What is the difference between alto and counteralto and tenor and countertenor? I though it was just Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass, Baritone, or treble or mezzo soprano...

A contralto is simply a female voice in the alto range, and is often just called alto. Countertenor is what is sometimes called a male alto and is a man singing in the alto/soprano range (falsetto).

QUOTE (cecilia @ Nov 1 2004, 05:49 PM)

A contralto is simply a female voice in the alto range, and is often just called alto. Countertenor is what is sometimes called a male alto and is a man singing in the alto/soprano range (falsetto).

Aaah yes I see now, thanks!

Usually Contralto is the term for women soloists (Kathleen Ferrier, Maureen Forrester, Marian Anderson) and is a very rare voice, Counter-tenor is the equivalent for men (Andrea Sholl, Alfred Deller, Rene Jacobs) - both voices are very common in baroque music, oratorios, and is typical for Purcell songs, say (check out Deller) and there is a reasonable but lesser known repertoire of art songs specifically for contralto (not sure about counter tenors!) such as Brahms' Alto Rhapsody (but you can always transpose anyway). Neither of these voices appear in opera as a rule (exceptions - Tchaikovsky has a role, Wagner has a role, Britten also but they require singing a high A - above a "normal" Contralto range)

Alto refers more to the lowest of the women OR boys parts in a choir (as in, SATB - each voice can also be sub-divided again in S1, S2 for ex.)

soz if this is a stupid question but I've never known what a mezzosoprano is... anyone like to help me out?

QUOTE

soz if this is a stupid question but I've never known what a mezzosoprano is... anyone like to help me out?

Not stupid at all ........... it's a woman's voice between a contralto and a soprano, sort of similar to second soprano.

I get slightly cross when radio announcers refer to them as "mezzos" - mezzo means half in Italian - how can you call somebody a half ???

Maggie

somewhere between soprano and alto.......... a lower range than soprano, but may have a darker tone and be a 'bigger' voice altogether.

QUOTE (maggiemay @ Nov 20 2004, 08:42 AM)

Not stupid at all ........... it's a woman's voice between a contralto and a soprano, sort of similar to second soprano. I get slightly cross when radio announcers refer to them as "mezzos" - mezzo means half in Italian - how can you call somebody a half ???

Lol!!!!!!!!!

Thank you very much, that's cleared that up for me!! I had an idea that it was something like that but I wasn't sure

Lol maybe they're referring to a hobbit singer when they're talking about mezzos...

QUOTE

Lol maybe they're referring to a hobbit singer when they're talking about mezzos...

lol Cheeble
or maybe it's the person in that song "yesterday" - you know - the bit that goes "suddenly ...... I'm not half the man I used to be " (only it would have to be half the woman haha)...

Maggie

lol!!

I've been thinking though... I'm a hobbit myself and I have a rather high range... small and squeaky, that's me!!

These musicians have some funny definitions... ooh, that rhymes!!

whats a hobbit? *feels really embarassed*

QUOTE (clarinetlover @ Nov 21 2004, 02:32 PM)

whats a hobbit? *feels really embarassed*

A teeny *thing* Can't really describe it as a person... Have you not read the hobbit??

no ive never read the hobbit

Isn't there a hobbit in Lord of the Rings too?

QUOTE (clarinetlover @ Nov 21 2004, 03:44 PM)

no ive never read the hobbit

"hobbit" is a book...

i know its a book but i meant what has that got to do with singing

QUOTE (liebe_klavier @ Nov 21 2004, 05:02 PM)

QUOTE (clarinetlover @ Nov 21 2004, 03:44 PM) no ive never read the hobbit "hobbit" is a book...

yes....... I've read it.

It comes somewhere before the Lord of the Rings...... The hobbit is also a person........

LOL

Once upon a time in the Shires...ooops sorry I mean in England, a writer called J R R Tolkien wrote a book called The Hobbit....the story of a strange little creature who has a lot of adventures and ends up with a magic ring.....and from there he developped a whole imaginary world, complete with languages and legends, Orcs and Elves and various creatures pleasant and unpleasant, and so on (bit of a scholar, our man, I think he was a Don at Oxford or something) - anyway, out of this he wrote three books called.....The Lord of the Rings trilogy (The Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers, the Return of the King), which you may just have heard about these last few years due to the super-duper-production triple film director Peter Jackson did in NZ with a bunch of Hollywood types :-)

I try and re-read them all regularly :-)

QUOTE

i know its a book but i meant what has that got to do with singing

well ..... it's a long story (not as long as the lord of the rings trilogy though) ....Helen asked what a mezzo soprano was, and I mentioned mezzo means half, and I said that the bbc and other people refer to mezzo sopranos as mezzos which is a bit rude as it makes them sound like half a person and the hobbits were supposed to be about half height or something, so Helen said maybe they are mezzos or something like that anyway I don't remember exactly now ... and .......... look why don't you read the whole thread it might be clearer than me woffling on .................... ??

Maggie

Well Maggie, you said about a 'mezzo' being half a person, cheeble said she is a hobbit herself. Nat asked what one was, I mentioned about the book, and said had Nat not read it and leibe klavier said its a book.

So Nat said yes I know its a book, but what does it have to do with singing?

Actually I got that wrong - it was Helen who started the thread about the different voices, but it was Cheeble who asked what a mezzo soprano was ,,,,,, I am reminded of an old recording of Victor Borge (I think it was ... decades ago) who referred to messy sopranos ...

M

QUOTE (maggiemay @ Nov 21 2004, 09:27 PM)

I said that the bbc and other people refer to mezzo sopranos as mezzos which is a bit rude as it makes them sound like half a person and the hobbits were supposed to be about half height or something,

Yes, spot-on. Some of the characters in "The Lord of the Rings" refer to them as "halflings".

i think im getting there now!

good good!!!

hobbits have good voices... listen to pippin in the return of the king (the film)...

QUOTE (clarinetlover @ Nov 22 2004, 04:24 PM)

i think im getting there now!

that's good...