Countertenor is an adult male singing voice that is higher than a tenor and lower than a soprano or treble. A countertenor voice has a musical range similar to that of an alto or contralto, the lowest female singing voice. Countertenors are sometimes called male altos. A female alto has a range of about two octaves, extending from the F below middle C upward to the second F above middle C. Many singers calling themselves countertenors use a special singing technique called falsetto. Falsetto singing enables them to produce high notes that are not usually considered within the normal range of a male voice.
In medieval, Renaissance, and early modern times, women rarely performed composed music in public. Only men and boys performed sacred music. In polyphonic (multipart) church music, boys sang the highest part, now called the soprano line, and men sang all the other parts. The alto part (between what we now call soprano and tenor) was regularly sung by a singer known as the contratenor altus. This name gave rise to the terms countertenor and contralto.
Solo countertenors, as well as countertenors in choirs, became common in both sacred and secular (nonreligious) music from the mid-1500’s onward. The countertenor was especially popular during the Baroque period from the early 1600’s through the mid-1700’s. But, by the 1800’s, the countertenor voice had become rare outside cathedral choirs and was largely replaced by the contralto or tenor. In the 1900’s, such singers as the English countertenor Alfred Deller and the American Russell Oberlin led a revival of the countertenor voice for the authentic re-creation of vocal music from the 1500’s, 1600’s, and early 1700’s. By the 1990’s, there were a large number of countertenor singers specializing in early music worldwide, one of the best-known being the English countertenor James Bowman (see Bowman, James ). Other leading modern countertenors include Brian Asawa, David Daniels, and Drew Minter, all of the United States. During the 1900’s, several composers, such as the British composer Benjamin Britten, wrote effectively for the countertenor voice.
See Tenor .
