Date sent: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 14:36:44 EST
Subject: Re: Speaking/Singing Voice (ranting about countertenors :)
To: vocalist
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

tako,
in reading your post, i was reminded of a discussion i once had with the
late richard cassilly about passaggios. he said that the chinese did not have
passaggios and that the reason for that was the way they spoke their
language. i noticed in rehearsals, hai-jing fu (baritone from beijing, won
met auditions in boston in 87 or 88, not sings with the met, la opera, etc),
when he would mark, his tone was a lighter, more falsetto-like tone, but, not
really falsetto. dietrich fischer-dieskau's upper range seems to be a headier
quality than most baritones as does the upper range of andreas schmidt, a
former fischer-dieskau protege. there are certainly other notable examples
(mel torme, paul mccartney) of male singers who seem to go from top to bottom
with no dicernable borders.
the whole point being, i wonder if this is anything physical or if it
is all a matter of method, whether learned or stumbled upon. after years of
trying to glide from falsetto to chest and back without any break, i finally
learned a little trick that helped me do it. and after being able to go from
lowest to highest without a break, i began to realize how much the methods of
operatic singing try to stay in the same sound throughout the range, and that
the operatic approach, at least to me, seems to be what brings about the
phenomenon of breaks in the voice ( i would have to say that males trying to
sound like 'men' would have the same problem and probably, worse so).

mike