This represents the final post in my series, “Alto Clef Reading Tips and Drills.” Make sure that you’ve first studied my posts on Pitch Recognition , Scoring, and fully studied the materials in Score-Reading Viola and Score-Reading Alto Trombone. Then you’ll be ready to take the last step in fully developing your comprehension when picking up a score using alto clef in any situation.
CONTRALTO ≠ “ALTO”
The first thing to remember about the word “alto” when applied to the voice is that it represents a choral range rather than a vocal type. In ancient male choirs, the higher range of voices received the title of “alto” (literally translated as “high”); which lingered in terminology when female voices were added, and sopranos became the highest standard voice. Male altos eventually became superfluous, and their range of parts was given to female voices of a lower tessitura (general focus of range).
The alto choral parts you see in scores from that time to today actually represent a combination of two distinct vocal types: the mezzo-soprano, with a tessitura that lies about a minor 3rd lower than the soprano; and the contralto, whose tessitura sits about a perfect 5th below the soprano. These might be thought of as first and second voices when the alto part is divided into higher and lower pitches (with some mezzos also serving as second sopranos). But when these two distinct voices are unified into one choral part as per usual, then you’ll rarely see the scoring pushed higher than pitches a contralto can easily sing, or lower than a mezzo’s range. But this by no means results in limited scoring for altos as a group, who are expected to sing in unison or close harmony with sopranos; or track them from below in octaves; or even provide a kind of bass for all the female voices. Most commonly, though, choral altos play a role similar to second violins or violas, filling in the middle of the sound picture with a warm, full, often quite active and even occasionally independent sound.
Ex. 1. Above: alto choral range representing a synthesis of mezzo and contralto ranges, with low pitches rarely below F3, up to high pitches rarely above F5. Below: Beethoven, Symphony no. 9, Movt. 4, choir excerpt from bar 631. In the highlighted alto part, Beethoven crosses nearly the entire range, from G3 at the start to E-flat5 by the end.
MORE ABOUT CLEFS
Each vocal type once had its own clef. The soprano clef positioned the C clef on the lowest line, making Middle C the starting point of the staff. You’ll still see soprano clef in some old published editions of choral music, and Bach even used it to notate right-hand keyboard parts. Much rarer is the mezzo-soprano clef, more likely to be used for solo voice, with the pointer of the C clef resting up a 3rd from the soprano clef, on the lower middle line. This added a couple notes of range to the staff, with a base note of A3 on the lowest line. The alto clef fits right into this system, with C clef sitting right in the middle of the staff, putting the base note of the staff on F3, which is a general lower limit for alto choral parts.
What you’ll notice if you think about all this that it puts each vocal range on the same notes of each staff – the general lowest note on each staff’s lowest line, rising through the chest voice from there to a mixed register toward the upper middle part of the staff, then into the head voice as the ledger lines are added above, with an upper limit of the second ledger-space or third ledger-line note. Of course, some voices might well extend this overall range by a few pitches higher or lower, but such extremes would usually be avoided, especially in choir parts.
This system continues on downward into the male vocal range, with the tenor clef (to be featured in my next course) sitting on the upper middle line; a seldom-used baritone clef sitting on the top line (sometimes also expressed as an F-clef centred on the middle line); and then our standard bass clef, with the F-clef sitting on the upper middle line. You’ll notice as I’ve diagrammed all these general ranges and clefs below that the male voices tend to add more range below their relevant staves as they descend, while giving up a bit of range above.
Ex. 2: All the vocal types and ranges illustrated with their relevant clefs. As you can see, this system serves to keep each range more or less centred over the same lines and spaces over each staff – almost like a concert pitch version of transposition.
In this series of posts, I’ve endeavoured to focus the reader’s training on quick, natural comprehension of alto staff scoring. Yet I must admit that alto clef is essentially an obsolete usage in vocal scoring today. Even during its heyday three centuries ago, one might still find contralto solo parts and alto choral parts in the more universal treble clef. By the middle of the 19th century, publishers started to abandon the alto clef, so that by the time of Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem and the Alto Rhapsody, female vocal parts had been safely consigned to the treble staff in toto. Nevertheless, so many examples of alto clef vocal scoring exist in published editions from the early 19th century that it behooves any competent score-reader to add it to their toolkit.
Ex. 3: Excerpt from the duetto “Io t’abbraccio, e più che morte aspro” from Rodelinda, Queen of the Langobards by George Frideric Händel. In this manuscript copy, written around 1725, Händel scores the contralto part on the second staff in treble clef – showing that the original alto clef approach was already eroding by the end of the Baroque period.
INTRODUCTION TO CONTRALTO VOICE
The contralto voice has a history as rich as its fulsome timbre. Many solo opera roles written in the Baroque period for high male singers are now sung by female soloists – an intriguing gender-crossing in which sometimes these roles were for female characters, sometimes male. The heavier weight of the contralto voice is often dramatically interpreted as more tragic, angry, or fierce. Today’s female contraltos often play “trouser roles” as male characters, such as Orfeo in Glück’s Orfeo et Eurydice (originally written for a castrato, but easily adaptable), or Der Gymnasiast (a schoolboy) in Berg’s Lulu. Another typical operatic role is as the “heavy,” like Katisha in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado, always showing up to cause trouble for the heroic tenor and his love interest the lyric soprano. This has led to the expression that contralto roles are limited to “witches, bitches, and britches” – though this stereotype is easily dismissed with a simple overview of contralto roles that also include sidekicks, matrons, comic shopkeepers, and mournful heroines. The capacity of the contralto to dig into a rich well of emotional power is represented in scoring by such masters as J.S. Bach, whose heartfelt professions of regret, loss, and hope in the face of disaster were channeled into some of the most transcendent passages, which we’ll study below.
If you’re unfamiliar with vocal training, here are a few terms that might be helpful. All human voices are composed of two basic registers – the “chest voice,” composed of lower, open pitches which function like the fundamental pitches of a woodwind instrument. Above this is the “head voice,” similar to overblown woodwind pitches, with a more intense, sometimes piercing sound. These different registers are achieved by singing with different thicknesses of vocal folds in the throat. The trick for any trained singer is in bridging the gap between these two registers cleanly, over a central range called “mixed voice” or even just “the mix.” It’s not enough to have a single transitional note between the chest and head voices, but a whole central area in which both vocal qualities mix together, transitioning imperceptibly from high to low and back. The lowest transitional note for any singer is called the “primo passaggio;” the highest transitional note, the “secondo passaggio.” In other words, the singer could not push their mix any lower than the former, nor any higher than the latter. Thus, these two markers establish the range of the mixed voice.
It’s important to note here that different vocal types have different proportions of mixed voice range. But even more so, each singer within that vocal type may have their own unique character and limitations when it comes to vocal placement. For instance, in the case of the contralto voice, some singers may have a primo passaggio as low as D4 – while others might break as high as G4. Above that, the secondo passaggio might manifest as low as B4 – though D5 is often considered to be a more typical gateway to pure head voice.
And yet, even different vocal placement for different singers does not indicate an overall alteration of range. A low vocal placement may result in a heavier, darker voice – but not necessarily a lower range. Conversely, a higher vocal placement doesn’t automatically turn a contralto into a mezzo. The functional range of two very different-sounding singers may actually cover the same pitches. Thus, the multiplicity of individual voices remains a fascinating and ever-renewed phenomenon.
Ex. 4: Contralto vocal range and registers. The contralto vocal type has one of the most generous of chest voice ranges before reaching transitional pitches starting with the primo passaggio. While this chart shows a mixed range of an octave, this transitional central register is usually much smaller, and varies widely between individual contralto singers. The extremes on either end of the scale are rarely if ever used. Most solo contralto parts are scored between B3 and E5 – which makes it easy to see why the alto clef has been abandoned in favour of the treble clef for nearly two centuries now.
SCORE-READING CONTRALTO VOICE
Here we come to a series of very limited options. As I mention above, contralto solo parts (not to mention choral alto parts) have been scored more and more in treble clef – leaving our study of those parts more of an academic exercise. The developing score-reader could easily abandon this entire post, and continue on with no significant detriment to their overall reading abilities, provided their study of the previous posts was solid and backed up with continued testing by reading viola and older trombone parts. But if one is to easily read and comprehend the vocal parts in older published editions of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven (especially the latter’s titanic 9th Symphony), it cannot hurt to add this very simple extension to one’s mental toolkit.
While the contralto vocal range generally reaches as low as F3, composers tend to avoid this lower limit. In fact, in the majority of solo parts, it’s rare to see a part reach as low as A3, let alone G3 (though such pitches are common enough in choral alto parts). B-flat3 is a more common lower limit, and often contralto parts put far more weight on the mixed register. But when the chest register is approached, such pitches should have a rich, almost liquid character. The head voice above will typically ring with a directness and intensity that has a great amount of carrying power. A great contralto’s mix should eloquently blend both these tendencies with a perfectly proportioned graduation of colour; similar to a viola gradually running through different weight of strings, or an alto trombone overblowing higher or lower partials.
For our purposes as score-readers (and also potentially orchestrators, composers, and conductors), what’s important to note is how composers of the past have applied the character of the contralto voice to the emotional meaning and drama of their texts. A composer might imply indecision by contrasting between registers – or growing conflict and anguish rising into the head voice. But the head voice might also represent a sense of triumph or completion; while relaxing downward into the mix or even the chest voice might signify a sense of defeat, or at least resignation.
As you note these manipulations of register, range, character, and emotional meaning, pay close attention to the simplest mechanical aspect of all; the placement of such aspects of scoring upon the alto staff itself. Eventually, with practice, the score-reader may learn to associate the melodic curves’ rise and fall over the staff with certain overall traditions and strategies of dramatic tension and release.
SCORE STUDY 3: Contralto Vocal Excerpts by J.S. Bach.
Bach Contralto Excerpts with Kathleen Ferrier
While publishing trends have all but eliminated the alto clef from vocal parts in modern editions, there are still quite a few historical published scores, particularly of mainline German composers mentioned before. For our purposes, J.S. Bach’s legacy of brilliant contralto scoring provides ample material from which to begin our studies. Bach didn’t see the contralto as a witch, a bitch, or a britch. Rather, that voice’s rich colour and emotional power provided him with a fitting vehicle for some of his most fervent expressions of faith, spiritual torment, and ultimate redemption.
Nevertheless, many of Bach’s dramatic touches are straightforward and uncomplicated: for instance, an opening phrase scored in a very pleading, dramatic head voice might be echoed lower in the mixed register on a subsequent entrance, creating a more pensive, self-reflecting impression. Certain melodic gestures might be scored to follow over rising chord progressions, gaining in natural intensity as they ascend in register. Low notes are often scored as jumping-off points to soaring arcs of emotion rising through the mix and into the head voice.
Ex. 5: A few of Bach’s simple but effective dramatic strategies.
Additional Contralto Voice Score Study (in alto clef):
Bach Cantata BWV 35, “Geist und Seele wird verwirret”
Bach Cantata BWV 54, “Widerstehe doch der Sünde”
Beethoven Symphony no. 9 (solo contralto and vocal alto parts)
Beethoven Missa Solemnis (solo contralto and vocal alto parts)
Mozart Requiem Mass (solo contralto in the Recordare, plus vocal alto parts)
Mozart Missa Solemnis (solo contralto and vocal alto parts)
A Special Note About Kathleen Ferrier
I picked Kathleen Ferrier for the above study video as what I feel is the ideal example of a contralto soloist in her prime. Ferrier’s professionalism, good humour, and meteoric rise to opera stardom is a great lesson in what a leading singer can be at their best. An excellent documentary titled “Kathleen Ferrier: An Ordinary Diva” captures her life story with eloquence and charm.
Ferrier had a rich, full-bodied sound, with a lyric intensity that rose to a superbly tempered upper range. In later life, she worked on brightening the colour of her head voice, shifting her tessitura upwards – but this in no way lessened the impact and power of her lower register. As dramatic and intense as her commitment could be in performing her roles, she avoided the usual indulgent gestures and self-aggrandising touches so common during her era – resulting in a more honest, approachable sound that brought the listener to closer to the emotional meaning of the music. This in turn created ever more impactful performances, and she was sought after by conductors such as Herbert von Karajan and Bruno Walter (with whom she developed a close working relationship). Benjamin Britten’s music in particular owed her a great debt as premiere soloist.
Today’s popular culture has a stereotyped impression of the contralto soloist as a rather exaggerated example of opera’s excesses – a school-marmish, scolding voice blithely unaware of its irrelevance and lack of appeal. Kathleen Ferrier’s recorded legacy shows that this is a vast misinterpretation and underestimation of one of the most colourful, fluid, and emotionally fecund of vocal types. Were nothing to survive but her recording of Mahler’s Song of the Earth, that alone would be enough to rank her among the greatest singers of all time.
The following list is recommended to further your study of the contralto voice, featuring some of Ferrier’s greatest recordings.
