Falsetto is a register and a function. Garcia links Falsetto with the middle register of a woman’s voice. As a function it stands as the antithesis of Chest Voice. It is the functional ability of the larynx to produce a dull sound. See: Incomplete Glottal Closure.
I should add that soft vocal sounds must be produced in Falsetto. So dull is not the only descriptor effective in describing the sound resultant from the IGC function. Dull covers quite a lot of what one can do in Falsetto, but Falsetto can be disquietingly brilliant, and in this fact we have a problem that needs attention.
As with anything relevant to an artistic endeavor, using an absolute term such as dull can lead to confusion. I think it best to understand the word as a comparative rather than an absolute. Falsetto covers all of the sounds possible in IGC, but dull doesn’t describe all of those Falsetto sounds.
When expert at navigating the transition from Chest Register to Falsetto Register, a singer of the feminine persuasion will make sounds so similar that the disinterested or uninitiated ear will not catch the transition from one Register to another or the relative difference between the sounds made in the different Registers. The same is true of passing from the Falsetto Register to the Head Register. Manly voices can be just as adept at hiding the functional transitions.
When expert at transitioning from function to function: Chest Voice to Falsetto or the reverse, or CGC to IGC or the reverse, the singer will be able to hide the event horizon of these transitions from the inattentive or inexpert ear. This is relevant to all voices. For the female voices this expertise will extend to making Falsetto transitions to Head Voice or the reverse imperceptible to the listener.
Within the above three paragraphs I have presented the foundation for the unity of an individual’s voice as understood by Garcia and his colleagues of the Italian school. In the paragraph just above one finds the foundation for the “Messa di Voce”.
