Tag: Alto

Alto is a musical term, derived from the Latin word altus, meaning “high”, that has several possible interpretations.
When designating instruments, “alto” frequently refers to a member of an instrumental family that has the second highest range, below that of the treble or soprano. Hence, for example, the term “alto saxophone”. In other “families”, such as the trombone, there is no soprano, the alto having been the highest, although it is absent from the standard modern symphony orchestra.
In choral music, “alto” describes the second highest voice part in a four-part chorus. As well as being the modern Italian word for “high”, in the present context it is an Italian abbreviation derived from the Latin phrase contratenor altus, used in medieval polyphony, usually to describe the highest of three parts, the line of which was in counterpoint (in other words, against = contra) with the tenor (which “held” the main melody; this word itself originates in the Latin verb tenere, meaning “to…