4.2.2 Range

[1] It is relatively easy to define part-crossing, but part ranges are more ambiguous. The physical voice or instrument does not necessarily define the range of its part. In quartets, Violin I and II parts are played on the same instrument, but the Violin I parts typically have higher range. In choral writing, each singer may have a large vocal range, but the extremes of that range will rarely be used.

[2] We may begin to clarify the issues by looking at the distribution of notes in each part. In choral music, it is sometimes said that each part has a typical range of about an octave and a half.⁽⁷⁸⁾ But the extremes of that range are rarely used. In the soprano parts of the Bach chorales, 95% of all notes are contained within the octave E4-E5. Likewise, 96% of the alto notes are contained in the octave A3-A4, and 96% of the tenor notes are contained in the octave F3-F4.

[3] The bass is rangier, however, with the octave A2-A3 containing only 87% of the bass part's notes. If we want a range that encompasses 95% of the bass part's notes, we need nearly an octave and a fifth. The ranginess of choral bass parts may result from the need for large spaces between bass and tenor (see §2.2), or from the need to skip among triad roots.

[4] The discussion above suggests that the following criterion may produce sensible results: the “characteristic range” for a part is defined as the smallest range containing at least 95% of all notes performed by that part. This definition was applied to both the quartets and chorales, and the resulting characteristic ranges are shown in Table 4.2.2a.

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