alto relief

(noun)

A sculpture with significant projection from its background.

Related Terms

Examples of alto relief in the following topics:

  • Architecture in Mesopotamia

    • Colored stone and bas reliefs replaced paint as decoration.
    • By the time of the Assyrian empire, palaces were decorated with narrative reliefs on the walls and outfitted with their own gates.
    • The gates of the Palace of Dur-Sharrukin, occupied by Sargon II, featured monumental alto reliefs of a mythological guardian figure called a lamassu (also known as a shedu), which had the head of a human, the body of a bull or lion, and enormous wings.
    • Elsewhere on the gate and its connecting walls were painted floral motifs and bas reliefs of animals that were sacred to Ishtar, the goddess of fertility and war.
    • The photograph below shows the detail of a relief of a bull from the gate’s wall.

  • Vocal Ranges

    • Arrangements for these four voices are labelled SATB (for Soprano Alto Tenor Bass).
    • So although the full ranges of an alto and a soprano may look quite similar, the soprano gets a strong, clear sound on the higher notes, and the alto a strong, clear sound in the lower part of the range.
    • Contralto – Contralto and alto originally referred to the same voice.
    • But some people today use "contralto" to refer to a female voice that is even lower than a typical alto
    • Voices are as individual as faces; some altos will have a narrower or wider range, or the sweetest and most powerful part of their range in a different place than other altos.

  • Composing in Basso-Continuo Style

    • In strict keyboard-style writing, there are four voices: the bass line (which is usually a given in basso continuo style), and three upper voices: the melody or soprano, the alto, and the tenor (from highest to lowest).
    • Alto and tenor share a downward-pointing stem.
    • If the alto and tenor share a note, that note receives a single downward-pointing stem.
    • If melody and alto share a note, that notehead is double-stemmed.

  • Monumental Reliefs in Southeast Asia

    • Reliefs depicting figures that are at least life-size or bigger or are attached to monuments of some sort are termed monumental reliefs by art historians, thus distinguishing them from small metal or ivory reliefs, portable sculptures, and diptychs.
    • Most of ancient Southeast Asian relief sculpture was done in bas-relief, where the projecting images have shallow overall depth, although the kingdom of Champa in southern and central Vietnam excelled in haut-relief sculpture, which was marked by much greater depth and undercut areas.
    • The most famous example of Khmer bas-relief sculpture is undoubtedly at the 12th-century Hindu temple of Angkor Wat, which has 13,000 square meters of narrative bas-reliefs on the walls of its outer gallery.
    • The reliefs have a diverse range of themes.
    • Detail of carved relief from Borobudur, depicting a figure from the Buddhist pantheon.

  • Basic Notation

    • The two most commonly used clefs are the treble and bass clef; others that you'll see relatively frequently are alto and tenor clef.
    • Here is the pitch C4 placed on the treble, bass, alto, and tenor clefs.

  • Choosing Your New Key

    • An alto vocalist would like to perform a blues standard originally sung by a soprano or tenor in B flat.
    • Alto and Baritone Saxophone are E flat instruments.
    • Transpose parts up a major sixth for alto sax, and up an octave plus a major sixth for bari sax.
    • Your garage band would like to feature a solo by a friend who plays the alto sax.
    • When the second line is played by an alto sax player, the result sounds like the first line.

  • The Sentence

    • In any keyboard-style writing, there are four voices: the bass line (which is usually provided in basso continuo style), and three upper voices: the melody or soprano, the alto, and the tenor (from highest to lowest).
    • Alto and tenor share a downward-pointing stem.
    • If the alto and tenor share a note, that note receives a single downward-pointing stem.
    • If melody and alto share a note, that notehead is double-stemmed.
    • The dissonance can also be transferred to another voice before resolution—for instance, if there are multiple chords in a row exhibiting the same function, a dissonance that appears in the alto can be transferred to the tenor in the following chord, and then resolve in the tenor when the function changes.

  • Classical Cadence Types

    • As much as possible, use the voices provided in the figures above, but invert them (move the tenor line to the top, making the melody and alto the alto and tenor, for example).
    • This is true no matter which part is in the melody, alto, or tenor.

  • Bibliography

  • Pitches