I'm feeling a bit dispirited. I've purchased a bunch of anthologies of contralto songs, arias and oratorios. None of them are especially low - most don't go below an A below mid C. A lot of them are really quite high, going up to G's and even the odd A, in the soprano range. As a woman whose voice really sounds at it's best in the nether regions of the alto range, I wondered whether perhaps I'm just not cut out for singing in a classical way, or whether, if I do continue down this path, I'll end up perpetually singing music that isn't at the best possible pitch for my voice.

hiya!
how long have you been singing for? because you might find that your voice will get higher the more you use it cos thats what happened to me! (I can get nearly an octave higher than when i started singing!) so if your voice does go a bit higher then you may find it easier to find songs in your range! but for now it may just need a bit more looking for repertiore to find what you need!! sorry if this isnt any help!!

Have you tried searching www.aria-database.com for songs within your range? (Would do it for you but don't know the specifics of what you can/like to sing) Not promising it will turn up anything of any use to you but worth a try?

Also, might be imagining this but I'm fairly sure that in Vivaldi's opera, Teuzzone there are some lead alto-ish parts. Might be worth investigating? (Don't take my word for it though!)

Handel wrote some fairly nice lower things in his time.

Thanks, I'll have a look.

I've been singing all my life, but started proper training in the summer. My vocal range has expanded dramatically in both directions - but it still sounds at it's best in the lower part of the alto range. It may well change with time, as I can feel my voice brightening and filling out in the upper part of my range, but I guess I also really like the deep alto sounds (probably why I play the cello, and have a preference for heavy brass too! Even my recorder's an alto, lol!).

I know exactly how you feel. Although I can hit some high notes - E or F in soprano range, my voice sounds infinitely better "down there". I wish people would write some more songs for us or that the songs that already exist would come out of hiding!

NM

Meerkat, have you found what you were looking for? If not, try buying a CD which are wholly/exclusively sung by a mezzo soprano! These can't be super-high. There's no CD for 100% alto songs, I believe, if THAT's what you are hoping for?

I'm a very low alto. My voice sounds at its best in the range from about D or E below middle C up to about a C above. The mezzo range tends to be well above that.

That's almost a high tenor range really, isn't it? Very low for alto, that must be infuriating

It is, yes. It seems that, in classical singing, I wouldn't be 'allowed' to sing tenor songs. And there's very little written in the low alto range.

Hmm, not sure I entirely agree.

One excellent contralto, Nathalie Stutzmann, has recorded Schubert's Die Winterreise, and she is recording Schwanengesang too, http://www.colbertartists.com/ArtistBio.asp?ID=49&DT=New , and the former received good reviews.

I think you should borrow some volume of Schubert's songs in the version for low voice and see how you get on. Who's to judge?

Certainly in something like Die schöne Müllerin the text is clearly written from the perspective of a young man, and perhaps has gender issues, but many (if not most) of the other songs are not so constrained.

Are you in a SATB choir?? Something interesting to do is sing as a female tenor it can be quite interesting and satisfies the lower register of the alto voice, have you sung "How beautiful are the feet"-Handel's Messiah in e flat (alto version?) or umm "Praise him,all ye that in his house attend" -again its Handel (i think...) Both of these sit quite low, "Praise him" goes down to g,f sharp,f. Another thing is singing the mezzo stuff in different keys and transposing it down a bit, to optimise the deep dark depths of the manly alto sounds!!
Hope this helps
Char

Hi Char

I tend to sing where I'm needed in choir. At the moment our tenor line is quite solid, so I sing alto. However, we have a small choir that does invited performances, and in that I sing tenor.

My teacher isn't terribly keen on low transposition, as she feels it sounds artificial to sing songs written for high voices in a much lower register. My exam pieces are all transposed to the mid alto range - the lowest I go on one of the four pieces is a Gsharp.