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 voices of that hearth are still;
    Look where we may, the wide earth o’er,
    Those lighted faces smile no more.
    John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)

    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)

    Music, when soft voices die,
    Vibrates in the memory;
    Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
    Live within the sense they quicken.
    Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)