Clara Butt - Vocal Range

Vocal Range

Clara Butt possessed one of the greatest and most powerful contralto voices. There are three main publications including the notes of her vocal range can be found today. It was noted that one contemporary claimed that Butt's compass extended "from the low C3 (in the bass clef) to A5 above the treble stave" among her songs.The Art of The Prima Donna in The Long Nineteenth Century which was pressed by Oxford University in 2012. There was another record published on the Auckland Star in 1908 claimed that her range extended from Low A2 to B flat (B♭5). And there even exists a report on The News (Adelaide) point out that Butt can sing from A5 sharp above the treble clef right down to F2 below the bass on 7 November 1913. Although there are so many version about the vocal range of Clara Butt, one thing is clear, the famous conductor Adrian Boult remembers a rehearsal when she sang "through four B flats with ease".Unfortunately, although she recorded over 400 albums，we can only hear about one fifth of them today.Hence the true vocal range of her is still controversial.