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contralto

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contralto

1. Music the lowest female voice, usually having a range of approximately from F a fifth below middle C to D a ninth above it
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Contralto

 

a female voice of low range. The chest voice (ending with A-flat or B-flat of the first octave) is its most characteristic and expressive register. It has a rich, deep timbre. Among the opera parts calling for a controlto are OI’ga in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Konchakovna in Borodin’s Prince Igor. Composers have often written the parts of boys and youths for a contralto; some examples are Vania in Glinka’s Ivan Susanin and Siebel in Gounod’s Faust.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive
Contralto Natalie Carter, accompanied by Brock, sang spirituals--a fitting close to the recital.
A soprano, she does not have Anderson's rich, dark timbre, and sings only two arias in the contralto's original key.
She was the hip hop poet/vocalist with the Kahlua and Cream delivery that blended poetry, rap, and a sultry contralto singing voice.
In conformity with my own interests (and in the book's gold mine of information there is material for scholars working on almost all topics relevant to early music and its practice) I discovered, among the musicians, a number whom I suspect to be Jewish converts: the singer Daniello Danielli (734); the "Flemish" contralto Daniello di Simone Lupi (from the "Wolf" family; ibid.); a certain Ser Elia (735); and, invited to serve as chapel master, though he declined, the Flemish musician Gienero di Mauritio Luti, which may have been a lapsus calami, in the source, for Lupi (again Wolf; 737).
The Musique anodine commences with an unusual prelude for solo piano followed by six songs for various voice types (two for soprano, one for mezzo-soprano, one for contralto, and two for baritone) with piano accompaniment.
The first, occupying the main choir-loft, holds five solo singers (Maria 'la bolognese', Apollonia, Ambrosina, Marina and Chiaretta - the last two figlie share a contralto part), a choir and a string orchestra with organ.
Hyder's intuition is a sound one for the phrasing is, in fact, Gautier's, although it is not to be found either in Mademoiselle de Maupin or his poem |Contralto' (1849), which features the statue as a visual analogue for the ambiguities of the contralto voice.
1953: One of Britain's best-loved singers, the contralto Kathleen Ferrier, died of cancer at 41.
They go from contralto to basso soprano - they go the whole way.
Though the notion of four main categories of voice (soprano, contralto, tenor, bass) may have reigned at various points in history, the six-category model (soprano, mezzo soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone, bass) has been more popular among pedagogues of late, and scientific advances have justified such divisions.
Macdonald's striking contralto is naturally melancholic, but she attempts to do cheery pop with opener 4th Of July.
Quiz of the Day ANSWERS: 1 Frets; 2 A shore which lies to the ship's lee (away from the wind) side; 3 Morocco; 4 Running; 5 He was drowned in a cask of wine; 6 Corn flakes; 7 Arthur Miller; 8 William IV; 9 Contralto; 10 Frederick Forsyth.
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