[...] in fra tanti diversi pareri (osservando), ho trovato che tra le voci di testa e quelle di petto, quelle di petto sono le migliori per comun parere. [...] Quelle poi che sono meramente di petto sono quelle che nel intonar che fanno, uscendo dalle fauci, par ch'eschino fuori cacciate da vehemenza pettorale; le quali sogliono assai più dellettare che le di testa [...]

([...] (making observations) among so many differing opinions, I have found that as between head voices and chest voices, it is chest voices which are by general consent the better [...] Those, further, which are pure chest voices and the ones which, when produced, seem to issue from the mouth under a vehement impulse from the chest; these are usually much more delightful than head voices[...] (24))

Even if one is unwilling to grant absolute validity to these assertions, they do at any rate attest that the technique of singing with a chest voice, in an acceptation perhaps analogous to our own, was already in use in late Renaissance Italy. By way of addition to the confusion to which the term 'passaggio' (25) has given rise, it is sometimes incorrectly supposed that in female voices the passaggio is located an octave higher than in male voices (26). The mixed register, which permits the gradual and gentle joining of the chest voice with the head voice and the disguising of the break between registers, is situated in the same range of pitches for both sexes; thanks to it, women can sing even low notes with vigour, while in tenors, baritones and basses it facilitates a large upward extension of the voice. Tosi's falsetto is not that used by today's sopranos and contraltos, much less the voice "which a man can use when he wishes to make a burlesque imitation of a woman" (27). Modern falsettists generally use a pure head register, unblended with the chest register; they also 'cover' the sound, a practice not supported by the documents of the baroque period. The voice-production they obtain is somewhat hard at times, by contrast with the softness and richness which one hears in, for example, the recordings of famous Italian falsettists of the Pontifical Chapel made in the first decades of this century, or from Alfred Deller (28), who displays a bright timbre and, even though he belongs to the English vocal tradition, a notably sweet sound.

Le voci ordinariamente si dividono in due registri, che chiamansi, l'uno di petto, l'altra di testa, ossia falsetto. Ho detto ordinariamente, perché si da anche qualche raro esempio, che qualcheduno riceve dalla natura il singolarissimo dono di poter eseguire tutto colla sola voce di petto. Di questo dono non parlo. Io parlo solo della voce in generale divisa in due registri, come comunemente succede. [...] La grande arte de' cantanti dev'esser quella di rendere impercettibile a chi li sente, o li vede cantare la minore o maggiore difficoltà, con cui cavano le voci dei due differenti registri di petto e di testa. Ciò solo può ottenersi unendole finemente [...]

(Voices ordinarily comprise two registers, called the chest and the head registers. I say 'ordinarily', because there are also to be found some rare instances of a person's being able, thanks to a very special gift of nature, to sing everything with the chest voice alone. This gift I am not speaking of here. I am speaking only of the normal voice divided between two registers, which is what commonly happens (29). [...] The great art of singers should be that of rendering imperceptible to the listener or onlooker the greater or lesser difficulty with which they bring forth the voices of the two different registers, chest and head. This can only be achieved by subtly uniting them [...] (30))

Giambattista Mancini, author of the Riflessioni Pratiche from which this passage is taken, clearly holds to the principles of Tosi. He writes, however, that:

Farà meraviglia a molti de' miei Leggitori, come mai, dopo un sì gran numero di valorosi cantanti, che tuttora fioriscono, possa essere invalsa l'opinione, in cui da qualche tempo sono, non solo gl'Italiani, ma anche gli Oltramontani stessi, che la nostra Musica sia affatto decaduta, e che vi manchino buone scuole, e buoni cantanti. Convien però confessare, che se tale opinione è falsa rispetto alle scuole, purtroppo è vera rispetto ai cantanti, de' quali nessuno si vede sottentrare per riempire con onore il vuoto lasciato dai vecchi artisti.

(Many of my readers will wonder how it can be that, in view of the accomplishments of such a host of singers, who are still flourishing, it has for some time now been the established opinion, not just among Italians but among those of the north themselves, that our music has thoroughly declined, and that good schools and good singers are lacking. It should be acknowledged, though, that even if this opinion is false in regard to the schools, it is regrettably true in regard to the singers, among whom there are not emerging any successors who manage to fill honourably the void left behind by the artists of old (31).) (>>>Next) (<<<Previous)

(31) G. B. MANCINI, ib., p. 42.