Also 8 erron. falsetta. [It., dim. of falso FALSE. Cf. F. fausset.]
1. A forced voice of a range or register above the natural; the head voice.
1774. Walpole, Let. Earl Strafford, 11 Nov. There is a full melancholy melody in his [Leoni’s] voice, though a falsetta.
1799. Young, in Phil. Trans., XC. 142. The same difference … takes place between the natural voice and the common falsetto.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVI. 419/1. The term basso falsetto has been proposed to designate this voice [a feigned lower voice], but the term lower falsetto is more accurate.
1855. Smedley, H. Coverdale, lvii. 413. ‘To whom do I refer?’ repeated her husband, in the highest note of his shrill falsetto.
1879. Grove, Dict. Mus., 501/2 The male counter-tenor, or alto voice, is almost entirely falsetto.
fig. 1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, i. Wks. 1808, VIII. 103. The mock heroick falsetto of stupid tragedy.
1814. Scott, Drama (1874), 186. All is tuned to the same smooth falsetto of sentiment.
1875. Swinburne, Ess. & Studies, 249. Much of the poem is written throughout in falsetto.
2. One who sings with a falsetto voice.
1789. Burney, Hist. Mus., IV. 44. You are pleased … to compare the falsetti of former times with the soprani.
1884. Niecks, Dict. Mus. Terms, Falsetto, a singer who sings soprano or alto parts with such a voice.
3. attrib.
1826. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. II. (1863), 276. A sort of falsetto tone in her speech.
1854. Bushnan, in Circ. Sc. (c. 1865), I. 286/2. The falsetto voice has more of a humming character.
1876. Foster, Phys., III. vii. (1879), 605. The vocal cords are seen to be wide apart when falsetto notes are uttered.
1889. Spectator, 9 Nov., 623/2. The last sentence … seems to us to go perilously near making a falsetto conscience out of the antipathies of strait-laced men.
Hence Falsettist, one who sings in falsetto.
1888. H. E. Krehbiel, Surpliced Choirs in New York, in Harper’s Mag., LXXVII. June, 73/1. Soprano falsettists were once common enough in France, and especially in Spain.
1892. Daily News, 28 July, 6/2. The Italian tenor … is an ‘incomparable falsettist.’
