ALTO • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Alto

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/ˈæltoʊ/ Listen

noun

Alto n. (pl. altos)

(Mus.) Formerly the part sung by the highest male, or counter-tenor, voices; now the part sung by the lowest female, or contralto, voices, between in tenor and soprano. In instrumental music it now signifies the tenor.

An alto singer.

Alto clef (Mus.) the counter-tenor clef, or the C clef, placed so that the two strokes include the middle line of the staff.

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Etymology of 'Alto'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Alto" Quotes from Famous Books

... a half? Why had Fate cursed him with a pink-and-white complexion, so that the members of his own club had nicknamed him "the Babe," while street-boys as they passed pleaded with him for a kiss? Why was his very voice, a flute-like alto, more suitable—Suddenly an idea sprang to life within his brain. The idea grew. Passing a barber's ...

— Tommy and Co. • Jerome K. Jerome

... to regard Coniferae as a northern form, that I experienced a feeling of surprise when, in ascending from the shores of the South Pacific toward Chilpansingo and the elevated valleys of Mexico, between the 'Venta de la Moxonera' and the 'Alto de los Caxones', 4000 feet above the level of the sea, I rode a whole day through a dense wood of Pinus occidentalis, where I observed that these trees, which are so similar to the Weymouth pine, were associated with fan palms* ('Corypha ...

— COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1 • Alexander von Humboldt

... trained by an official of the Venetian arsenal, seemed like a real lagoon idyll. They generally sang only three-part naturally harmonized folk-songs. It was new to me not to hear the higher voice rise above the compass of the alto, that is to say, without touching the soprano, thereby imparting to the sound of the chorus a manly youthfulness hitherto unknown to me. On fine evenings they glided down the Grand Canal in a large ...

— A Wanderer in Venice • E.V. Lucas

... and with the pupils rolled under the lids. He was suddenly afraid. Overcome by the strangeness of the man's condition, he took him by the shoulder and shook him. "Are you asleep?" he said, with his voice jumping into alto, and again, "Are ...

— When the Sleeper Wakes • Herbert George Wells

... makes it easily heard. It is a most lovable instrument. "Candor, artless grace, soft joy, or the grief of a fragile being suits the oboe's accents," says Berlioz. The peculiarity of its mouth-piece gives its tone a reedy or vibrating quality totally unlike the clarinet's. Its natural alto is the English horn (Plate V.), which is an oboe of larger growth, with curved tube for convenience of manipulation. The tone of the English horn is fuller, nobler, and is very attractive in melancholy or dreamy music. There are few players on the English horn in ...

— How to Listen to Music, 7th ed. - Hints and Suggestions to Untaught Lovers of the Art • Henry Edward Krehbiel

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