The

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word quintus, also ''quinta'' or ''quinta vox'', refers to the fifth voice in addition to the ''

superius In early music polyphony, ''superius'' or cantus is the Latin language-derived name given to the highest voice or part.Arnold D. (ed), ''New Oxford Companion to Music'', Oxford, (1983) See also * Voice type * Quintus (vocal music) The Latin word q ...

'', ''

altus Altus or ALTUS may refer to: Music * Alto, a musical term meaning second highest musical or vocal type *Altus (voice type), a vocal type also known as countertenor Places * Altus, Arkansas, US **Altus AVA, a wine-growing region near Altus, Arka ...

'', ''

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

'' and '' bassus'' in a piece of vocal

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, ...

. In Baroque vocal music, this fifth voice was added to the principal part and then given to the tenor. The word was particularly used for printed partbooks of five-voice music, where the "quintus" melody might well be for different voices like the discantus or even the

contratenor A countertenor (also contra tenor) is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of the female contralto or mezzo-soprano voice types, generally extending from around G3 to D5 or E5, although a sopranist (a s ...

, in addition to the usual four. By overlaying voices in different planes, the compositional style of the seventeenth century was enriched with polyphonic sounds, expanding itself both to the low as well as the high pitch. The prevailing three or four voices of the latter half of the fourteenth and the first half of the fifteenth centuries, which are almost frequently intertwined between them, already in the latter half of the sixteenth century were preferred by four or five, or even more voices, by the addition of a ''quintus'', also called ''vagans'', and a ''sextus'' playing the part of a second ''

cantus A cantus (Latin for "singing", derived from ''cantare''), is an activity organised by Belgian, Dutch, French, and Baltic fraternities. A cantus mainly involves singing traditional songs and drinking beer. It is governed by strict traditional rul ...

'', normally in the soprano or mezzo-soprano range.

References

External links

*
Musica Transalpina...: Tenor. Quintus. Sextus. Bassus
A 1588 partbook by

William Byrd William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English composer of late Renaissance music. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native England and those on the continent. He ...

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...

Vocal music Voice types Tenors Polyphonic form Polyphonic singing Harmony {{music-theory-stub