I make the note head smaller after the fact and appreciate arrangers who do. It’s easier to read than cluttering a staff with parentheses and the meaning is clear.

I am one of those basses who can hit those notes. Most often, I see the deep notes made smaller in case there is a singer like me in the ensemble who can hit them. Basses who can hit those notes know to do so.

You can also follow the Russians and just write the notes with the expectation that they will be sung.

Mike, Thanks for being a part of the MakeMusic Community. I'm glad people pitch-in to help. Lawrence was asking for the term given to optional notes that have a smaller head than the preferred note on the same stem. I'm fairly sure that he would have settled for instructions on how to create optional notes. Your reply neither gave him a term that he could look up, nor instructions on how to create such notes. You sounded like you knew what type of thing was being asked about, but you never addressed his concern. If a term exists, I have yet to find one. (I do know how to resize a notehead, though.) I hope Lawrence found what he needed!

Paul, I’m not sure anything was gained by jumping on Mike H for a 4 year old post.

Sounds too much like a politician, looking for dirt on his opponent.

 Lawrence was asking for the term given to optional notes  ....

That is simply what they are call "optional notes". I, too, wonder why anyone would respond to a four year old post?

Really?

I have no problem with my response to that four year old post, especially since the OP used the correct term which, as has been pointed out, is optional notes. A Google search of ACDA and “optional notes” will bear this out including a few thousand examples.

Wow, I just realized that I joined ACDA fifty years ago. Still a choral director among other things.

Time flies as a 4 year old post proves. 😉

And as we all know:

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.