and an upper extension to e'.(Fr.: ‘low tenor’).
In
the Baroque, a term for the lowest male tenor voice of three: haute-taille,
taille and basse-taille, which correspond to the three parties
intermédiares of the string orchestra, all played by instruments of the
viola type: haute-contre de violon, taille de violon and quinte
de violon. Brossard (Dictionaire de musique, 1703) uses it to define
the Italian word baritono, for which he provides the additional synonym concordans.
However, he distinguishes their ranges, giving the range of the basse-taille
as B to f ', whereas the range of the concordans extends
to G. Rousseau (Dictionnaire de musique, 1768) places the basse-taille
between the tenor and the bass, but allows that true basses are
sometimes ‘distinguished properly by that name alone, to which custom has given
the name basse-taille’. This meaning persisted into the 19th century.
Manuel García (Traité complet de l’art du chant, 1840–47/R),
however, gives basse-taille as the lowest male voice and writes that
this ‘sonorous and powerful’ voice extends from E to d' with a
lower extension to D
and an upper extension to e'.
ELLEN T. HARRIS