Haute-contre

The haute-contre is a rare type of high tenor voice, predominant in French Baroque and Classical opera until the latter part of the eighteenth century. The voice was predominantly used in male solo roles, typically heroic ones. Lully wrote 8 out of 14 leading male roles for the voice; Rameau also composed extensively for the "haute-contre", as later did Gluck. Notable "haute-contres" included Pierre Jélyotte and the younger François Poirier, both of whom sang for Rameau, and Marc-François Bêche. After these came Joseph Legros, for whom Gluck wrote his main "haute-contre" roles, which included the title role in the 1774 version of "Orphée et Eurydice", and Achilles in "Iphigénie en Aulide". There is also an extensive repertoire of music for this voice in French "airs de cour" and in French solo cantatas of the Baroque period; haute-contres sang in choirs as well, taking the part above more ordinary tenors, who were designated as "taille".

The nature of the "haute-contre" voice has been the subject of much debate, and the fact that, historically, English writers have translated the term as "countertenor" is not particularly helpful, since the meaning of that latter term has also been the subject of considerable musicological controversy; both terms are ultimately derived from the Latin "contratenor" (see countertenor). It is now generally accepted that the "haute-contres" sang in what voice scientists term "modal" (i.e. "speaking" voice), perhaps using falsetto for their highest notes. A typical solo range for this voice was D3 or E3 to D5 (it should be remembered that French eighteenth-century

Recently, with a revival of interest in and the performance of French baroque repertoire, several high tenors have come to prominence in haute-contre repertoire. These include Mark Padmore, [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2002/10/10/bmpad10.xml The Great Communicator - article in Telegraph.co.uk 10 October 2002] ] Rogers Covey-Crump, and Jean-Paul Fouchécourt. None of these sing the French Baroque repertoire to the exclusion of all others, and all are involved, to a greater or lesser extent, in the performance of mainstream tenor repertoire.

References

*GroveOnline|Haute-contre|Lionel Sawkins|07 August|2007
*Lalande, J J F de: "Voyage d'un francais en Italie, fait dans les annees 1765 & 1766" (Yverdon, 1770)
*Cyr, M: "On performing 18th-century Haute-Contre Roles" (Musical Times, vol 118, 1997; pp 291-5)

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