Vocal Range - World Records and Extremes of Vocal Range

World Records and Extremes of Vocal Range

The following facts about female and male ranges are known:

• Guinness lists the highest demanded note in the classical repertoire as G6 in "Popoli di Tessaglia", K. 316, a concert aria by W. A. Mozart, composed for Aloysia Weber. Though pitch standards were not fixed in the eighteenth century, this rare note is also heard in the opera Esclarmonde by Jules Massenet and Les contes d'Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach. The highest note commonly called for is F6, famously heard in the Queen of the Night's two arias "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" and "O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn" in Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte.

Several little-known works call for pitches higher than G6. For example, the soprano Mado Robin, who was known for her exceptionally high voice, sang a number of compositions created especially to exploit her highest notes, reaching C7. Robin also added a number of her top notes to other arias; when she sang "Spargi d'amaro pianto" (Lucia di Lammermoor), for example, she would use B♭6 as the penultimate note, rather than B♭5 as written.

• Lowest note in a solo: Guinness lists the lowest demanded note in the classical repertoire as D2 (almost two octaves below Middle C) in Osmin's second aria in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Although Osmin's note is the lowest 'demanded' in the operatic repertoire, lower notes are frequently heard, both written and unwritten, and it is traditional for basses to interpolate a low C2 in the duet "Ich gehe doch rate ich dir" in the same opera. Leonard Bernstein composed an optional B1 (a minor third below D2) in a bass aria in the opera house version of Candide. In a Russian piece combining solo and choral singing, Pavel Chesnokov directs the bass soloist in "Do not deny me in my old age" to descend even lower, to G1, depending on the arrangement. In the symphonic repertoire, the bass soloist in Mahler's Eighth Symphony is asked to sing a C♯2.
• Lowest note for a choir: Mahler's Resurrection Symphony and Eighth Symphony (bar 1457 in the "Chorus mysticus") and Rachmaninoff's Vespers require B♭1. Frederik Magle's symphonic suite Cantabile and Zoltán Kodály's Psalmus hungaricus both require A1. In Russian choirs the oktavists traditionally sing an octave below the bass part, down to G1. Kheruvimskaya pesn (Song of Cherubim) by Krzysztof Penderecki includes a written F1 in its last chord, though the note itself is seldom performed.

• German-born singer Ivan Rebroff is credited with producing an A♭1.