Falsettone is a term used in modern Italian musicology to describe a vocal technique used by male opera singers in the past, in which the fluty sounds typical of

falsetto Falsetto ( , ; Italian language, Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ...

singing are amplified by using the same singing technique used in the

modal voice register Modal voice is the vocal register used most frequently in speech and singing in most languages. It is also the term used in linguistics for the most common phonation of vowels. The term "modal" refers to the resonant mode of vocal folds; that is ...

. The result is a bright, powerful tone, often very high-pitched, although the sound is still different from and more feminine than what is produced by the modal voice. The term ''falsettone'' is also used for the mixed

vocal register A vocal register is a range of tones in the human voice produced by a particular vibratory pattern of the vocal folds. These registers include modal voice (or normal voice), vocal fry, falsetto, and the whistle register. Registers originate in lar ...

that can be achieved using this technique.

History and description

Falsettone has reportedly been used by

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

baritenor Baritenor (also rendered in English-language sources as bari-tenor or baritenore) is a portmanteau (blend) of the words "baritone" and "tenor". It is used to describe both baritone and tenor voices. In ''Webster's Third New International Dictionar ...

s, hautes-contre, and tenori contraltini of the

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

and Classical eras. It was used from about A4 or B4 upwards. According to various authors, baroque and neoclassical tenors simply used falsetto to sing high notes, with the exception of hautes-contre, who could reach up to B in what was claimed to be the

. However, it was actually a "mixed head and chest voice, and not the full chest voice that Italian tenors would develop later".Potter, p. 23. Such mixed register does not seem, after all, very different from that described by Celletti and the ''Grande Enciclopedia''. (Here, "head voice" refers to falsetto and "chest voice" refers to modal voice.) Nowadays, the falsettone register is seldom used in Opera. Such notes as high C, C-sharp, D and E are usually sung in the modal or modal sounding "mixed voice" register (or, as it is sometimes misleadingly described, "from the chest"). Even the famous F5 of Bellini’s ''

I Puritani ' (''The Puritans'') is an 1835 opera by Vincenzo Bellini. It was originally written in two acts and changed to three acts before the premiere on the advice of Gioachino Rossini, with whom the young composer had become friends. The music was set ...

'', which used to be left out or sung falsetto (for example by

Luciano Pavarotti Luciano Pavarotti (, , ; 12 October 19356 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor who during the late part of his career crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most acclaimed tenors of all time. He made numerou ...

) has often been performed with a more "chesty" voice by the new

bel canto , )—with several similar constructions (, , , pronounced in English as )—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing, and whose definitions have often been misunderstood. ''Bel canto'' was not only seen as a vocal technique ...

tenor generation of the late 20th century.. It's unclear whether this mode of execution of notes as high as F5 and around is actually modal or, or the same light registration of falsettone but with more compression twang and brighter vowels which make it sound like a prosecution of modal. Falsettone is however employed in many renditions of classical baroque music, of which Monteverdi, Handel are names worth of mention, pioneers of this genre, by male singers, tenors but often even baritones or lower, taking roles which used to be of castrati. These singers use a resonating falsetto to achieve the notes and approximate the timbre which possibly used to be of these men. We can name among them Andreas Scholl, Philippe Jaroussky. Female opera singers often use this register for the higher part of their tessitura, but they connect it to their lower register. In that same period Italian musicologist

Rodolfo Celletti Rodolfo Celletti (1917–2004) was an Italian musicologist, critic, voice teacher, and novelist. Considered one of the leading scholars of the operatic voice and the history of operatic performance, he published many books and articles on the subje ...

, who was also an amateur singing teacher, tried to restore the falsettone technique, training the tenor

Giuseppe Morino Giuseppe is the Italian form of the given name Joseph, from Latin Iōsēphus from Ancient Greek Ἰωσήφ (Iōsḗph), from Hebrew יוסף. The feminine form of the name is Giuseppa or Giuseppina. People with the given name include: :''Note ...

, who made his debut singing the tenore contraltino role of Gualtiero in Bellini’s '' Il pirata'', at the

Festival della Valle d'Itria The Festival della Valle d'Itria is a summer opera festival held in the south eastern Italian town of Martina Franca in the Apulia region. The Festival was founded in 1975 and performances are given in July and August each summer on a specially ...

Martina Franca Martina Franca, or just Martina (Bari dialect, Martinese: ), is a town and ''comune, municipality'' in the province of Taranto, Apulia, Italy. It is the second most populated town of the province after Taranto, and has a population (2016) of ...

Style of falsettone

Whether falsettone is a range or style is often questioned. In the definition of falsettone, laryngeal and stylistic aspects overlap. Falsettone features a sound color that is relatively dark, "covered", pure, rounded and consistent. Falsettone is thought to use a stronger level of adduction and support than the typical falsetto. It is often debated whether or not to apply this definition to any sound. Even the ones most similar to the modal sound possibly made in M2, especially in the higher section of the voice. "Reinforced falsetto" is also used interchangeably, but more frequently, to describe strategies which intend to enrich and swell emissions which might be M2 or "falsetto" in nature.

Notes

Sources

* Rodolfo Celletti, ''A History of Bel Canto'', Oxford University Press, 1996, (quotations from the Italian edition: ''Storia del belcanto'', Discanto Edizioni, Fiesole, 1983) * Salvatore Caruselli (ed), ''Grande enciclopedia della musica lirica'', Longanesi &C. Periodici S.p.A., Rome, vol 4 * John Potter, ''Tenor, History of a voice'', Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2009, * Stanley Sadie (ed.), ''The

New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volumes. The dictionary was first published in 1992 by Macmillan Reference, L ...

'', Oxford University Press, New York, 1992, 4 volumes, {{opera terms Phonation Italian opera terminology Singing techniques Voice registers