Thursday, 26 April 2012

Music for Voices





Vocal range (pitch order):



  • Treble voice - boys unbroken voice

  • Soprano - highest female voice


  • Mezzo Soprano - medium vocal range

  • Contralto (alto) -  lowest female voice

  • Counter-tenor - high male voice

  • Tenor - medium to high range for male voice

  • Baritone - medium to low male voice


  • Bass - lowest male voice


Types of solo songs:

Lied (plural is "lieder") German songs, singing poetry accompanied by piano. Like a duet between piano and vocalist.


Aria is a solo song that is part of a larger piece, either and opera or an oratorio 
Opera is a play that is sung


Oratorio is a large scale piece (orchestra, choir and instruments) based on a sacred subject, unlike opera it's strictly a musical piece



Pop ballad is a slow love song, usually verse chorus structure






Folk song (britain & america) has a simple strummed accompaniment usually on guitar, sometimes sung                 a cappella, verse after verse, sometimes don't have chorus. They usually tell a story sometimes political





madrigal is a song that was around 1400's before baroque, sung by around 6 singers, not religious (secular)

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