A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Soprano
The word 'Soprano' is etymologically synonymous with 'Sovrano,' the head, chief, or highest. In the present day the soprano is the highest natural voice of women and boys—the artificial soprani belonging to the past; and in women it is, perhaps, the voice which varies most in compass. [See Singing.] That of Agujari is the highest and most extended on record, and that of Titjens one of the largest in quality and power. But, as with other voices, it is not a question of compass alone, but of timbre. Many mezzo-soprani can sing higher notes than many soprani; but there is a middle to every voice, which, as a rule, it is not difficult to find, and about this the tessitura (literally texture) of the music and the practice should be woven. Tessitura is the technical term used by the Italians to signify the notes or part of the scale upon which music is framed, and though, as said above, a mezzo-soprano may sing higher notes than a soprano, it would generally be found distressing to the former voice to dwell upon that part of the scale upon which even a limited soprano part is written. No one can say that F on the line is a high note for a soprano, and yet 'Voi che sapete' (which never goes above F) is found a trying song by some limited soprani, the tessitura being high. [See Tessitura.] Faustina, Cuzzoni, Mingotti, Anastasia Robinson, Mara, Banti, Catalani, Mrs. Billington, and Miss Paton are some of the principal soprani of bygone days, possessing exceptionally good voices; and those of Grisi, Clara Novello, Titjens, and Adelina Patti, may perhaps be considered the four best natural soprano voices of modern times. Some great singers have depended more upon their artistic excellence than upon their voices—Pasta and Persiani for example. Jenny Lind made her voice what it was. Massive soprano voices are found amongst the Germans, of which Madame Rudersdorff was an instance, but they are chiefly adapted to declamatory singing. A striking example of the soprano leggiero, the exact opposite of the last-mentioned voice, was Madame Stockhausen, who was very popular on account of the musical quality of her voice and the faultless manner of her execution. But she was unimpassioned, and though there was a great charm about her rendering of her native Swiss airs, her performance of such songs as Meyerbeer's 'Idole de ma vie' (Robert le Diable) was almost that of a musical box. The great artificial soprani of the 17th, 18th, and the early part of the present centuries were Ferri, Pasqualini, [1]Nicolini (afterwards changing to contralto), Bernacchi, Caffarelli, and Farinelli (the two greatest), Carestini, Gizziello, Guarducci, Aprile, Millico, Pacchierotti, Crescentini, Velluti, etc. Pergetti was the last of the tribe who sang in England.
There are some high Mezzo-soprani that, during the years of youth and vigour, contrive to sing soprano music, but the voice will not continue to bear the strain, and the result, after a time, baneful alike to singer and hearer, is extreme harshness in the upper notes, with frequent false intonation, hollowness or emptiness of the middle of the voice, and flaccid gruffness upon the lower notes, and in many cases early total failure of the vocal powers. The low mezzo-soprano, which might be called mezzo-contralto, can generally make a shift to sing contralto music, but the voice lacks the heavy lower notes necessary to give the music its full effect. It is in the large spaces of our modern concert-halls that these deficiencies make themselves most felt. The true mezzo-soprano, not forced out of its proper limit, is a very fine type of voice.
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