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The Historical Significance of the Counter-Tenor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

John Hough
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Extract

This is by no means the first occasion of the introduction of the alto voice as a subject for a paper and discussion. In the eighth Session of the Proceedings of the Musical Association there appears an interesting and animated discussion of the use of this voice after a reading by Dr. W. H. Monk on church music. The late Dr. A. H. D. Prendergast wrote on Man's Alto in English Music for the International Musical Society in August, 1900. This paper is an attempt to show the use of the alto and counter-tenor voice from early times up to the present day.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Musical Association , Volume 64 , 1937 , pp. 1 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1937

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References

1 The Cultivation of Church Music: Proceedings VIII, December 5, 1881.Google Scholar

2 Zeitschrift der I.M.G. I. p. 331.Google Scholar

3 Grove, under ‘Sistine Choir’.Google Scholar

4 Eccles. Mem. vol. III, p. 201.Google Scholar

5 See also Blow up the trumpet in Byrd's Songs and Sonnets (1611), and elsewhere.Google Scholar

6 In March, 1704, Couperin wrote a duet for ‘Messieurs Hiacinthe, Pacini, Italiens.’Google Scholar

7 Pacchierotti appeared only in the Pantheon.Google Scholar

8 See Mus. Ant. Vol. IV, p. 59.Google Scholar

9 The last falsetto of the Papal Chapel, Giovanni di Sanctos, a Spaniard, died at Rome in 1625.Google Scholar

10 See the duet for alto and bass in the 1692 Ode and the chorus alto line in Soul of the World.Google Scholar

11 Mr. Shore was the father of two famous trumpeters and himself one of the best of the line of players which reached its culminating point in Valentine Snow.Google Scholar

12 Chandos Anthem, O praise the Lord with one consent.Google Scholar

13 Tolomeo.Google Scholar

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15 See Vouchsafe, O Lord.Google Scholar

16 C. 1800.Google Scholar

17 See the aria with oboe obbligato, Quella fiamma, ch'il petto m'accende in Arminio.Google Scholar

18 See Schoelcher, p. 293.Google Scholar

19 Cf. Purcell's But over us no griefs prevail in Timon of Athens.Google Scholar

20 See Grove, under ‘Lotti.’Google Scholar

21 Sanford Terry thinks Weldige took Pales in Bach's Was mir behagt, a rôle too high for him, unless he were a soprano falsetto.Google Scholar

22 See the cantata for solo alto Wiederstehe doch der Sünde; and the alto line in Gottes Zeit.Google Scholar

23 For an account of the Corri family see St. Cecilia's Hall in the Niddry Wynd, by David Fraser Harris.Google Scholar

24 See Monthly Musical Record, LXVII, (1937), p. 220.Google Scholar

25 i.e., falsetti.Google Scholar

26 Possibly many falsetto altos were called upon.Google Scholar