Tenorize
verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To sing tenor. intransitive
"Mr. Alfred O'Shea, a tenorizing youth from Australia, sang several times at Queen's Hall, and may congratulate himself on being one of the 'catches' of the season. He sang airs from Italian and French operas, and also a number of Irish ditties—naturally, with a name like that and such an ingratiating McCormackian voice."
- 2 To sing (something) in a tenor register. transitive
"He has that rich, thrillingly masculine voice of which we can hardly ever tire. He has to tenorise (let the impossible word pass) his top notes a trifle, but his art is so good that one hardly notices this after the first occasion."
- 3 To convert a piece for tenor. transitive
"A curious experiment was tried with the music of Don Giovanni in order to enable Nourrit to sing in that beautiful opera. The music allotted to the Don was all tenorized; but this scheme was not happy in its results . It is very doubtful whether any music can safely be transposed from the key in which it was first inspired"
- 4 To use (a voice, performer) as a tenor. transitive
"Mr. Fanning should not be so angry about being "tenorized," for he has such an extended upper range that he might conceivably deceive a public who did not know him."
Example
More examples"Mr. Alfred O'Shea, a tenorizing youth from Australia, sang several times at Queen's Hall, and may congratulate himself on being one of the 'catches' of the season. He sang airs from Italian and French operas, and also a number of Irish ditties—naturally, with a name like that and such an ingratiating McCormackian voice."
Etymology
From tenor + -ize.