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
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