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From:  buzzcen@a...
Date:  Thu Apr 4, 2002  7:06 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Male/Female registers (was: how do you define 'head voice'?)

In a message dated 4/4/2002 12:09:33 AM Central Standard Time,
lloyd.hanson@n... writes:


> I am very confused by your comments about classical singing's
> extended middle voice, if that is what it is. Your idea that
> classical female singers drop off the chest voice too early and carry
> high voice down too far does not appear to be common to me in the
> best of the classical singers. I hear none of it the likes of
> Leontyne Price, Renata Tebaldi, Te Kanewa, Flagstad, Sutherland, to
> name just a few but much varied group. I do hear it in the kind of
> female tone often required by choral directors. But in well trained
> singers and properly trained classical singers I hear a middle voice
> that is very capable of changes of vocal color and capable of great
> dynamic changes in the middle voice range.
>

I agree with you about the singer's you mention, and they have a lot of chest
mixed in. However it is mixed in and not pure chest; this is done to meet an
aesthetic and to confirm to an idea of femininity. The fact is, no head
voice needs to be mixed in at all until around bflat4 unless you want to
avoid the "crass, crude, and masculine" qualities that even Miller uses to
describe chest voice in the female.

The health and coordination issues I brought up on my past post were with
singers trained by teachers who deny that any chest is to be mixed in at all
and they exist in droves. However, even with the coordinated lower mix, it
is still an artifice that serves an aethetic/idealized version of femininity.

Concerning male pops singers and the elevated head/chin position, this is not
a desired behavior. However, even in that position one can access a mix and
head voice although it is terrribly thin (loaded up on the treble without
good spectral balance) although this is not usually the case. It is usually
a result of hyperfunction and pulling chest (singing on the call).

But the assertion that someone like Stevie Wonder, or countless others
including Roy Orbison (although the he go into falsetto at times; and there
is a big distinction between the two) are singing in reinforced falsetto
confuses me because I just don't hear it. I'd still love to hear you cite an
instance of Wonder going into supported falsetto so I can listen to it. I'd
also love your take on Orbison's singing on "These Comedians" off of his
Mystery Girl cd.

Randy Buescher












  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date  
18472 Re: Male/Female registers (was: how do you defineEdgewoodVoiceStudio   Thu  4/4/2002  
18473 Re: "pops" or "pop" singers? [WAS:Male/Female regJohn Link   Thu  4/4/2002  

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