sb. and a. Mus. Pl. ti-, -tos. Also 8 contrealt (cf. ALT2). [It.; ‘a counter treble in musicke’ (Florio, 1598).]
1. a. The part next above the alto, sung by the highest male or lowest female voice; b. a voice of this pitch or compass; c. a singer with a contralto voice. (Now commonly restricted to the female voice.)
1730. Owen Swiny, in Colman, Posth. Lett. (1820), 23. Mr. Handel desires to have … a woman contrealt. Ibid., 25. We must provide a Soprano Man and a Contrealt Woman.
1776. Sir J. Hawkins, Hist. Mus., V. 120. In 1639, Stefano Landi, a Roman contralto … published the first book of Masses for four and five voices.
1787. Ann. Reg., 206. His voice, which may be deemed the finest contralto in this country, entirely filled the abbey.
1817. Byron, Beppo, xxxii. Soprano, basso, even the contra-alto, Wish’d him five fathom under the Rialto.
1871. M. Collins, Mrq. & Merch., II. vii. 211. Her voice was a mellow contralto.
1880. Hullah, in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 396/1. Even … in flexibility, recent contralti have certainly equalled, perhaps surpassed, vocalists of every other class.
2. attrib. or adj.
1769. Barrington, in Phil. Trans., LX. 56. The parts for the first and second voice were written in what the Italians stile the Contralto cleff.
1834. Earl Mt. Edgecumbe, Mus. Remin. (ed. 4), 54. That excellent singer … possessed a contralto voice of fine quality.
1862. T. A. Trollope, Marietta, II. xiii. 237. Its full contralto tones.
1880. Hullah, in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 58/1. The contralto part is properly written on the stave which has C on its second line.
