It’s some years since I sang alto in earnest in a performance (other than filling the odd verse of a hymn for variety, or being asked to sing a phrase or two of the alto part to balance parts). Although I have the range for all but the very low notes, I have two problems: my voice doesn’t carry very far at the lower end, and I find it harder to pitch low notes because I don’t have as much pitch memory.
I was joining the Senior Choir of Elstree School (now near Newbury, the result of wartime evacuation that became permanent) for an evensong at Bath Abbey. The ‘Footprint Project’ is in full swing and the eastern end of the Abbey is a hard hat area behind a wooden barrier. We were in temporary choir stalls in front of it. Another part of the project is the creation of larger rehearsal facilities, so a visiting choir won’t have to occupy the same space as the Abbey girls’ choir, as we did this time.
I know a music teacher at the school and so was called on to reinforce the alto line, even more necessary when the other adult alto sustained an accident in Bath and wasn’t able to sing. We sang a few psalm verses, Brewer in D, Look at the World by John Rutter and a hymn. I had to remember not to get too enthusiastic about the high E in the unison verse of the hymn and give myself away. I finished with more respect for the effort altos have to make to sing often unmemorable lines in a restricted range.