The altino, essentially a male contralto, is a rare male voice type, commonly considered the "true" countertenor. This person can sing high without falsetto that the usual male passagio. Typically, this rare voice has problems reaching depths of even low C unlike most men, and usually has an androgenous tone, even when speaking. The typical altino will speak normally between the range of F# and B below Middle C, more in keeping a female than a typical male, whose speaking voice settles closer to low C. An even rarer full voice can sing tenor and female contralto (or even mezzo-soprano) parts with equal ease. Falsetto (fall-SET-oh) is a singing technique that produces sounds pitched higher than the singers normal range. ... Low C is the C one octave below Middle C, and is also named C3. ... If referring to a flower, see disambiguation under bisexual Androgyny is the state of indeterminate gender, or characteristics of gender. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... In music, a tenor is a male singer with a high voice (although not as high as a countertenor). ... In music, an alto is a singer with a vocal range somewhere between a tenor and a soprano. ... A mezzo-soprano (meaning medium soprano in Italian) is a female singer with a range usually extending from the A below middle C to the F an eleventh above middle C. Mezzo-sopranos generally have a darker (or lower) vocal tone than sopranos, and their vocal range is between that...

The altino is very rare and may owe its existence in part to low testosterone levels or disorders like Klinefelter's syndrone. XXY karyotype Klinefelters syndrome is a condition caused by a chromosome abnormality in males (specifically, a nondisjunction); sufferers have a pair of X sex chromosomes instead of just one. ...