for
countertenors to switch into another "mode", as it were, of vocal
production in the range from about G4 and higher. The classical
singing technique does not make this switch but rather sings a
production which is is more similar in sound and sensation throughout
the voice."
Terrific that we seem to be talking about the same thing. But now
I'm still not clear: what do you term this "mode" that say
countertenors switch to, and how is the phonational behavior
different
from that of the "classical" or "tenor" head voice mode?
Cheers,
Michael Gordon
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