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Tenor

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This article is about Tenor vocalists in music. For other meanings see Tenor (disambiguation).
Voice type
Female
Male

In music, a tenor is a male singer with a high voice (although not as high as the modern countertenor). In four part chorale-style harmony, it is the second lowest voice, above the bass and below the soprano and alto. A typical operatic tenor will have a range extending from the C below middle C to the C above middle C (C3-C5), though, in choral music, tenors are rarely asked to sing above G4, except in solos. In a mixed-gender choir, females may also sing as tenors.

Generally, the tenor roles are parallel to the soprano roles, in that they are usually the most sympathetic male roles; they play the hero, the lover, etc but there are the occasional villains (the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto; Lt. Pinkerton and Goro in Madame Butterfly). A tenor is classified by several vocal traits, including range, tone quality, vocal lift points, and transition points within the singer's range.

Rosario la Spina, an Australian born tenor

Origin of the term

The name "tenor" comes from the Latin word tenere, which means "to hold". In medieval and Renaissance polyphony between about 1250 and 1500, the tenor was the structurally fundamental (or ‘holding’) voice, vocal or instrumental. All other voices were normally calculated in relation to the tenor, which often proceeded in longer note values and carried a borrowed Cantus firmus melody. Until the late 15th-century introduction of the contratenor bassus, the tenor was usually the lowest voice, assuming the role of providing a harmonic foundation. It was also in the 15th century that "tenor" came to signify the male voice that sang such parts; later it was applied not only to singers, but also instrumental parts occupying approximately the same register, such as the Tenor violin.

Other uses

In the Barbershop harmony musical style, the name "tenor" is used for the highest part. The four parts are known (lowest to highest) as bass, baritone, lead, and tenor. The tenor generally sings in falsetto voice (thus the term tenor used in barbershop terminology most closely corresponds to the term countertenor as used in classical music), and harmonizes above the lead, who sings the melody. The barbershop tenor range is, as notated, Bb-below-middle C to D-above-high-C (and sung an octave lower).

It is often applied to instruments to indicate their range in relation to other instruments of the same group. For instance the tenor saxophone.

Also a literary term referring to part of a sentence.

Types of tenor and tenor roles in operas

In opera, distinctions are made between different types of tenor:

Tenor roles in operettas and musicals

Sources

David Fallows, Owen Jander. "Tenor", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy, grovemusic.com (subscription access).

See also

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