Whether the subject is a political party, the gay-rights movement, or your local football team, open any book on a minority interest and, chances are, it will have been written by someone sympathetic to the cause. The obvious problem with this is that the voices of interest groups are, by definition, unlikely to prove disinterested commentators.

It should be no surprise, then, that much writing on the subject of the falsettist has been the work of men who, at one level or another, have sung this way themselves, and who are inclined towards establishing the position of their own voice-type in history. By the same token, it is probably no coincidence that criticism of such writing has been the work of people who, if they sing at all, are not falsettists. The stance of a writer is rarely stated explicitly, but his position may well become known to us later, requiring that we reprocess what we have read. This always strikes me as an unnecessary irritation, which could easily be removed by an honest declaration of interest. Such as this: I am not a falsettist or a counter-tenor.

I am, in fact, an indifferent baritone. I am also director of a choir which, when we sing a piece by Tallis, will do so without a falsettist on any line. Does this place me in the anti-falsettist, anti-counter-tenor camp?