baritone

—baritonal, adj.

/bar"i tohn'/, Music.

n.

1. a male voice or voice part intermediate between tenor and bass.

2. a singer with such a voice.

3. a large, valved brass instrument shaped like a trumpet or coiled in oval form, used esp. in military bands.

adj.

4. of or pertaining to a baritone; having the compass of a baritone.

Also, barytone.

[1600-10; < It baritono low voice < Gk barýtonos deep-sounding. See BARYTONE²]

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In vocal music, the most common category of male voice, between the bass and the tenor.

Its range is approximately from the second A below middle C to the F above middle C. The term baritonus was first employed in 15th-century five-and six-voice part music; when four-part settings became standard, the baritone part was dropped, and natural baritones were forced to develop either their bass or tenor register. Instruments that play principally in the baritone register include the baritone saxophone and the baritone horn.

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▪ saxhorn

      valved brass instrument pitched in B♭ or C; it is a popular band instrument dating from the 19th century and was derived from the cornet and flügelhorn (valved bugle). It resembles the euphonium but has a narrower bore and three, rather than four or five, valves. Its range extends three octaves upward from the E below the bass staff; the notes in the treble clef are written a ninth above the actual sound. The name baritone sometimes causes confusion; in Germany and often in the United States, the instrument is called both the tenor horn and the euphonium. All three terms may also refer to a saxhorn of similar pitch.

▪ vocal range

      (from Greek barytonos, “deep-sounding”), in vocal music, the most common category of male voice, between the bass and the tenor and with some characteristics of both. Normally, the baritone parts are written for a range of A to f ′, but this may be extended in either direction, particularly in solo compositions or as a reflection of an accepted cultural tradition (e.g., that of England, France, Italy, Germany, or Russia). In practice, the classification of voices is determined not only by range but also by the quality, or colour, of the voice and the purpose for which it is to be trained and used. A singer of oratorio, for example, might be comfortable as a tenor, whereas the harsher demands on a tenor in operatic roles might influence the singer to develop his baritone range instead. The term baritonans was first used in Western music toward the end of the 15th century, when composers, chiefly at the French court, explored the polyphonic sonorities made possible by the addition of lower-pitched voices. Later choral singing, which evolved into the popular four-part writing (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), usually omitted the baritone. German composers seem to have been the first to focus on the use of the baritone as a solo voice, and the prominent use of baritone characters in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's (Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus) operas was regarded as a distinct innovation by his European contemporaries. The acceptance of the baritone for principal parts considerably widened the range of male character types and shifted more emphasis to the lower voices in hero and lover roles, which had heretofore been associated with the higher voices.

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