Pitch
Voice register is a term used in music to sort singing voices or musical instruments based on their pitch range . The range of notes that can be produced physically or by the instrument during normal functioning of the vocal organ applies . The most common voices are soprano , alto , tenor and bass , which were originally related to vocal music and were later transferred to instrumental music. Mezzo-soprano and baritone were added to these four voices .
singing
| Voices for choir singers | |
|---|---|
| Female voices | Male voices |
 Soprano (S) |
 Tenor (T) |
 Mezzo-soprano |
 baritone |
 Alt (A) |
 Bass (B) |
In musical works, singing voices are roughly divided into the four voices soprano , alto , tenor and bass according to their pitch . The highest vocal range is the soprano (formerly also called treble ), the high female and children's voice named after the Latin supremus (“highest”). The deep male voices are summarized in the bass range (from Latin bassus , "deep"), the high male voices in the tenor. The alto (Latin altus , "high"), originally the high voice above the melody leading tenor (derived from Latin tenere , "to hold"), includes boy's and low female voices. Most choral literature gets by with these voices, although the voices can still be divided into several voices. In addition, the terms mezzo-soprano (from Italian mezzo , “medium”) for women and baritone (from Italian baritono , “low-pitched”) for men are regularly used for medium voices , but almost only for solo pieces. In addition to the voice, the people are often referred to by their voices, e.g. B. "He's a tenor".
There is also the term Kontra-Alt for very deep and dark-colored female voices that move in the tenor pitch. A bass baritone is a singer who covers the bass and baritone voices. Octavists are particularly specialized deep basses with a range in the depth down to the contra-octave at A 1 , which is an octave below the baritone range. In return, the octavist never changes to the head voice upwards. There are a few solo pieces for octavists, often these have been composed especially for a particular singer.
In solo parts , the required range is often considerably larger than in the above. Subdivision. In addition to the range, a distinction is also made between other technical and musical requirements that the part places on the singing voice, the so-called " vocal subject ", e.g. B. hero tenor, lyric tenor, coloratura soprano, dramatic soprano. The term countertenor is not an exact name for a pitch, but a vocal subject for high male voices in alto, mezzo-soprano or soprano range. Furthermore, there are the terms child soprano, boy soprano, boy old and male, castrato soprano etc. which contain a specification of the singer role, but in the real sense denote no pitch, but vocal fan.
In addition to the volume of a voice, there is also the term “ tessitura ” or “tessitur”, which indicates the typical and easily reproducible volume; individual tones can go beyond this range. The tessitur is the area of the voice that can be used by the singer over a long period of time without being overly strenuous. While individual tones outside the tessitur do not pose a problem, continuous use of the voice outside the tessitur can quickly tire the voice or even damage the vocal cords. According to Peter-Michael Fischer , the tessitura for professional singers is around two octaves and usually only begins in the middle of the lower octave. The entire vocal range from phonic zero (lowest, barely achievable tone) in Fischer's professional singer ranges from 2½ to over 3 octaves. The majority of the singing voices belong to the middle register. Real basses (phonic zero goes down to D) are only represented by 5% of men, profound basses (phonic zero lower than D) are rare.
General
In the human vocal range, a distinction is made between the normal range and the low and high limit ranges. The bass vocabulary extends down to the (capital) D, the coloratura soprano up to the triple struck f. This allows the human voice to cover a range of approximately 4 octaves.
An untrained voice reaches a good octave , a trained voice about 2½ to rarely 3 octaves. The human voice usually extends over two octaves, which is 24 semitones. Voices with a vocal range of more than three octaves are very rare. However, there is no literature calling for such a vocal range.
From a musical point of view, the limits of the voice can no longer be used.
Musical instruments
The division into different voices is also used in many families of musical instruments . Here, too, soprano , alto , tenor and bass are the most common terms, but there are other vocal registers for instruments that singers cannot achieve. Higher instruments can have names like sopranino, garklein, soprillo or piccolo, while lower ones are called large bass, double bass or subbass.
The first families of instruments were developed during the Renaissance . In order to be able to perform all the voices of a movement on instruments of the same type, most of the instruments were developed into ensembles with at least three different pitches (treble, alto / tenor and bass). In doing so, however, one did not orientate oneself precisely to the pitch of the corresponding human voices. Instruments that performed the bass function in their family, such as B. bass recorder (actually alto position) or bass ropes (lowest note Contra-F) could sound an octave higher or lower than a human bass voice.
Locations for instruments developed later often deviate from the analogue human vocal ranges, if only because almost all orchestral instruments today have a range that far exceeds the human voice. The bass clarinet, for example, also includes the tenor and alto registers as measured by the human voice.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wieland Ziegenrücker: General music theory with questions and tasks for self-control. German Publishing House for Music, Leipzig 1977; Paperback edition: Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag, and Musikverlag B. Schott's Sons, Mainz 1979, ISBN 3-442-33003-3 , p. 180 ( Die Voices ).
- ↑ Wieland Ziegenrücker: General music theory with questions and tasks for self-control. 1979, p. 180.
- ↑ Peter Michael Fischer: The Voice of the Singer , p. 114, ISBN 978-3476016041
- ↑ Peter-Michael Fischer: The voice of the singer , p. 73
- ↑ Peter-Michael Fischer: The voice of the singer , p. 129
- ↑ Ernst Häflinger, Die Singstimme , Schott, 2nd revised edition 1993, p. 414
