Bass (voice)

Bass (voice) (Latin, basis, “base, foot, pedestal”; influenced by French basse and Italian basso), deepest, or lowest, male singing voice. The normal range of the bass voice is about two octaves, with its lowest note about the E an octave and a sixth below middle C. Trained basses can reach notes considerably lower and higher; for example, the contrabass (an especially deep voice developed principally in Russia) can reach nearly an octave below the normal lowest note.

Basses usually are classified as basso profondo (Italian “deep bass”), a powerful, low-ranging voice; basso cantante (Italian “singing bass”), a voice with a well-developed upper range; and basso buffo (Italian “comic bass”), an agile voice suited to comic operatic roles. A bass baritone combines both basso profondo and basso cantante qualities, with a slightly higher than normal range.

The term bass is also used for the lowest-pitched member of a family of instruments, for example, the bass clarinet, although in this century even lower varieties of many instruments have been developed and are thus called contrabass, for instance the contrabass clarinet and the contrabass trombone. Bass also denotes the lowest part in a musical composition.