Vocalist.org archive


From:  "Wim Ritzerfeld" <w.ritzerfeld@c...>
"Wim Ritzerfeld" <w.ritzerfeld@c...>
Date:  Sun Jul 15, 2001  2:47 pm
Subject:  [vocalist] Re: falsetto (was lower register)


Thanks for your comments, Lloyd.

First an apology to the other list members:
I know some people hate this subject because it so confusing and
there are still so many unanswered questions.
That happens to be exactly the reason I like it :))

--- In vocalist-temporary@y..., "Lloyd W. Hanson" <vocalist-temporary@y..., "Lloyd W. Hanson" < > Dear Wim:
>
> You wrote:
> >Looking at it this way, couldn't Garcia's falsetto then be equated
> >to the lower part of 'light mechanism' ? If this is true then
> >Garcia's falsetto and the female middle voice would be one and the
> >same thing, making it quite logical that he placed the falsetto
> >in the middle between chest and head registers.
>
> COMMENT: "If this is true then Garcia's falsetto and the female
> middle voice would be one and the same thing" How ever did you
> extrapolate that statement from the balance of your information.
>

You're quite correct in that the information I gave
is indeed incomplete, as I only referred to the behaviour
of my own voice. It is however Garcia himself who
strongly implies that the female middle register and the (Garcia)
falsetto are one and the same thing. I have not read Garcia's Traité
myself, but what I did read is an excellent book on the history of
vocal pedagogy by James Stark of the University of Toronto titled "Bel
Canto, a history of vocal pedagogy". The book contains some striking
citations from Garcia's work that strongly point in this direction.

"The falsetto belongs particularly to women and children. This
register is weak, covered and rather resembles the low notes
of the flutë, principally in the lower part"

and

"The falsetto, with men, is of the same nature, and placed on the
same lines as that of women, but the low notes are difficult to
utter and elude the masculine larynx, much better suited to
produce the same tones in the chest voice"

Garcia's remedy against the 'breathy, veiled' quality of the
'falsetto' in women's voices is by "the very pronounced pinching
of the glottis". Garcia warned the female pupil "not to give in to
the tendency to aspirate the falsetto tones at the moment when
she leaves the chest register"

> A step further. The light mechanism, according to Vennard's
favorite
> use of the term, describes the vocal quality one obtains when the
> vocalis muscle is no longer the primary antagonistic force that
> resists the lengthening of the vocal folds caused by the
cricothyroid
> muscles. As the vocalis muscle releases its tension, the vocal
> ligament assumes the important role of resisting the cricothyroid
> lengthening of the vocal folds. The body of the vocal folds
becomes
> thinner, the resultant oscillation less complex, and the resultant
> partials more clearly produced. Head voice is the common term to
> describe this quality.
>
> As the voice descends in pitch from head voice it is desirable for
> the singer to develop the ability to gradually involve the vocalis
> muscle in the phonation until it becomes, once again, the primary
> antagonistic force which is its role in the heavy mechanism (chest
> voice). The reverse would be true as the voice ascends in pitch.
> The skill required to achieve this transition from vocal ligament
to
> vocalis muscle activity (and back again) is the primary skill
> required to transcend the register changes that are present in both
> the male and female voice.
>
> However, if one follows the Garcia model, one maintains the vocal
> ligament activity downward beyond the point at which it would
> normally have little function and, simultaneously, maintains the
> inactivity of the vocalis muscle in a range in which it should have
a

I don't think Garcia implied that the vocalis muscle should
NOT be engaged when descending the light register. As
far as I know he does not even mention the vocalis muscle. He just
states that it is important to keep the glottis firmly closed,
especially in the lower part of the 'falsetto'.
What I'm suggesting is that there does not need to be a contradiction
between gradually engaging the vocalis muscle and still staying in
light registration, the hallmark of light registration being an
almost non-existent vertical phase difference and a low closed
quotient.

As to what exactly causes the transition from light into heavy
registration and v.v., AFIAK science has not found a definitive
answer yet. Apparently the vocalis plays a part in it, but it does
not seem to be the only force and there even seems to be an element
of chance ('chaos') involved.

> demonstration device to make the singer aware of normal verses the
> abnormal functioning of the chest voice but as a training device I
> have not found it useful.
>

Indeed Garcia apparently only used the 'breathy' type of falsetto as
a demonstration device and not for training:

"By teaching how to produce the veiled, cottony, dull timbre,
we have learned how to recognise it and avoid it"

> And, without a doubt, Garcia's definition of falsetto provides a
> major confusion when compared to the modern definition of falsetto
> (the high male voice that resembles a female voice).

Agreed, but I tend to go along with James Stark when he says that
this confusion is not only Garcia's fault, but is aggravated by
the fact that so many have misinterpreted his writings.

One of the things I definitely want to do when entering the vocal
pedagogy class after next year is read all of Garcia's Traité.

Best regards,

Wim Ritzerfeld
baritone, engineer and aspiring voice teacher




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