Well, for all you musically inclined people out there…I have a question.
When someone forces their voice (singing or talking) into a higher octave then normal, it is called Falsetto, but there is no such term for forcing your voice down an octave.
Any reason for this?
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I’m an instrumentalist, not a vocalist (not usually anyway) so I may be wrong about this…
I think there isn’t a term because it’s not really useful musically. Falsetto carries well because of its high register. Also, falsetto was used a lot in “classical” and “pre-classical” times because nearly all professional singers were male, particularly in religious music.
Forcing your voice below your normal (“full voice”) range produces a very quiet, airy sound, which is all-but-useless. In order to have a good balance in an ensemble, the lower parts need to project more than the upper parts.
OTOH, I vaguely recall hearing altos talking about something I think they referred to as “head voice”, which is a way women sing at the very bottom of their register with a lot of force. Maybe this is what you’re thinking of.
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Originally posted by MrKnowItAll:
“I think there isn’t a term because it’s not really useful musically. Falsetto carries well because of its high register. Also, falsetto was used a lot in “classical” and “pre-classical” times because nearly all professional singers were male, particularly in religious music.”
And then there were the wonderful artists known as the Castratos, who had a fair amount to do back then. Often, when dealing with certain male singers, I'm tempted to try to revive the fashion. But I digress... A castrato is of course different from a falsettist(sp?) who is different from a real countertenor.
“Forcing your voice below your normal (“full voice”) range produces a very quiet, airy sound, which is all-but-useless.”
I also can't think of a specific name for the sound; we (that would be me and my fellow choirsters/singers) usually just called it grunting. IMO, it's better than nothing if you don't have the low altos or basses, unless there's no tone to the pitch when you sing it.
“OTOH, I vaguely recall hearing altos talking about something I think they referred to as “head voice”, which is a way women sing at the very bottom of their register with a lot of force. Maybe this is what you’re thinking of.”
Well not quite. Actually, head voice is pretty much the opposite of what the OP asked. Head voice is what many singers use to refer to the sound they produce when they go higher than their passagio break (the break in the voice that some singers have.) It refers to the lighter, higher tone. An untrained singer may have a "belt" voice where they can sing very loudly if the song stays under certain notes, but if it goes higher they need to switch to a "head voice" which is much less strong/loud. If the altos wanted volume for their lower notes, they'd sing in "chest voice".
Of course, this is just a quick overview for untrained/partially-trained singers. My coloratura-soprano-best-friend probably would pick the second half of my answer apart. But then she wouldn't know a techincal name for the opposite of going into falsetto either.woohoo–my line of work!
The underlying issue in the OP is the subject of vocal register. Basically, the muscles of the larynx coordinate and come together in different ways depending on the type of sound being produced. “Falsetto” is a term only applied to the male voice, and it refers to a type of phonation in which the vocal chords come together less completely than they would during normal phonation. Doing this usually adds about an octave to the top of a man’s vocal range, though it’s usefulness and quality varies from person to person. When a woman sings in a higher octave than is considered normal (think: Mariah Carey having one of her “moments”) it is usually a phenomenon known as “whistle tone”. It is somewhat analagous to falsetto in the male voice, but far fewer women have access to it than men do to their falsetto, and because of the extreme high pitches it produces it’s usefulness is limited.
The reason one doesn’t hear about the opposite phenomenon–namely moving the voice down in pitch register rather than up–is that, while it is possible for the vocal folds to come together less completely in order to make falsetto, it is not possible to come together more completely. So, when one is at the bottom, one is at the bottom. However, there is a phenomenon known colloquially as “vocal fry” which can produce very low pitches. I am not aware of the physiology behind it, but it is the sound you make if you try to imitate a low belch, or attempt to make a very low tone while inhaling rather than exhaling. There are varying opinions on whether or not it has any practical purpose, but some people swear by it as a way to limber up the voice before singing. Others say that it will ruin you. My own experience is that doing any much of it will leave the voice tired and less well-coordinated for regular singing. The bottom line, though, is that while these tones are possible, they have absolutely no musical value because they sound completely unlike any other vocal register. Very unattractive indeed!
P.S. “Head voice” is a term that gets thrown around a lot. To some people it means falsetto. To most trained singers it represents a blending of registers that allows access to high notes without losing the anchor and stability of the low voice as one does in falsetto. The seemless blending of registers, allowing for easy access to all notes within the range while maintaining a consistent vocal color is perhaps the most valued attribute in classically trained singing.
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Falsetto is primarily known as a male phenomena. It is basically converting an adult male’s voice back to its childlike voice. Women don’t have falsetto, they do have a chest voice though which is lower than their real voice.
There really isn’t a term for the phenomena that you describe. In males, it is virutally non-existent because the male’s voice already fell down to the rock bottom. 
MY $0.02…well part of my colelctive learning from my college chorale and voice teachers.
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