Italian Musical Terms Used in English - Voices

Voices

Soprano upper The highest vocal line
Mezzo-soprano middle-upper Between soprano and alto
Alto high Second-highest vocal line
Contralto against high Alto, esp. a female alto
Basso low Or "bass;" the lowest vocal line
Basso profondo deep and low A very deep bass voice
Castrato castrated A male singer, castrated so as to be able to sing soprano (now sung by women, conventional countertenors, or sopranisti)

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Famous quotes containing the word voices:

    A city is a place where there is no need to wait for next week to get the answer to a question, to taste the food of any country, to find new voices to listen to and familiar ones to listen to again.
    Margaret Mead (1901–1978)

    And in counterpoint, from other windows,
    the effort to be merry—ay, maracas!
    Msibilant, intricate—the voices wailing pleasure,
    arriving perhaps at joy, late, after sets
    have been switched off, and silences
    are dark windows?
    Denise Levertov (b. 1923)

    England still waits for the supreme moment of her literature—for the great poet who shall voice her, or, better still, for the thousand little poets whose voices shall pass into our common talk.
    —E.M. (Edward Morgan)