On Mon, 11 Dec 2000 chosdad@c... wrote:
> COMMENT: I have yet to hear a male that really (upon close
> listening) sounds like a female - and I have heard quite a few of the
> better known counter-tenors (Randall Wong, Brian Asawa, Michael
> Chance, David Daniels, Yoshikazu Mera, Steven Rickards). Why do they
> sound different? I don't know, but assume there are certain
> differences in the geometry of the larynx and vocal mechanism even
> when the vocal folds are roughly the same size.
That's the funny thing, though - Their larnges are all different, and
certainly mostly different from women's. Wong has a baritone speaking
voice, Mera a tenorino, and the others in the [bari]tenor range.
Ironically, Wong has a "flageolet" range despite his relatively large
larynx. Do you think pre-pubescent boys and girls sound different? I do -
you could say it's just societal stuff, but boys have more testosterone
than girls even before birth... it seems like it would affect the voice.
The reason I think there is a physical *and* neurological component to the
upper male register is stories that the castrati sometimes mysteriously
lost their upper registers during "puberty." (Elsa, can you substatiate
this?) Their speaking voices did not change (and presumably their larynges
didn't either), and were still castrati in every other way. They must have
had just enough testosterone (which still exists in a castrato, as it does
in women, esp pubescent girls) to trigger some kind of non-physical
change that voided their ability to use their soprano extension.
Tako
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