The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-04-29
APRIL 20, 1868.
Music and MusieaI Items.

Music and Musical Items.
From the Buffalo tN. W Commercial Advertiser.
1t is said that the famous Hutcheson
Family" are to sing no more, having located
in Minnesota. We hope the rumor is we'll
founded.
Many singers should be called bare O
tone.
Organists who are given to overpowering
your choral colleagues, pray relent! AS
you are powerful, be merciful, and let lie
have on all sides a little more repose, if you
please little less of the trumpet-stop, and
little more of the natural tones Of the
diapason, modulated and informed by the
spirit and sentiment, by the pathos or beauty,
Of the words.
There is much misapprehension about
voices, even among singers, and sometimes
teachers. One error is often made in clas-
styling the different voices. The common
est of all is to think that q soprano, because
she has good medium and low notes, is q
mezzo-soprano that a tenor, because he
sings only to F or G, is a baritone; or that
baritone that can sing up to A fat is te-
nor, and that basso who reaches without
difficulty E and + is a baritone.
There is but one rule in all this, which is
that quality, irrespective Of compass, in
dicates the real class in which voice be-
longs.
The French word ti,nbre is usually sup
posed to indicate the amount of tone or
power singer possesses, but in reality it
means the degree and quality of vibration
of a voice. This is what decides whether a
voice is
A high mezzo-soprano,
Alto,
Haut contre (high contralto),
Lyric tenor Qight tenor, or tenor leger,) }
Tenore di forza (tenor robusto),
Baritone,
Basso cantante (high bass),
Basso profundo.
1t is nonsense to define voice according
to the accidental compass which it happens
to possess. Thus, for instance, many So
prano voices which are not well developed
possess less high notes than intelligently
developed alto voices, and many undeve-
loped alto voices have less depth than we'll
developed mezzo-sopranos. A tenor who has
low notes without sound, but cannot reach
the high F, is no baritone, and just as lit
tie can man who, by the tinabae of his voice,
is baritone be tenor because he can
sing with sonorous falset to the high A,
nay even C, which many often do with ease.
How many good bassos have been spoiled
by fancying themselves baritones; how
many baritones have ruined their voices by
trying to sing tenor how many beautiful
mezzo-sopranos have turned their voices
into screechy sopranos.
We were lately asked what an "alto 80
prano" was, and we confess to have never
heard voices classed in that way. Because
in Italian and in art "alto" means "high," :"
or tall, it does not follow that an alto voice
is high or tall voice. Au contrdire, in mu-
sic, "alto" is the short for contre alto,
commonly called " contralto."
In sculpture, alto-relieuo is high-relief
and basso-relieuo low-relief. Alto-octauo
or octaua-alto, means one octave higher up
alto primo the highest alto in music ; altis-
sin,0, the musical notes above the fifth line
of treble. In instrumental music "alto y
is played by the tenor violin. In some old
definitions of music we find "alto" is sci
down as counter-tenor, or highest male
voice. AS in Italian, contralto is some,
times called counter-treble. In modern
usage, "alto" and "contralto" are synony'
nous. The alto and tenor voices approach
nearer to each other in quality than any
other.