Falsettone

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 singing are amplified by using the same singing technique as is used in the modal voice register. The result is a bright, powerful tone, often very high-pitched, although the sound is still different from and more feminine than that produced by the modal voice. The term falsettone is also used for the mixed vocal register that can be achieved using this technique.

History and description

Falsettone has reportedly been used by tenors, baritenors, hautes-contre and tenori contraltini of the Baroque and Classical eras. It was used from about A4 or B♭4 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 modal voice register but was really a "mixed head and chest voice, and not the full chest voice that Italian tenors would develop later". (Here, "head voice" refers to falsetto and "chest voice" refers to modal voice.)