It works well on its own, but usually doesn't mix well with contraltos.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2009-05-01] Reference

"A common saying among contraltos is that they're only allowed to play 'witches', 'bitches', or 'britches'.".    From Wordnik.com.  ["How do I manage this, a weekend -- during the GOP convention -- with a Euro social democrat and Karl Popper's son? Avoidance? Giant underpants?"] Reference

This is a cappella group of eighteen singers (5 sopranos, 4 contraltos, 5 tenors, and 4 basses), directed by Electo Silva, who also composes and arranges.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato] Reference

Thus, modern mezzos/contraltos such as myself wrestle with the slightly-too-high tessitura of the dessus or the slightly-too-low tessitura of the alto (or haute-contre).    From Wordnik.com.  [Music on the Horizons] Reference

For years she had been the leading contralto in chapel and for years she had brought home the solo prize for contraltos at every eisteddfod within a radius of twenty miles from Glynderi.    From Wordnik.com.  [Truly]

So little are the voice and its capabilities understood in this country, that instances might be mentioned where basses were mistaken for barytones, barytones for tenors, and contraltos for sopranos.    From Wordnik.com.  [Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 333, July 1843] Reference

With the gloom of the contraltos added, one could scarcely help shuddering.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Garden Party, and Other Stories] Reference

The music rendered requires seven basses and seven tenors, ten sopranos and ten contraltos.    From Wordnik.com.  [T. De Witt Talmage As I Knew Him] Reference

Ewa Podleś has earned a reputation as one of the world's most exciting and versatile contraltos.    From Wordnik.com.  [BroadwayWorld.com Featured Content] Reference

In the case of contraltos and bassos, the voice is usually trained from the middle in both directions.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Psychology of Singing A Rational Method of Voice Culture Based on a Scientific Analysis of All Systems, Ancient and Modern] Reference

The sopranos are still dressed in white, and the contraltos in black, indicative of their voices 'color.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912] Reference

Then he sat and listened, intent, absorbed, hearkening to the wonderful voice of one of the world's great contraltos.    From Wordnik.com.  [Heart's Desire] Reference

Mr. Barker! "was called for in various sopranos and contraltos, till an outsider took up the cry and shouted," Barker!.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Minister's Charge] Reference

I have in mind two well known contraltos one of whom carried her chest register up to A, and even to B flat occasionally.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Head Voice and Other Problems Practical Talks on Singing] Reference

He announced the engagement of "the greatest sopranos, mezzo sopranos, contraltos, barytones, and bassos of the operatic world.".    From Wordnik.com.  [Chapters of Opera Being historical and critical observations and records concerning the lyric drama in New York from its earliest days down to the present time] Reference

Here's the reality check: light contraltos as good as Boyle and tenors as good as Potts can be heard in their dozens in am-dram productions of.    From Wordnik.com.  [Word Magazine - Comments] Reference

The contraltos of the Italian chorus have become the counter-tenors, who, for the same reason, find themselves struggling with too sharp notes.    From Wordnik.com.  [Musical Memories]

Behnke admitted that all five registers might be heard, especially in contraltos, but he did not attach equal importance to each of these registers.    From Wordnik.com.  [Voice Production in Singing and Speaking Based on Scientific Principles (Fourth Edition, Revised and Enlarged)] Reference

Not the parts written for her (excepting those few trouser roles), but the range in which she sings them -- high sopranos down through contraltos are all masculine.    From Wordnik.com.  [VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol X No 2] Reference

At any rate, the women -- sopranos and contraltos -- should be in front, seated; the tenors standing behind the contraltos; and the basses standing behind the sopranos.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Orchestral Conductor Theory of His Art] Reference

Instant visions of dazzling sopranos, of mezzos and contraltos, of angelic voices and of vast beauty and exquisite gowning, had flashed in appalling procession before her mental vision.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Making of Bobby Burnit Being a Record of the Adventures of a Live American Young Man] Reference

As the last strains of the lamentation die away, a choir of angels is heard, of sopranos and contraltos divided, singing, "Remember from whence thou art fallen," to an accompaniment of harps.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Unseen World and Other Essays] Reference

Often this break is very marked in contraltos, and is invariably so pronounced in the male voice when it passes to the upper falsetto that even the dullest ear does not fail to notice the change.    From Wordnik.com.  [Voice Production in Singing and Speaking Based on Scientific Principles (Fourth Edition, Revised and Enlarged)] Reference

A tenor would have to take the part of Orpheus, since we no longer have male contraltos, and to keep to this kind of a voice in Orphee we would have to have recourse to what is called, in theatrical terms.    From Wordnik.com.  [Musical Memories]

Morichina, Jeanne Jomelli, Emma Trentini, and Alice Zeppilli; mezzo sopranos and contraltos: Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Bressler-Gianoli.    From Wordnik.com.  [Chapters of Opera Being historical and critical observations and records concerning the lyric drama in New York from its earliest days down to the present time] Reference

Even the fashionable sopranos and contraltos of Chicago, St. Paul, and St. Louis (they were usually ladies with very rich husbands, and Bowers called them the.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Song of the Lark] Reference

(contraltos); Mark Padmore, Nicholas Mulroy (tenors); Marcus Farnsworth, James Mustard.    From Wordnik.com.  [BBC (UK) Homepage main promotional content] Reference

Bulger before mentioned, between Miss Brunck and Miss Horsman, the two contraltos, and between the chorus-singers, after their kind) a great rivalry arose.    From Wordnik.com.  [Men's Wives] Reference

He named the greatest of contraltos.    From Wordnik.com.  [One of Our Conquerors — Complete] Reference

With tragical contraltos fill.    From Wordnik.com.  [Yellow Clover] Reference

The contraltos of the.    From Wordnik.com.  [Musical Memories] Reference

A favorite with all contraltos.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Standard Operas (12th edition) Their Plots, Their Music, and Their Composers] Reference

); contraltos Meredith Arwady (The Marquise of Berkenfeld /.    From Wordnik.com.  [San Francisco Sentinel] Reference

The band is followed by a fascinating amalgam of talent: mesmerists, ventriloquists, bar performers, contraltos, tenors, harpists, magicians, bicycle troupes, dancers, acrobats, Irish comics.    From Wordnik.com.  [Chicago Reader] Reference