Soprano

A soprano is a singer with a voice range from approximately middle C (C4) to "high A" (A5) in choral music, or to "soprano C" (C6, two octaves above middle C) or higher in operatic music. In four part chorale style harmony the soprano takes the highest part which usually encompasses the melody.

Male singers whose voices have not yet changed are known either as "boy sopranos" or in church traditions as trebles, whilst adult male sopranos singing falsetto are known as countertenors or sopranists.

Historically women were not allowed to sing in the Church so the soprano roles were given to young boys and later to castrati - men whose larynxes had been fixed in a pre-adolescent state through the process of castration.