A male high voice, originally and still most commonly of alto range, though the title is increasingly employed generically to describe any adult male voice higher than tenor. Historically, it derived in England from the Contratenor line in late medieval and Renaissance polyphony, via contratenor altus (‘high contratenor’), which – used interchangeably – became ‘countertenor’ and ‘altus’, then alto (as in Italian nomenclature) and, later still, even ‘male’ alto (see Alto (i), Altus and Contralto; see also Haute-contre).
From the late 13th century onwards, manuscript and later printed sources of French, Netherlandish and (eventually) English music almost invariably used the original Latin form ‘contratenor’ for this vocal line which, into and throughout the Renaissance, rose gradually in range and tessitura. In England, the anglicized form ‘countertenor’, or ‘counter-tenor’, seems to have become common spoken usage by the early 16th century (Oxford English Dictionary), though the part (and by implication broadly the vocal range) was also called ‘contra’, or ‘counter’. The vocal range required also suited many ‘meane’ parts. Morley, in A Plaine and Easie Introduction (1597, pt 3), frequently employed the term ‘countertenor’ (though regularly cut to ‘Counter’) to denote a line of instrumental or vocal polyphony which lies slightly above the tenor and is usually written in a clef a 3rd away from that part. In these and still later examples, the original ‘contratenor’ character persists to some extent, in that the part occasionally crosses, ‘counters’ or repeatedly ‘encounters’ the tenor. When there were two countertenor parts, mostly of about equal range, they tended to cross each other frequently; this persisted well into the 18th century. Boyce's Cathedral Music (1760–73) continued to print the ancient term ‘contratenor’ against the countertenor/alto line(s), e.g. contratenor cantoris primus.
Repertory, sacred and secular, was written for male high-voice soloists, who usually employed Falsetto (a colloquial, erroneous and misleading term for second-mode phonation or pure head register), exclusively or in part. In different countries and periods they became titled, variously, ‘countertenor’, ‘Alto’, ‘altist’, ‘falsettist’, ‘Contralto’, or ‘Haute-contre’.
Contrary to popular understanding, the male high voice employing ‘falsetto’ was never an exclusively English phenomenon. It has been cultivated variously, worldwide, and played an important part in the earliest and middle development of Western music, especially in the Low Countries, Germany, Spain, Italy, France and England. It has however been argued that this second-mode use came to Britain only in the late 17th century, roughly parallel with the extended visit of the first ecclesiastical castrato, and about 20 years before the arrival of the operatic castratos, c1707. During the height of the Castrato period in mainland Europe, second-mode users, while flourishing in choirs, suffered near extinction as secular soloists, especially as some seem to have counterfeited for castratos. In England, visiting stage and oratorio castratos were deputized for by indigenous countertenors and women. Handel, for example, sometimes exploited this and made his final choice to suit the circumstances.
By the 19th century, although the second-mode specialist had faded as a soloist in mainland Europe, the mode itself survived as an option in the male voice, as in, for example, the ‘contralto tenors’ of the Capella Sistina. In England, the second-mode tradition continued to thrive in cathedral and church music, academia and the numerous glee clubs although, as the female contralto began to predominate everywhere else, the countertenor/alto gradually lost ground to her in the oratorio chorus. Already, he featured ever more rarely as an oratorio and concert soloist, having come increasingly to be known only as alto, later ‘male alto’ (the prefix came to be affixed when women started to sing alto parts in public performance in which vocal titles were used).
The triumphant re-emergence of the solo countertenor came primarily from England. The artistry of Alfred Deller (1912–79) was largely responsible, from the mid-1940s, for the renaissance of the title ‘countertenor’ and the presence of the voice in a secular, solo capacity on the mainstream concert platform and the stage. Deller was followed closely by John Whitworth and, in America, Russell Oberlin. It has not been fully acknowledged, however, that the countertenor survived both in title and employment in early British and American recordings (c1904 – late-1930s) of popular ballads and ephemeral material.
Like all voice-types, the countertenor's vocal style, timbre and character have adjusted to suit changes in musical fashion. This caused confusion and controversy during the late 20th century when the perceived ‘correct’ vocal type was sought for music of a particular genre or period. Although some writers have tried to avoid all titles except the generic though ambiguous ‘falsettist’, traditional opinion argues that the countertenor is simply the historical (male) alto who employs, almost exclusively, highly developed second-mode phonation, the pure head register. A more specific definition is that the countertenor must always have a tenor or light-baritonal first-mode with a second-mode extension. Another view is that alto and countertenor voices are distinct, and distinguishable, in that (it is claimed) the alto is merely a falsetto from a bass or baritone's fundamental register, while the true countertenor has a ‘natural’ tenor first-mode – i.e. not ‘falsetto’ – with an abnormally light, high range and able to maintain an unusually high tessitura like, it is argued, the French haute-contre (there is also, however, much disagreement in this regard about the historical haute-contre).
Radiographic evidence has been presented (Ardran and Wulstan, 1967) to support the view that both ‘countertenors’ and ‘altos’ are ‘falsettists’, in the sense that both produce their voices by the same physiological means, although Deller added that this was ‘an over-simplication … no amount of work will produce a clarion sound from what Nature has (inscrutably) designated a bugle’. Both opinions were broadly endorsed by Giles (1982), who further argued that there are several exploitative, different subdivisions of second-mode phonation which produce contrasting timbres; this was supported by conclusions based on xeroradiographic-electrolaryngographic analysis (Welch, Sergeant and MacCurtain, 1989).
Other than the philological aspects of the title ‘countertenor’, the reason for the quasi-high-tenor tonal quality available to him, so often cited as a vital ingredient, is probably that, in both the countertenor's second-mode and the lyric tenor's upper first-mode phonation, the vocal folds are stretched longer, are thinned and are more elastic. The difference is that in the countertenor's second-mode state, the arytenoid cartilages are closed, resulting in a shorter total length of fold, resulting in a higher pitch.
Nevertheless, current confusion regarding the countertenor voice probably occurs because, before the early 19th century, it was acceptable for male singers of all vocal denominations to employ some second-mode phonation when they wished, and because, in practice, the male voice seems to have been regarded as something of a ‘composite’ vocal instrument with specialist domains, rather than being pressed into stereotypical categories, as in the view during the mid-19th century and since.
Using these later methods of classification, the countertenor seems to be divisible into three or four groups: High and Ultra-high and two categories of Low (with minor subdivisions): these titles indicate preferences or tendencies in vocal production rather than distinct ranges. Many British high countertenors, reluctant to use first-mode at all, employ exclusively the expertly extended, developed second-mode. But second-mode's antiphrasis, ‘falsetto’ (a misleading misnomer), is a perfectly natural vocal state, available in undeveloped form in almost every male, and can itself produce two main sub-modes or varieties, upper-second-mode and middle-second-mode/pharyngeal. Most high countertenors normally use both sub-modes; if they wish, they can opt to employ upper-first-mode too, which is usually light baritone- or tenor-toned.
The adult discantus singer of the Ars Nova and Renaissance was, it seems, a rare variety of high countertenor, employing much high range upper-second-mode, as did the Spanish falsettist. Originally largely displaced by the castrato soprano, this species, now sometimes titled ‘sopranist’, reappeared with distinction in formal music in the 1980s and 90s. Invariably, he needs to use his tenor- or light-baritonal first-mode for lower-pitched notes. The first category of low countertenor works essentially in middle-second-model/pharyngeal, perhaps adding a little upper-second-mode for special effect, and he often joins his upper-first-mode to middle-second-mode (either tenor-toned or light-baritonal). The second type is the rarely-found tenor-altino, who usually possesses an uncannily light first-mode but frequently sounds as if he uses at the top of his compass much the same mechanism (i.e. second-mode) as other countertenors.
Some commentators argue that haute-contre (high-contra) singers originally employed second-mode phonation and were therefore simply French countertenors; and that originally their ranks probably included all three countertenor types. Nevertheless, by the early 19th century, when the haute-contre was becoming virtually extinct, they seem to have evolved into singers very like modern, high, lyric tenors. Contemporary accounts however indicate that they used an over-extended voix-mixte too high in the range for comfort (theirs or the audience's). In revival, however, haute-contres have mostly reverted to using earlier vocal techniques.
The countertenor should therefore be considered a survivor from an earlier, more versatile, male vocal method. The range available through the use of such a technique would appear to have enabled most singers who today are called ‘countertenor’ to have sung most parts in early polyphony, according to individual vocal timbre, range and inclination. Historically, to qualify for the title ‘countertenor’ (when that title finally evolved), a singer would seem to have required unrestricted use of second-mode phonation, with the optional employment of first-mode, in a ratio appropriate to the music being performed; this is still the case.
The renaissance of the countertenor voice in the mid-20th century was closely associated with the specially gifted singer Alfred Deller (1912–79), who was an alto in the choir of Canterbury Cathedral, and later that of St Paul's Cathedral. When he began his career as a soloist, he worked closely with the composer Michael Tippett; they agreed that a return to the term ‘countertenor’ would be appropriate largely because the repertory they were immediately concerned with was drawn from Purcell (himself described as a countertenor) and his contemporaries. In revivals of such works as The Fairy Queen, the new generation of countertenors led by Deller played a prominent part. They have continued to take an important role in the early music movement and have increasingly shown an ability to cope with the male contralto and mezzo-soprano roles in the operas of Handel and other Baroque composers, as well as the oratorio roles originally written for the male high voice (such as David in Saul and Micah in Samson); staged revivals and recordings sometimes prefer women singers in these roles but many have favoured countertenors (for example in Giulio Cesare, Orlando and Ariodante) who have developed the volume and penetrative quality of tone necessary to project the roles in the theatre. This movement began in Britain, with such artists as John Whitworth, Paul Esswood, James Bowman and, later, Michael Chance; there have also been several distinguished American singers, among them Russell Oberlin, Drew Minter, David Daniels and Derek Lee Ragin, the Belgian René Jacobs, and in the 1980s and 90s several Germans, notably Jochen Kowalski and Andreas Scholl.
Modern composers of opera have also shown interest in this newly available voice. Britten wrote the role of Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960) for Deller; this remains the countertenor's most attractive part and has been sung by Oberlin and, in many further productions, by Bowman. Other modern operas using the voice include Britten's Death in Venice and Glass's Akhnaten. An imaginative feature of Reimann's Lear is the casting of Edgar as a countertenor, particularly effective in the howling of ‘poor Tom’. There has also been a movement to extend the countertenor's sphere so as to include such roles as Gluck's Orpheus, Pharnaces in Mozart's Mitridate, Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and the Tsar's son in Boris Godunov; this has led to a generation of singers who claim for the voice dramatic qualities that dissociate it from the main British tradition emanating from Deller.
Grove5 (D. Stevens)
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W.J. Hough: ‘The Historical Significance of the Counter-Tenor’, PMA, lxiv (1937–8), 1–24
F. Hodgson: ‘The Contemporary Alto’, MT, cvi (1965), 293–4
F. Hodgson: ‘The Countertenor’, MT, cvi (1965), 216–17
G.M. Ardran and D. Wulstan: ‘The Alto or Countertenor Voice’, ML, xlviii (1967), 17–22
O. Baldwin and T. Wilson: ‘Alfred Deller, John Freeman and Mr Pate’, ML, l (1969), 103–10
P. Giles: The Counter-Tenor (London, 1982)
R. Jacobs: ‘The Controversy Concerning the Timbre of the Countertenor’, Alte Musik: Praxis und Reflexion, Basler Jb für historische Musikpraxis, special issue, ed. P. Reidemeister and V. Gutmann (Winterthur, 1983), 288–306
R. Stewart: ‘A Physiological and Linguistic Study of Male and Vocal Types, Timbres and Techniques in the Music of Josquin des Prez’, Josquin Symposium: Cologne 1984 [TVNM, xxxv/1–2 (1985)], 97–189
P. Giles: A Basic Counter-Tenor Method (London, 1987)
G. Welch, D. Sergeant and F. MacCurtain: ‘Some Physical Characteristics of the Male Falsetto Voice’, Journal of Voice, ii (1988), 151–63
G. Welch, D. Sergeant and F. MacCurtain: ‘Xeroradiographic-Electrolaryngographic Analysis of Male Vocal Registers’, Journal of Voice, iii (1989), 244–56
P. Giles: The History and Technique of the Counter-Tenor (London, 1995)
PETER GILES (1, 2), J.B. STEANE (3)