My music teacher offered twittering madrigals and something about how, in Italy, in Italy, the oranges hang on the tree. He treated me - the humiliation of it - as a soprano.These, by contrast, are the six elements of a Sacred Harp alto: rage, darkness, motherhood, earth, malice, and sex. Once you feel it, you can always do it. You know where to go for it, though it will cost you.
Mary Rose O'Reilley (2014). “The Barn at the End of the World: The Apprenticeship of a Quaker, Buddhist Shepherd”, p.49, Milkweed Editions