Haute-contre

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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 pitch was often a tone lower than that of today). Though this stratospheric range might lead one to think of the haute-contre as a light voice, historical evidence does not bear this out: Jélyotte was much praised for the strength of his high register,^[1] the astronomer and traveller Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande commenting that "one takes more pleasure in hearing a large voice than a small one". This is very similar to the range of roles written in Italy for the voice known as tenore di grazia (see tenor), for example Almaviva in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia. Lalande stated that Jélyotte's range was identical to that of the famous tenor Angelo Amorevoli; he also remarked that "all those who succeeded Legros had to shout to arrive at the tones of an haute-contre, except for Rousseau: but he had the smallest sound".^[2]

Jélyotte in the title-role of Rameau's Platée, by Charles-Antoine Coypel c1745

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,^[3] 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.

[edit] References

Lionel Sawkins. "Haute-contre", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed 07 August 2007), grovemusic.com (subscription access).
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)