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:

    The screech and mechanical uproar of the big city turns the citified head, fills citified ears—as the song of birds, wind in the trees, animal cries, or as the voices and songs of his loved ones once filled his heart. He is sidewalk- happy.
    Frank Lloyd Wright (1869–1959)

    So the blind will lead the blind, and the deaf shout warnings to one another until their voices are lost.
    Norman Mailer (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)