Basso profondo
Basso profondo (Italian: "deep bass"), sometimes basso profundo or contrabass, is the bass voice subtype with the lowest vocal range.
While The New Grove Dictionary of Opera defines a typical bass as having a range that is limited to the second E below middle C (E2), operatic basso profondos can be called on to sing low C (C2), such as in the role of Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier. Often choral composers make use of lower notes, such as G1 or even F1, in such rare cases the choir relies on exceptionally deep-ranged basso profondos termed Oktavist or Octavist, whose voice range is a full octave underneath the typical bass range.
Definition
According to the Italian definition, any singer with an E♭2 in fortissimo is a basso profondo. Italian composers considered basso profondos as basses with "large" voices with a range of E2 to E4, lower than typical basses. Although a basso profondo obviously requires the ability to sing notes in a lower register, more importance is placed on the quality of "largeness," or resonance and sonority.
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