At our recent (just last week) choral workshop and evensong at Walsinghm we had, in a group of about forty, three or four male altos. It is remarkable the difference in brilliance, what Julie calls sparkle, they made in the alto line. It had a definition that would not have been there otherwise.

Please do understand that I am not wishing to short shrift our wonderful women's voices. But since this was brought up by Sponsa it is apt to stress that men's and women's voices, even when they share a vocal register are quite distinct. A male alto is not 'singing like a lady' (nor does he remotely sound like one!), nor is a lady tenor 'singing like a man' (or remotely sound like one). These voices are unique in colour, they are a distinct species of timbre.

What I said above about the male altos who sang in our workshop making a defining difference in the alto line, I could say as well about lady tenors who sing with men. The presence of these two vocal colours in any choir will make a defining difference in the sound of that choir. It is something to glory in, not thoughtlessly to think of as something odd. There is also a certain magical transformation that takes place when boys sing with the sopranos.

(I might add that, in some cultures, the registers that we associate (cultivate) with men and women are very different. Peking opera and Japanese music come to mind. Also, I once had in a choir a gentleman from somewhere in the Levant who sang treble in what we would call the male alto register. He literally could not 'sing like a man' of our culture, and explained that all men in his culture sang that way. His voice was unique and quite beautiful, sort of a cross between the male alto and a boy soprano in our culture.)

JES,
Castratti? Yikes! 8<) Our 12 member compline choir has 6 counter tenors, 2 tenors, 2 baritones, 2 basses. None are Castratti (to my knowledge). Of course, 3 of the counter tenors are baritones with that 'freak' trained falsetto. They can put out a lot of controllable sound up to about treble top line f.The other 3 are just young, in the 18-24 yr. old range that don't even need to sing falsetto. One fine 20 year old is the best cantor we've ever had. Oh that sizzling hot and thin, whining tone. Almost all of these fine lads are instrumentalists of some kind, which I find a real plus for sight reading. I've found by default that 'real singers' with a big, wobbly, vibrato ridden voice tend to poison the Compline well. In addition, 'non-real' singers tend to get that slightly soggy/softer, authentic ' monastic' sound for the final Office of the day; also a plus. When we began 7 yrs. and 85 Complines ago, we used mostly women on the alto part with men on the bottom T, Bar, B. parts. Still, we always needed many more of them to balance the tenors and basses. When Voces was formed, all but one of the women migrated over to the all-women choir. Who are all those counter tenors? see pic below. All are squeezed into our tiny 162 yr. old loft. Osborn may think that's an awfully short time, given his position, but this is California, where ancient history is 2 years ago. I would like to repeat:<br />Nothing musically in my lifetime has meant as much as chanting the Office of Compline. Not playing hundreds of film scores in Hollywood with all the biggies; Not my full professorship at Long Beach State; not those 22K services with the L.A. Phil; not conducting the Moravian Choir for 35 years; not forming and running the Moravian Trombone Choir (SATB). Maybe all this was a setup for me getting into Compline. Late Night Prayer is the perfect worship service. It always means something. Short. Humble. Mystical. Clergy-free. As close as you can get to facing your God and your own mortality in a kind of trial run to eternity. Just your voices worshipping The Triune God. The cantor is in the front row, right:
jefe

I might add that, in some cultures, the registers that we associate (cultivate) with men and women are very different.

Western Europe has gone through something of an evolution on this front as well--in the Italian opera of the 17th and early 18th centuries. High voices (what we would think of as soprano or mezzo ranges) were for heroic or noble characters (Handel's Julius Caesar is a mezzo--or a countertenor), and low voices were for comic and vulgar characters (including a few tenor and bass bawdy maidservants.) Tenors could be heroes, but were often villains. The high-voice roles could be--and were--sung by women or men (some castrati, but many not. There are many fine countertenors and a few male sopranists about today.) At the same time, nuns were writing SATB motets for performance within the enclosure, and there are records of nuns (though probably not very many) who sang tenor and bass. Our current concept of "manly" and "womanly" sound is of fairly recent vintage.

Does anyone else feel certain chants sound better in certain registers? Mode I Introits with the classic mode I melody get lost to my ears when sung in a high register, but women sing the Salve Sancta Parens better IMHO. I agree with tomjaw...