Difference between soprano and second?

[Born2cthelightsofbway]

Posted: 4/22/06 at 8:43pm

What exactly is the difference between a soprano and a second soprano? Thank you.

[singingwendy]

Posted: 4/22/06 at 8:51pm

"Second Soprano" is a choral term used to define a second, slightly lower soprano part. So, if you are in a choir that is singing SSA music...you'll have a First Soprano line, a Second Soprano line and an alto line.

I sing Second Soprano with Bach Choir and while our tessitura is somewhat lower in Bach's 5 part music, we still need to be able to sing the "regular" soprano notes in the 4 part music.

And FYI--There can be second alto, tenor and bass lines too...and they tend to be slightly lower than the "first" lines

[pemberlee]

Posted: 4/22/06 at 8:54pm

I can tell you from experience that seconds are easy and firsts are divas.

I was a second of course.

Updated On: 5/4/19 at 08:54 PM

[DramaDork925]

Posted: 4/22/06 at 9:34pm

Seconds are also referred to as "Mezzo-Sopranos" I'm a first Soprano in choir, Mezzo everywhere else.

[singingwendy]

Posted: 4/22/06 at 9:49pm

Seconds are also referred to as "Mezzo-Sopranos"

Not really........we're talking two different sets of classifications here.....

Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Baritone, Bass---These are voice classifications. We can even get more specific by saying "Lyric Soprano" or "Coloratura Soprano" or "Dramatic Soprano" or "Helden Tenor". These talk about typical ranges, and what type of sound we expect to hear from your voice.


Soprano, Second Soprano, Third Soprano or Alto I, Alto II, etc. ----These are choral terms. They describe the singers designated to sing a particular line. Typically the "second" lines tend to be slightly lower than the "first" lines, but that is not always the case.

So, one does not (or should not) describe themselves as a "second soprano"..that is the part you sing, but you are a soprano.

Mezzo-soprano is really what we typically think of as "alto". There are very few women in this world with a true "contralto" voice, which is a very deep, very resonant voice. Most people who sing "alto" in choirs, especially in high school choirs, are really mezzo-sopranos. (Of course, most of them in HS choirs are really sopranos stuck in the alto section because they can hold harmony, but we won't go into that now

[DramaDork925]

Posted: 4/22/06 at 9:57pm

Really? I always assumed Mezzo and second were the same! Well, you learn something new everyday...

[C is for Company]

Posted: 4/22/06 at 9:59pm

Last year I was Bass 1. The end!

[Dancinqueen123]

Posted: 4/22/06 at 10:58pm

I sing Second Soprano in my choir and from what I've gathered is that a second soprano is someone who can't sing the extremely high notes that a soprano one sings. The seconds aren't low enough to be altos so they stick them somewhere in the middle.

[xrent_headx]

Posted: 4/22/06 at 11:07pm

I'm a second in my schools choir, not by choice.
The range is slightly lower than a soprano and slightly higher than an alto.

[caitiesus1522]

Posted: 4/22/06 at 11:18pm

Ok when I was in choirs in and out of school I was always a second and this is how one director explained it to me when I was being reevaluated at the end of the year

"I pick my second sopranos like this- Who are the best at singing the hardest harmonies to find? THen out of that group I pick who those young women that have the largest range because sometimes I need my seconds to sing the stratisphere notes with the sopranos and sometimes I need them to sing the low notes of the altos"

And I noticed that in all of my other choirs, those were the people in the second soprano group.