I agree about the pigeonhole thing, which distorts so many aspects of life,
and yet, when we try to communicate...
Originally there was a contratenor bassus as well as a contratenor altus,
but in this case it was the first word that was dropped. Eventually,
church authorities presumably got around to trusting that boys could be
musically usefully as even higher singers, but what could be higher than
altus? superanum or superius, that's what! But only instruments could have
a useful lower range than the bassus, so contrabassus got to be a big viol.
Continuing this digression: funny how the cantus firmus stayed stuck
relatively low in the texture for a while after these developments, though
a wonderful example of it vaulting into the superius is found in Taverner's
'Leroy' Kyrie. There. Digression closed. john
At 10:00 PM 5/27/00 -0700, you wrote:
...> Actually, I prefer that people not push people into any
>pigeonholes. The British sound is very beautiful, and I don't want that
>to be extinguished as illegitimate. People should just sing what they
>sing best. Operatic CTs should sound operatic, renaissance CTs should
>sound renaissance, barbershop CTs should barbershop.
>
>> It could be argued by an antiquary that a counter tenor is
>> whatever sings the line above the cantus firmus, whether it be an
>> alto, male or female, or a trained duck.
>
>LOL! Seriously, though, I'm glad you brought this up - countertenor
>altus was originally an instrumental term! The word is that far-removed
>from its current usage.
>
>-Tako
>
>
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John Blyth
Baritono robusto e lirico
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
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