From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term alto is a musical term that has several possible meanings. Within a family of instruments, "alto" refers to the member of the family that has a range lower than that of the treble or soprano. For example, the highest saxaphone is a "soprano saxaphone", the next highest "alto saxaphone", then "tenor saxaphone", and then the lowest, "baritone saxaphone."^[1]

Similarily, the term alto is also used in the context of choral music to refer to the second highest voice part in a 4-part chorus. Many people make the mistake of thinking the term alto is a vocal type synonmous with the contralto voice. This is incorrect. The term alto is not a voice classification but a part classification. The choral system was developed to dilineate polyphonic structure and was not really intended to designate a vocal type to individual singers. In other words, choral music was designed to be written in four parts and it is the parts themselves that are labeled soprano, alto, tenor, and bass and not the individual singers.^[2]

Most women that sing the alto line in choirs would be considered mezzo-sopranos in classical music due to there vocal timbre and their particular vocal range resting somewhere in the middle between a soprano and contralto. A fewer amount of them, however, would most likely be contraltos. Therefore, one could say, "I am a mezzo-soprano singing the alto line", and the other "I am a contralto singing the alto line." They have two different ranges and sounds but they are singing the same part.^[3]

At times, men have been refered to as altos in the context of English Church choral music. However, within solo-singing in England this term is never used. In reality these men who can sing in the tessitura of women are called countertenors or sopranists and not altos. Therefore, these men are countertenors/sopranists who are singing the alto vocal line. The exception to this would be in Italy where the word for countertenor is contratenor altus and is frequently abbriviated to simply "altus". Italians do not add the word male in front of alto or any other gender identifying term when they do this. It is simply an abriviation and has no relation to the english understanding of the word alto.^[4]

The term alto is also used to designate a specific kind of musical clef. See alto clef.

1. ^ http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/alto
2. ^ Stark (2003),Bel Canto: A History of Vocal Pedagogy, cited below
3. ^ Smith (2005), Choral Pedagogy, cited below
4. ^ Appelman (1986),The Science of Vocal Pedagogy: Theory and Application