Bass (vocal range)

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A bass is a male singer who sings in the deepest vocal range. According to Grove Music Online, a bass has a range extending from around the F below low C to the E above middle C (i.e., F2–E4), with a tessitura or comfortable range normally ranging between G2 (G below low C) and A4, which are the outermost lines of the standard bass clef. However, cultural influence and human uniqueness create a wide variation in range and quality, and parts for basses have included notes as low as the C two octaves below middle C (i.e. Measure 12 of Ne Imami Iniya Pomoshchi by Pavel Chesnokov), and the Rachmaninov Vespers call for the B-flat a tone below that. Many basses have trouble reaching those notes, and the use of them in works by Slavic composers has led to the colloquial term "Russian bass" for an exceptionally deep-ranged basso profundo that can easily sing these notes. They also have trouble reaching the notes above middle C, according to Grove Music Online, however many British composers such as Benjamin Britten have written parts for bass that center far higher than the bass tessitura (such as the first movement of his choral work Rejoice in the Lamb). The Harvard Dictionary of Music defines the range as being from the E below low C to middle C (i.e. E2–C4).

It is also common for men who are classified as "basses" (and have a full bass choral range) to have a speaking voice which may sound much higher than would be expected.

The bass voice is used differently in different choral traditions. For example, in the United States, no distinction is usually made between bass and baritone voices, which overlap at all but the extremes of their respective ranges. The exception is in arrangements for male choir (TTBB) such as barbershop quartets, which generally make separate mention of bass and baritone as the lowest two parts. In practice, however, basses have a darker vocal colouration. In the Russian choral tradition the bass is called upon to sing pitches well below the baritone range, as noted earlier with reference Chesnokov and Rachmaninoff.

Bass roles in opera

In classical music, and particularly in opera, the following distinctions are often made among different kinds of bass voices:

Bass-baritone/High Bass

Bass-baritone is a voice with the resonant low notes of the typical bass but with the ability to sing in a baritonal tessitura. Sometimes it also refers to a voice with a range and tone somewhere between a bass and a baritone. The following are more often done by high basses as opposed to lower baritones.
Roles:

Duke Bluebeard Bluebeard's Castle by Bela Bartok
Don Pizarro, Fidelio (Ludwig van Beethoven)
Igor, Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin
Méphistophélès, Faust by Charles Gounod
Blitch, Susannah by Carlisle Floyd
Don Alfonso, Cosi fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Leporello, Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Figaro, The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Boris, and Varlaam, Boris Godunov'' by Modest Mussorgsky
Don Basilio Il barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Rossini
Count Walter, Luisa Miller by Giuseppe Verdi
Klingsor, Parsifal by Richard Wagner
Wotan Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner

Basso Profundo

Basso profundo, is a particularly rich and deep, extremely dark dramatic male voice. It may reach the D, C or even B flat below the bass clef, but is most distinguished by its dark and cavernous timbre. The Male Choir of St. Petersburg contained seven bassi profundi out of its 22 total basses who are capable of reaching G1 (two octaves and a fourth below Middle C). In literature, a basso profundo voice is often described as a voice that could have come from deep within the earth.
Roles: