h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thanks for a really high quality article. Interesting and informative.

What is the name of the voice higher than soprano (that word seems to be missing from the paragraph explaining voice parts)?


Thanks Mo.

Mean If you've ever heard Thomas Tallis's Spem in Alium thats the name of the highest voice part on that.

I can tell you how it got lost too. The original edit of the article is still accessible via my page (look in the unedited entries bit). I had put all of the names of voices in italics I think, and I had just put something like "Basso profundo - the lowest voice"... etc. The editor removed all of the italics, and filled out the sentences so something like "Basso profundo meaning the lowest voice".

So when it came to "Mean", this got edited to "Mean meaning the lowest voice", which was then presumably well-meaningly 'corrected' to get rid of the doulble 'mean'...

I have brought this to the attention of the editor of the article, who claims they are powerless to correct it. I don't understand how editing works here...

I'll leave a message on Crusader's sorry, Ashley's personal space & see if it can be sorted out...

If you could type the paragraph up in this thread, with exact instructions where it is to be placed, I'll amend the Entry straight away.

The sentence which begins "Names for finer distinctions and wider extremes" should read something like:

"Names for finer distinctions and wider extremes exist, such as baritone, which is between tenor and bass; mezzo soprano, which is between alto and soprano; basso profundo, meaning below bass and mean, which is above soprano."

(I've only added a word and a comma...)

I'm also not entirely sure about the "basso profundo, meaning below bass" - this implies that this is literally what basso profundo means, but that's not a literal translation. It would be more consistent if the paragraph as a whole read:

"Names for finer distinctions and wider extremes exist, such as baritone, which is between tenor and bass; mezzo soprano, which is between alto and soprano; basso profundo, which is below bass and mean, which is above soprano."

I still think it would be easier to read if the terms were visibly different (bold or italic or something), but is that against the editorial guidelines?