 The explanation for the anomaly of this name is to be found not in the use of adult falsettists in choirs of men and boys but further back in innovations in composition during the mid-15th century.Before this time it was usual to write a melodic "cantus" or "superius" against a tenor (from Latin "tenere", to hold) or 'held' part, to which might be added a contratenor, which was in counterpoint with (in other words, against = contra) the tenor.The composers of Ockeghem's generation wrote two contratenor parts and designated them as "contratenor altus" and "contratenor bassus"; they were respectively higher and lower than the tenor part.