#contraltos

American singer, actress, dancer, and vaudevillian.

Judy Garland (10.06.1922 - 22.06.1969)

During a career that spanned 45 years, she attained international stardom as an actress in both musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist, and on the concert stage. Respected for her versatility, she received a juvenile Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Special Tony Award. Garland was the first woman to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for her live recording Judy at Carnegie Hall (1961).

if you google the ranges of different vocal types, you will generally see them listed like this:

bass: E2-E4

baritone: G2-G4 or A2-A4

tenor: B2-B4 or C3-C5

contralto: E3-E5 or F3-F5

mezzo-soprano: G3-G5 or A3-A5

soprano: C4-C6

these ranges were developed and standardized in the opera world, where singers are encouraged to ascend up the passaggio relaxing their voice in a progression from the chest to head registers. these ranges always include the projectable parts of the falsetto register (M2) and do not include the vocal fry register (M0) or whistle register (M3), which are not projectable over an orchestra.

in the musical theater world, many people will discourage you from including M2 notes in your range, especially as a non-soprano, because the role will most likely require you to use M1 for those top notes. although this is often the case, I think this is a mistake because it oversimplifies the complexity of mixing, as well as timing - maybe you can hit a C#5 in M1 as a quarter note at the beginning of a phrase, but it's pitchy and ugly as the big money note at the end of a song. it also ignores the fact that many roles will require you to sing notes in the chorus in head voice that are higher than the range of your solo, and these notes may or may not be included in the role's listed range. I have seen range listings that describe extreme opt ups in the OBC that are not even in the score.

I've seen a lot of stuff on singertok and theatertok about the "baritone A4" and then a lot of pushback. it seems like male middle voices are being told they're not really baritones if they can't belt certain notes, but then you get into basstok and almost every bass is being told they're not really a bass because they can't growl a G1 or they don't have a "dark, rich timbre" (this happens to contraltos too). that's Fach, not range. bass and baritone are two range approximations that exist in their own right on a spectrum of heavy/dramatic to light/lyric, and dark to bright tonality. there's also like a mourning of roles for middle voices as everything written for men is getting higher and higher. maybe I'm conspiracy-brained but I think the conflation between operatic-style M1-M2 range descriptions and contemporary music M0-M1 range descriptions is responsible for roles getting higher and higher and higher because of this telephone loop of singers not knowing how to classify themselves and casting directors not knowing how to classify their roles and writers not knowing how to write for the spectrum of male voices that exist. us contraltos love to complain about this too but the problem is 800x worse for male roles than female roles if you crunch the numbers. there's also this weird thing of, like, soprano role = florid head voice colatura and mezzo role = belting. any vocal type can use head voice and any vocal type can belt! it's all about the range in which they do so!

baritones do not have to hit full chest voices A4s to be baritones. contraltos do not have to hit full chest E5s. they do not do this in opera. I would actually discourage them from doing this as beginners except under the direct instruction of a vocal coach. are there roles that dip too low for tenors that also require a belted A4 or B4? yes. do those roles comprise the majority of bari roles? no. these roles are the Elphabas of leading men and were likely written with specific prestigious singers in mind. also!! Sondheim high notes can usually be sung in head or mixed voice. his style is more operatic. same goes for Golden Age musicals. just because prior actors have done it in full chest doesn't make it necessary. it's all about the style your director wants.

yes, many talanted individuals have 2+ octaves of usable chest notes, just as there are many sopranos who can hit G6s. this is not the case for the average singer and these people are famous and successful for a reason. just as there are plenty of people with three, four octaves of range, there are plenty of good singers with 1.8, 1.5 octaves total range, or maybe good total range but only 1.2 octaves of good chest notes. they're going to struggle in the musical theater world as leads, I'm not going to sugarcoat it, but they should be fine in the chorus, and there are many singers with limited ranges who have been commercially successful because they have other attractive vocal qualities.

this applies to the low point of the range too. if you see a role that's F3-D5 or something and the D5 is belted, it's probably best suited for a mezzo. "but F3 is a contralto note! mezzos can't sing that!" again, those ranges were made before microphones. most mezzos can sing an F3 with a mic. most sopranos can sing an A3 with a mic. actually if you look at speech pathology studies, the vast majority of female voices can hit an A3. these notes like Christine's G3 or Glinda's A3 are just dipping into the bottom of the range, where the voice is starting to get quieter and more fried. side note: when people say contraltos get richer towards the bottom of their range whereas sopranos get weaker, I think this is a misconception, I think that these contraltos aren't really exploring the bottom of their range the way sopranos are forced to by standard repertoire. they do get weaker and weaker in the E3-B2 zone.

going back to the limits of belting. most people have about 1.5 octaves of usable, healthy chest notes. that first octave of M1 or a little more, starting at your lowest full chest note (meaning you can sing that note at full volume without any vocal fry, for me it's D3) is going to be comfortable and you're able to control the volume, tone and vibrato on those notes. that's your tessitura. the next half octave is going to start pushing against your passaggio and will require more and more volume and less vibrato as you ascend to stay solely in M1. the top of this half octave is about where most people should switch to mixing; chest belting higher than this takes a toll on the human voice, and you will get diminishing returns in terms of tone quality. I have a hard boundary that I don't belt long notes above B4. it closes off a lot of material for me but I know from experience it's best in the long-term. if you don't know how to mix, or you're not sure whether you're mixing or chest belting, please work with a vocal teacher on these notes so you don't prematurely damage your voice.