Reg Boyle wrote: > > Dear Linda, > Unkind one, it is not in my nature to be mischievous!
As in "nughty"? Oh, I'm disappointed
(Total swerve, back in a minute): In a railway bookshop recently I saw a small boy browsing through books, and eventually trotting round to his mother with one of them. She was horrified and said "You put that right back where you got it, those are for adults!" These confusions are easily made, after all, what small boy could resist a book called "The world's best _naughty_ jokes"?
(I'm back, you can come out now)
> Now this I find confusing because as I seem to recall from what little > Latin I ever knew, Alt means two or the second part,
Altus means high. Alter can mean "other" as in alter ego - I don't remember ever hearing it as meaning "two", but in any case, altus was the root here, as used in the early voice designations. This is why alto for a low female voice is actually nonsensical, but it's widely used.
>but it is also the German word for viola. Tell me if I'm wrong again.
How to say it nicely... hmmm... you're wrong again, I'm afraid, but one point because it's the French word for viola, matching the alto voice. The German viola is a Bratsche, which I've always assumed was a German spelling of braccia/o, Italian for arm, from the name Viola da Braccio (sp?) a viol held on the arm rather than a viola da gamba, a viol held on the leg.
> To me a contralto is cello like!
Physically, maybe :o) but the cello's lowest octave and a half is beyond the reach of most contraltos, and not all basses, let alone baritones, can reach its lowest C.
> So I won't use 'alto' to mean contralto, because you've just given > me another reason not to.
Even in the face of most choral music nowadays being designated SATB, where the A, depending on the genre of music, would suggest either sometimes, or usually, or almost always, female voices of that pitch? I rarely see it classified as SCTB.
Cheers, Linda
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