Alto

The lower female voice

Alto is the name of the lower voice type of women’s and boys’ voices. When a boy sings in this range before his voice breaks, he is called a boy alto. A very high male voice can also be called alto; alto parts in early music are often sung by countertenors. Very low female voices that sing roughly in the range of a tenor are called Kontra-Alt in German.

A “high” name for a low voice

The name sounds contradictory: Latin “altus” means “high”. Originally it referred to the high voice above the tenor, which carried the melody. More on this on the page Altus.

Range

The range is given as roughly G3 to E5, in other accounts as F3 to F5. The transition to the mezzo-soprano is fluid. Where a singer actually sings depends on her voice.

Alto in the sheet music archive

In “Der Mond ist aufgegangen” soprano and alto share one staff: the alto has the stems pointing down. Weelkes, by contrast, writes two alto parts with staves of their own.

Alto in a choral setting

• Der Mond ist aufgegangen Johann Abraham Peter Schulz (1747–1800), evening song · four-part setting · 1 page

  At the first staff, on the left, “SOPRANO.” is printed above “ALTO.”. Both share the upper staff in the treble clef, one ♭, time signature C, an upbeat. The alto is the voice with the stems pointing down; tenor and bass are on the lower staff in the bass clef.

• O How Amiable Are Thy Dwellings Thomas Weelkes · choral setting in five parts · 4 pages

  Five staves: Soprano, Alto 1, Alto 2, Tenor and Bass. The two alto parts are in the treble clef with three ♭, time signature C. Alto 2 enters in bar 2 on the third beat, Alto 1 only in bar 4.

Common mistakes

• Equating alto and alto clef: In the choral settings in the archive the alto is written in the treble clef. Today the alto clef is needed mainly by the viola.
• Learning the range as a fixed limit: The figures are approximate and differ from source to source.
• Trying to separate alto and mezzo-soprano strictly: The transition between the two ranges is fluid.