Talk:Male alto

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[edit] Cleaned up

I cleaned the page up some, but, having no expertise in the subject, confined my edits to those regarding spelling and grammar. In some cases, if a sentence made no sense, or was contained redundant information, I deleted the objectionable part. If others believe the part should be restored, care should be taken to make sure the restoration takes into account the problems I found with what was there originally. 66.234.220.195 (talk) 06:57, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Factual Accuracy

I am not sure the definition on this page is correct. It is my understanding that the term male alto is only used within the British choral music world. It is certainly not a widely used term in the United States which prefers to use the term countertenor to refer to men singing in the alto range. It is also a term not adopted within solo singing in oratorios and operas in any country. Also, claims that the sound between these men and female altos are the same is absolutely not true. There is a distinct difference in voal timbre even among singers like Michael Maniaci due to the differences in physicality between men and women. Also mezzo-soprano is a term not used in choral music (as this article states) but is opera specific. Choral writing only makes four vocal distinctions: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. This four part structure resulted out of the development of hymnody during the Baroque period. When subsequent divisions occur terms like soprano 2 are used not mezzo-soprano. Also, boys are never refered to as male altos as this article insinuates, even in England. The proper term for these singers is trebles. Although this term is usually associated with the term boy soprano, boys singing in the alto range are also called trebles as evidenced by the fact that boy choirs are often called treble choruses and music written for these groups simply divides them into treble 1, treble 2, and treble 3 (which translates into SSA if sung by women). Also, most adult men singing in the alto range do use falsetto or at least a mix of falsetto and modal voice. Those who don't only can due to rare physiological conditions, a fact which this article neglects. Some countertenors do use no falsetto but there ranges never reach up into the upper tessitura of the alto line which in a choral setting would therefore require them to switch into falsetto at certain points. The use of the modal register for men in the alto range is therefore limited and male altos must employ falsetto production sometimes, a fact this article does not state. The exception of course would be those afforementioned highly rare singers with physiological conditions that alter the way the vocal cords develop. This article needs to be entirely rewritten and have sources added.Nrswanson (talk) 19:30, 1 April 2008 (UTC)