Vocalist.org archive


From:  Takeshi Oda <toda@m...>
Takeshi Oda <toda@m...>
Date:  Fri Dec 8, 2000  6:08 am
Subject:  Re: why do women sing in head voice?


> I would prefer that we consider falsetto as a particular configuration of
> the voice. If this concept is accepted then what Randy describes as female
> falsetto does correspond with what we now normally consider is a definition
> of male falsetto. The actual manner in which the vocal folds function is a
> much better determinant for classifying a particular kind of vocal
> production.

Hear hear! So it would be awfully nice if we could actually get a camera
into David Daniels' or some countertenor's throat so we could see once and
for all what it looks like in there. I'm actually serious. All this stuff
we know about tenor head voice, falsetto, chest comes from a time before
operatic caliber countertenors existed in any numbers.

We're still looking at the treatises that talk about countertenors like
they are feeble-voiced hooty curiosities.

Is there any way we could get someone to do this research so we can see if
a countertenor's high voice is more like true falsetto (I mean Lloyd's
definition here) or like a woman's head voice, or a lighter variant of a
tenor's head voice, or maybe something totally different.

I'd be willing to bet it hasn't been done, but it sure should be. :-)

Tako


emusic.com