Hi Vic
"give a satisfactory description of that term"
Not sure I can - I hadn't realised there was an established definition - will look it up later.
I've always considered the description Mike gave adequate enough for general use "breathy, unearthly quality" - though it has never particularly "alienated" me.
We did use a more detailed analysis of the technique in the Critics Group and several of the singers already used or wanted to use it in their singing, but that was more based on how the tone was produced rather than how you defined it.
The two problems I mentioned:
Gear change - the inability to maintain a single tone as the singer moves up and down her range culminating in a jump from a deep substantial tone to a light airy one.
Breath control.
The 'head tone' requires at least twice as much air to produce, often limiting a singer to a restricted time before she needs to take a breath, irrespective of whether a breathing gap fits into the text of the song or not.
Can I make it clear that I in no way intended my comments to be a criticism of Shirley Collins singing - it is a long time since I heard her speak and I honestly can't remember if her speaking voice is as unsubstantial as I remember her singing voice to be - a long time since I heard her sing.
Personally I find the tonal range of her singing voice far too limited to sustain my attention over a number of songs, but this is entirely down to my own tastes - nothing more.
What does concern me are the hordes of women singers who have deliberately adopted the head voice technique as a permanent way of delivering a song, despite the fact that the tone is a million miles from their natural speaking voices.
We have an example here where an excellent singer with a wonderfully rich speaking voice is on the verge of abandoning singing altogether because (thanks mainly to the fags) she can no longer handle a head tone and ends up gasping for breath at the end of lines.
As I said - not a criticism, just something to be aware of and dealt with appropriately.
My (separate) point remains - no singer is or ever should be above criticism, no matter how experienced.
Jim Carroll