voice (music)

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In music, the human singing voice. Sound is produced by forcing air from the lungs through the larynx and making the vocal cords vibrate. The pitch of the sound can be altered by tightening or loosening the muscles of the larynx, and the sound is amplified and modified by the mouth and nasal cavities.

The term ‘voice’ is also used to refer to the separate parts of a piece of music – even when they are played rather than sung. It is especially used when talking about the separate lines in counterpoint, such as a fugue in four voices.

There are several categories of singing voice, which depend on how high or low the performer normally sings. Female singers are usually classified as either soprano (the highest voice), contralto (often shortened to ‘alto’, the lowest female voice), or mezzo-soprano (a medium-high voice). Boys whose voices have not yet broken sing in the same range as the female voices, but are referred to as trebles and altos, rather than sopranos and contraltos. The main categories of men's voices are tenor (the highest male voice), bass (the lowest), baritone (between the two), and countertenor (above the tenor range). Some men can use falsetto, a sort of false high voice, to sing in the countertenor, alto, and even soprano ranges.

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