Bass

What it means

Bass is the lowest singing voice. Its range usually reaches from the low E to about e′, with some singers distinctly lower. What is decisive for the classification is not the reachable depth alone but the colour and the carrying power in the low range. Several types are distinguished, among them the serious bass with a dark, solemn sound, the buffo bass for comic roles, and the basso cantante, who sings more agile and brighter. The word also denotes, more generally, the lowest voice of a texture, independent of who performs it.

Musical use

In opera basses are often authority, father or priest figures, in the comic category also servants and schemers; in oratorio and church music they carry weighty arias and narrative parts. In the choir the bass voice forms the harmonic foundation: it determines in which position a chord stands and thereby carries more responsibility for the overall sound than its often simple line suggests. The connection with the thoroughbass of the Baroque is direct — there the whole harmony is derived from the same line.

Performance practice

Build the low range over a calm, deeply supported breath, not over pressing; a forced low range sounds loud in your own head and quiet in the hall. Work at clear articulation, because intelligibility of text is harder in the low range. Practise the transition area to the high range carefully, so that the voice does not become pinched up top. Choose repertoire by the colour of your voice and not by the reachable depth. In choral singing listen to the intonation of the third above your root and keep your own line stable, because the group aligns itself to it.

Remember that the bass voice in the choir fixes the harmony: a third taken too low or an uncertain root affects all the other voices. Listen therefore deliberately upward and keep your own line stable. The low range needs calm rather than force; a forced tone sounds loud in your own head and quiet in the hall. With operatic parts, check how much time they spend in the middle range, for there the strain is decided, not at the extreme notes.