‖ voix
(vwa)
[Fr. = voice.]
Used in various phrases, as voix blanche (blɑ̃ʃ) [lit. ‘white voice’], a toneless voice; voix céleste (selɛst) [lit. ‘heavenly voice’] = vox angelica s.v. vox 2; also fig.; voix d'or (dɔr) [lit. ‘voice of gold’], a rich dramatic voice; voix grave (grav), a low-pitched or deep voice; voix moyenne (mwajɛn) [lit. ‘middle voice’], a voice of middle range.
| 1876 Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. 452/2 Vox angelica... Called also Voix céleste, unda maris, &c. 1895 G. B. Shaw Our Theatres in Nineties (1932) I. 137 The inevitable stale, puerile love scene is turned on to shew off that ‘voix céleste’ stop which Madame Berhardt, like a sentimental New England villager with an American organ, keeps always pulled out. 1897 Ibid. III. 210 Sarah Bernhardt's voix d'or. 1907 Voix celeste [see Suabe]. 1920 D. H. Lawrence Lost Girl x. 232 The muted voix blanche came through his lips. 1935 Joyce Let. 19 Mar. (1966) III. 351, I sent The Dupan collection. There is none for voix grave. So I sent the best I could: voix moyenne. 1962 Listener 8 Nov. 779/2 Her verse has always lacked intellectual content, and..the later and more ambitious manner comes to seem one-tenth genuine poem-making to nine-tenths voix d'or and delphic vapour. |