Although the traditional (medieval/renaissance) movable clefs are a good
indicator for vocal ranges, they are effectively ranges for male voices (a
5-line clef without ledger lines --> range of octave + 4th). Those pieces
that appear to be a bit too high, especially if the middle parts are in a
clef higher than the tenor, are most likely in chiavette and the music
should be transposed down a fourth or fifth (and then adjusted for pitch
standard, which varies from time to time and place to place). There are
still a lot of choral conductors who do not know this, but on the other hand
they are often working with mixed voices where a higher performance pitch is
beneficial, otherwise there will be NO female alto part at all.
Michael Lawlor
----- Original Message -----
Date: Fri, 13 May 2011 14:11:55 +1000
From: Frank Prain <frank.pr...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Finale] OT--low f's for altos?
To: <finale@shsu.edu>
Message-ID: <BANLkTi=jyyjovmgpWn8BbztZb3aR=sh...@mail.gmail.com>
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In most of the choirs (not community choirs) I've sung in over the past
few
decades (mostly specialising in Renaissance music, but not always) the
altos
have often been asked to sing down to f and sometimes e. With music of
this
period it's often up to the director to decide whether to put tenors or
altos on some of the inner parts, sometimes putting one of each on a line.
For example, the Brumel "Earthquake" mass is notoriously difficult to
assign
parts to, having four (?) inner parts which are generally too high for
tenors and too low for altos.
The altos in the choir I sing with currently seem to prefer the lower
notes,
many of them not happy going higher than soprano c or d. Mind you having a
couple of male altos helps with the low notes.
Frank
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