The Evolution of the Male Falsetto

https://frieze.com/article/evolution-male-falsetto

by Foe • 7 years ago

29 19 7 years ago

frieze.com

arcticgeek• 7 years ago

It's disappointing there was no mention of King Diamond!

dehrmann2• 7 years ago

Can't say I really wanted to read about Adam Levine, so I'm happy he was left out.

dehrmann2• 7 years ago

There's a bit of a debate over the definition of falsetto. It's either synonymous with "head voice," or it's a breathy, disconnected head voice sound. As long as it's connected, with a good singing, you might not even be able to tell where it begins. It's like the difference between Journey and the Bee Gees.

cynicalkane• 7 years ago

Really?

I'm not sure where the debate would lie; falsetto is a clearly identifiable physical voice register that, without deliberate training, sounds quite different from the usual 'modal' voice. Futhermore, there is generally no 'in-between'--it's either one register or the other. Some singers can switch between the two without audible seams, but it's very difficult.

jcobnl• 7 years ago

When I sing a scale in head voice starting on a high note going down on low/mid volume, it seems to be quite seemless. I suppose on higher volumes, its easier to notice for me personally.

cafard2• 7 years ago

I find it odd that there is no mention of the counter-tenor voice in classical music. I suppose that a lot of the parts now taken by counter-tenors were originally written for castratos, but there have been quite a few pieces written since those days.

mason55• 7 years ago

Really good article about countertenor (both history and a current star) from last month in the New Yorker[0]

[0] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/22/a-millennial-c...

cafard2• 7 years ago

Most interesting, thanks.

levicole• 7 years ago

I went to visual performing arts high school and one of my classmates was a counter-tenor. He also doubled as a baritone, which, from what I understand is fairly common. It was incredible what he could do.

fredley• 7 years ago

In the UK you'll find a (relatively!) large number of countertenors, at least within the anglican church music tradition (I said relatively). Until quite recently all church choirs would have been solely male, with boy trebles and adult male countertenors. Female altos in these church choirs are still relatively uncommon.

frodo3212• 7 years ago

This article mentions pop voice specifically, but doesn't delve into the actual physiological phenomena associated with head voice/falsetto, in part because of current limitations at understanding how we make sound. Male head voice and falsetto are related to crico-thyroid (antagonistic muscles to vocal folds) dominant phonation, as opposed to thyro-arytenoid (vocal fold) dominant phonation. The differences from there can be attributed to a number of additional factors, like subglottic air-pressure or pharyngeal shape. If you're interested in further reading or research on the subject, the writings of Richard Miller or Ingo Titze would be great places to explore.

whiddershins• 7 years ago

Falsetto in rock has a strong relationship to the low mid content of electric guitars.

This means a vocalist needs to get in the upper register to have sonic space.

Some of the best rock vocalists of all time, for example axl rose and Chris Cornell, are actually low baritones singing almost exclusively in an idiosyncratic blended falsetto.

Related: pre distorted electric guitars, baritones were considered the most attractive in pop music... Elvis was a tenor who sang in the baritone register, I believe.

ksdale• 7 years ago

The first time I heard Axl Rose speak in an interview I couldn’t believe how deep his voice was! Listening to basically every GnR song had led me to expect a much higher pitched voice.

tk75x• 7 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HQh29nQcvs If you haven't seen this as a viral post years ago, a great example of falsetto.

cestith• 7 years ago

I can't directly disagree with anything in the article. However it's a bit shocking to me to hear about influential singers using falsetto for parts of their songs and not even a mention John Lennon, Geddy Lee, or Howard Jones in passing.

kazinator• 7 years ago

The trick with falsetto is to transition flawlessly to and from. Singers have to work on extending it downward. If you stay in falsetto while reaching for low notes, that's when things can awkwardly falter. There has to be decent overlap with the regular voice ("modal voce"), for easy transitioning.

Singing with too much falsetto is annoying; it should just be used to reach a few high notes, IMHO. If someone has to falsetto the whole song, it's in the wrong key or register for them.

In the 1970's, supposedly, radio stations used to advertize "Bee-Gee-free weekends", ha.

notatoad• 7 years ago

i'm assuming article is resurfacing now because of the vox earworm video from earlier this week. if you haven't seen it yet, it's a good watch (like all the earworm videos)

https://www.vox.com/2019/8/13/20801974/we-charted-pop-music-...

YeGoblynQueenne• 7 years ago

> Plant is the original metal vocalist

Actually, Led Zeppelin are not metal. And it's strange to read an article that praises male metal vocalists for their falsettos without even a passing mention to the indisputable god of all metal falsettists, gay and straight alike, whose name I don't even have to actually say. He is that conspicuous by his absence in that article.

Oh, alright. I mean Rob Halford. Who writes an article about falsetto vocalists and leaves out the man who sang this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM__lPTWThU (Painkiller)

Or this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGkRRdkPTtg (Exciter)

Or this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tv-e9DJqK4 (The Sentinel)

Or, well, this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_1hLiqwq7c (Heavy Metal)

Terretta• 7 years ago

Makes me think of the “diva dance” song from Fifth Element, which was thought couldn’t be sung.

Here it is sung by Dimash Kudaibergen, a 25 yo Kazakh:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=23HYymUjIHE&t=3m32s (at 3m30s)

He is university trained in classical as well as in contemporary music and is known for his wide vocal range of 6 octaves, from D2 to D8 (and 6 octaves and 5 semitones, from A1 to D8, with vocal fry). This spans from the bottom of the bass range beyond the top of the soprano range.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimash_Kudaibergen

You can hear more typical range in the first half of that video.

The Evolution of the Male Falsetto

Related Stories