Voice type C). In the lower and upper extremes some contralto voices can sing from D3 (the D below middle C) to B5 (the second B-flat above), one whole step short of the soprano "high C". Contralto tessitura: The contralto voice has the lowest tessitura of the female voices. Contralto subtypes: Contraltos are often broken down into three subcategories: coloratura contralto, lyric contralto, and dramatic contralto. A soprano sfogato is a contralto who has an extended high range reaching the soprano "high C". Countertenor range: The countertenor is the highest male voice. Many countertenor singers perform roles originally written for a castrato
Vocal range Vocal range Vocal range is the measure of the breadth of pitches that a human voice can phonate. Its most common application is within the context of singing, where it is used as a defining characteristic for classifying singing voices into groups known as voice types. It is also a topic of study within linguistics, phonetics, and speech and language pathology, particularly in relation to the study of tonal languages and certain types of vocal disorders, although it has little practical application in terms of speech. While the broadest definition of "vocal range" is simply the span from the lowest