[Magdalen] Counter-tenors

[Jay Weigel]

I met the American countertenor Russell Oberlin when I was quite young,
thanks to an odd set of circumstances involving a childhood friend of my
father's who was, at the time, playing with the New York Pro Musica. I sat
quietly and listened to the conversation, but all I remember from it was
the wee nugget that there were pretty much two types of
countertenors--those who were baritones singing falsetto, and those who
just never stopped singing in that range. Mr. Oberlin said that he had just
never lost his upper register. I remember thinking it was kind of odd,
because when he spoke he sounded like any other adult male. I think I was
about 12 or 13 at the time.

On Mon, Nov 23, 2020 at 2:16 PM Romain Kang <romain at kzsu.stanford.edu>
wrote:

> There used to be an ongoing dispute about what "counter-tenor" is
> supposed to mean.  Historically, the term came from having 3-part
> polyphony with the cantus firmus roughly corresponding to modern tenor
> range, with "contratenor bassus" below and "contratenor altus" above.
> Hence, the modern "bass" and "alto."
>
> I'm not sure where the lines are currently drawn, but one school used
> "countertenor" to refer to any adult male singing in the alto range or
> higher.  Within that category are "falsettists" who can also comfortably
> sing in the bass to baritone range, though vocal production is clearly
> different between high and low ranges.  Then there are "haut-contres"
> (term borrowed from French) whose vocal compass extends into the higher
> ranges without obvious difference in tone/production.
>
> I have the film, "Countertenors" on a DVD I've been meaning to watch
> for several years now, but it's still gathering dust in its original
> shrinkwrap...
>
> Romain
>
> On Fri, Nov 20, 2020 at 10:18:30PM +0000, Roger Stokes via Magdalen wrote:
> > I have long thought that traditional men and boys choirs have suffered
> from
> > a lack of depth in the Alto part. This evening I have been listening to
> the
> > transmission of a concert version of Handel's opera "Ariodante". While
> the
> > title role (which was originally sung by a castrato) was sung by a
> > mezzo-soprano another major male roile was sung by a counter-tenor. This
> is
> > in the vocal range of an Alto but has far more depth of timbre than can
> be
> > offered by men singing falsetto.
> >
> > Roger
> >
>