Basso profondo (Italian: "deep bass"), sometimes basso profundo, contrabass or oktavist, is the lowest bass voice type. Basso profondo voice range on keyboard

While ''

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volu ...

'' defines a typical bass as having a range that is limited to the second E below middle C ( E₂),; ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'' gives E₂ to E₄ or F₄ operatic bassi profondi can be called on to sing low C ( C₂), as in the role of Baron Ochs in ''

Der Rosenkavalier (''The Knight of the Rose'' or ''The Rose-Bearer''), Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel ''Les amours du chevalier de Faublas'' ...

''. Often choral composers make use of lower notes, such as G₁ or even F₁; in such rare cases the choir relies on exceptionally deep-ranged bassi profondi termed oktavists or octavists, who sometimes sing an octave below the bass part. Bass singer

Tim Storms Tim Storms (born August 28, 1972) is an American singer and composer. He holds the Guinness World Record for both the "lowest note produced by a human" and the "widest vocal range". Musical career Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Storms was raised in W ...

holds the Guinness World Record for the "lowest note produced by a human".

Definition

According to

Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...

(1775): "Basse-contres – the most profound of all voices, singing lower than the bass like a

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...

, and should not be confused with contrabasses, which are instruments."

Oktavist

An oktavist is an exceptionally deep-ranged basso profondo, especially typical of

Russian Orthodox Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...

choral music A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which s ...

. This

voice type A voice type is a group of voices with similar vocal ranges, capable of singing in a similar tessitura, and with similar vocal transition points ('' passaggi''). Voice classification is most strongly associated with European classical music, ...

has a vocal range which extends down to A (an octave below the baritone range) and sometimes to F (an octave below the

bass staff A clef (from French: 'key') is a musical symbol used to indicate which notes are represented by the lines and spaces on a musical stave. Placing a clef on a stave assigns a particular pitch to one of the five lines, which defines the pit ...

) with the extreme lows for oktavists, such as

Mikhail Zlatopolsky Mikhail Mikhailovich Zlatopolsky (Russian language, Russian: Михаил Михайлович Златопольский, born Motya Moiseyevich Zlotopolsky, Russian: Мотя Моисеевич Злотопольский; 15 August 1934 – 7 Ma ...

or Alexander Ort, reaching C. Slavic choral composers sometimes make use of lower notes such as B₁ as in

Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...

's ''

All-Night Vigil The All-night vigil is a service of the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches consisting of an aggregation of the canonical hours of Compline (in Greek usage only), Vespers (or, on a few occasions, Great Compline), Matins, and the F ...

'', G in "Ne otverzhi mene" by

Pavel Chesnokov Pavel Grigorievich Chesnokov (Russian: Пáвел Григóрьевич Чеснокóв) (24 October 1877, Voskresensk, Zvenigorodsky Uyezd, Moscow Governorate – 14 March 1944, Moscow, also transliterated ''Tschesnokoff'', ''Tchesnokov'', ...

, or F₁ in "Kheruvimskaya pesn" (Song of Cherubim) by

Krzysztof Penderecki Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best known works include ''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', '' Polish Requiem'', ' ...

, although such notes sometimes also appear in repertoire by non-Slavic composers (e.g. B₁ appears in Gustav Mahler's Second and Eighth Symphonies).

References

External links

*
oktavism.com
website dedicated to the oktavist voice {{Range (music) Voice types Italian opera terminology Bass (sound)

Definition

Oktavist

See also

References

Further reading

External links