soprano
/səˈprɑːnəʊ
/noun (plural sopranos)
1The highest singing voice: a piece composed for soprano, flute, and continuo [as modifier]: a good soprano voice...
- So great was the applause - and because it lasted so long - she reappeared and continued to sing in her clear soprano voice that reached the very back of the Opera House.
- First, they imported madrigals (settings of poetry usually for five voices: two sopranos, alto, tenor, and bass) from Italy.
- At times, it makes sense to play the soprano and alto voices with the right hand, the tenor and bass with the left hand.
1.1A female or boy singer with a soprano voice.Why Mozart composed the motet for Rauzzini and not a female soprano is not known....
- He visited Rome and Naples where he made contact with a number of singers, including the soprano Anna Strada who would become his leading lady.
- It's an all out show but the music is just so emotional, it requires such a range in a singer, particularly the lead soprano.
1.2A part written for a soprano voice.Anne Sofie von Otter is a stunningly good choice as Sesto, a young nobleman who Handel wrote as either soprano or tenor, so to cast such an intelligent mezzo is an imaginative step....
- An aria from a modern opera is the title of a new work for soprano and orchestra written by composer John Haddock.
- But before the last movement of the symphony, a solo for soprano, Mahler's musical realisation of a child's view of heaven, he discreetly opens his score.
2 [usually as modifier] An instrument of a high or the highest pitch in its family: a soprano saxophone...
- That was when he decided to switch to soprano saxophone - the instrument he's known for by most jazz fans.
- It's accordion, soprano sax, clarinet, bass, banjo and percussion.
- Tom Arthurs' Centipede are fidgety writhers, striking angular shapes with tricky grooves and utilising the spiked fork of their leader's trumpet and Laubrock's soprano saxophone.
Origin
Mid 18th century: Italian, from sopra 'above', from Latin supra.