In a message dated 4/3/2002 9:18:46 PM Central Standard Time,
lloyd.hanson@n... writes:
>
> The female middle voice is, in most regards, a kind of extended
> passaggio. Its primary difference with the passaggio of the male
> voice is its extended length. The tenor passaggio generally spans
> about D4 to G4. But the soprano middle voice stretches from about E4
> through E5 (or even higher). Obviously the female voice is able to
> sing the lower portion of this middle voice rather comfortably in
> chest voice and the upper portion of the middle voice in high voice,
> but doing so does not remove the difficulties that often occur when
> the chest voice so extended must change to high voice or the high
> voice so descended must change to chest voice.
The extended middle voice (mix) in classical singing is an artifice imposed
on the voice to induce a more feminine quality in the voice lower in the
register. Most descriptions in classical pedagogy books use the terms crass,
crude, and masculine to describe the female chest voice. These are not terms
relating to function but values.
The female chest voice is much longer than these pedagogies suggest (up to
a4); this is where the mix begins. When the voice is coordinated this way,
the passagio is much shorter (about a fourth) just like a man's.
This artificial induction of vocal fold lengthening contributes to many vocal
problems in my opinion including the need for much higher airflow due to poor
prephonatory tuning of the folds. The artificially lengthened fold does not
adduct well because there is not enough TA involvement (and in that area of
the voice TA is not only considered a regulator of pitch but also an adductor
muscle). These lengthened folds that require excessive airflow produce a
sound similar to the male falsetto. Why? Well, one could make the argument
that it is falsetto; I think it is.
Randy Buescher
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