On Sun, 25 Jun 2000, Alain Zürcher wrote: > 1) The so-called "head voice" of a tenor - though one also talks of "ut de > poitrine" ("chest high C"?), which is confusing... > This register is an upper extension of the "mode 1" or "heavy mechanism", > mixed with some characteristics of the "mode 2" or "light mechanism", but > mainly using covering (couverture, copertura...) to extend the heavy > mechanism. It stops indeed a 4th or a 5th above the "second passage", or > "top of the passage zone".
Dear Alain,
Thank you ever so much! Your explanation has been an epiphany. I always *thought* there was something strange about calling the upper tenor range head voice - the same as what women use. They are very different modes of phonation. This is very in line with my own experience - I can use both modes (mode 1 only up to a certain point, of course) and the sensations are quite distinct.
Most post-Wagnerian tenors never leave mode 1 unless for special effect. I guess when it gets interesting is when you find tenors who change to mode 2 after about G4 and therefore can continue on to F5 or so. Some are not even aware of the transition (I wish I was so lucky!) The arpeggio that I posted two weeks ago follows this "Irish tenor" strategy, I think. Unfortunately, this is almost a lost art - it's too bad, some Rossini tenor careers would last so much longer otherwise ;-)
The important thing to remember, I guess, is that with a true countertenor, this mode 2 is not falsetto, and is therefore capable of all that a woman can do with it...
> 2) The "mode 2" or "light mechanism" itself. Mine goes up one octave above > my second passage, but I have encountered singers with very different > extensions.
This is the case with me... When I liberate mode two from one (by using a more traditionally feminine registration scheme rather than a masculine one), mode two can be taken more than an octave above my second passagio. When I try to preserve the "masculine" sound, however, I cannot sing above a G5.
Thanks again!
-Tako
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