Choir

A choir, or chorale, or chorus, as it might also be known, is, at its core, a collection of voices. Think of it as a gathering of individuals, each contributing their unique sound to form something larger, something more resonant. The word itself traces back to the Latin 'chorus,' which conjures images of a circular dance, a communal movement. This ensemble performs choral music, a genre specifically crafted for these vocal congregations. The repertoire they tackle is vast, spanning the solemnity of medieval music to the vibrant pulse of popular music, with the entirety of classical music in between. Most often, this vocal assembly is guided by a conductor, a maestro whose gestures—a flick of the wrist, a subtle nod—orchestrate the collective sound.

The term "choir" often carries a religious connotation, frequently associated with churches, even if the singers aren't physically located in the quire. "Chorus," on the other hand, tends to evoke the grander spaces of theatres and concert halls. However, these distinctions aren't etched in stone; they’re more like suggestions, loose guidelines. A choir might perform without any instrumental accompaniment, a pure, unadulterated vocal experience, or they might be supported by a piano, an accordion, the majestic tones of a pipe organ, a modest ensemble, or even a full-blown orchestra.

Beyond the assembled voices, the term "choir" can also describe a section within a larger ensemble. You might hear of the "woodwind choir" within an orchestra, or distinct "choirs" of voices or instruments in a polychoral piece. In grand works like 18th to 21st-century oratorios and masses, 'chorus' or 'choir' specifically implies that more than one singer is assigned to each part, setting them apart from the soloists who also feature.

Imagine a holiday gathering, a choir in Düsseldorf, Germany, filling the air with song. It's a scene that captures the communal spirit of choral music.

Structure

The conductor, or choirmaster, is the linchpin of most choirs. They are the guiding hand, the interpreter of the score. While many choirs adhere to the traditional four-part harmony—soprano, alto, tenor, and bass—the possibilities for harmonic complexity are virtually limitless. Thomas Tallis, for instance, composed a 40-part motet, Spem in alium, a monumental work for eight choirs of five parts each. Krzysztof Penderecki's Stabat Mater is another testament to this, featuring three choirs of 16 voices each, a total of 48 distinct parts. While four parts are common, three, five, six, and eight are also frequently encountered.

The presence or absence of instrumental accompaniment further defines a choir. Singing without instruments is known as a cappella singing. Though the American Choral Directors Association prefers the term "unaccompanied" for modern secular music, as "a cappella" originally signified singing "as in the chapel." The instruments that accompany choirs are as varied as the music itself, ranging from a solitary piano or pipe organ to a sprawling orchestra of a hundred musicians. For rehearsals, a piano or organ is often employed, even if the performance calls for a different instrumental setup or if the music is intended to be unaccompanied. The advent of electronic devices has also introduced learning tracks, aiding both group rehearsals and individual practice.

Choirs find their voice in a multitude of settings: churches, opera houses, schools, and community halls. Sometimes, these disparate groups converge to form a singular, grand "massed choir" for a special event, presenting a series of pieces to entertain and uplift.

Role of conductor

Conducting is more than just waving a stick; it's an art form, a nuanced communication of musical intent. The conductor's primary role is to unify the performers, to establish the tempo, to provide clear rhythmic cues, and to critically shape the ensemble's sound. In many choirs, the conductor also shoulders the responsibilities of musical director (selecting repertoire, engaging soloists) and chorusmaster (rehearsing the singers). However, these roles can be divided, particularly in larger productions like opera.

The conductor typically stands on an elevated platform, sometimes wielding a baton for enhanced visibility, but often preferring the expressive freedom of conducting with their hands. While contemporary conductors rarely play an instrument while leading, historical practice saw leaders accompanying themselves on instruments like the harpsichord or violin during Baroque music. Leading a piano while conducting is also seen in musical theatre pit orchestras. Communication during performance is largely non-verbal, though jazz big bands might include occasional spoken cues. Rehearsals, however, are a space for verbal instruction, where the conductor, often doubling as artistic director, imparts their interpretation to the singers.

Conductors are the navigators of the choral journey. They select the musical landscape, dissect the scores, and translate their vision into sound. When a choir collaborates with an orchestra, the conductor’s role expands to encompass the instrumentalists as well. Beyond the artistic direction, they often manage the practicalities: scheduling rehearsals, planning seasons, holding auditions, and promoting the ensemble.

In worship services

Historically, music has been broadly categorized into sacred or religious music and secular music. While much religious music is now performed in concert settings, its roots are firmly planted in liturgical practice.

Accompaniment

In the early centuries of Christianity, as among post-Diaspora Jews, a prevailing sentiment favored excluding musical instruments from worship, prioritizing the purity of the unaccompanied human voice. This reverence for the voice continues in many Eastern Orthodox churches, some American Protestant denominations, and traditional Jewish synagogues. Within the Western Rite of Christianity, the organ is the customary accompanying instrument. However, in colonial America, the Moravian Church embraced ensembles of strings and winds. Contemporary worship often features amplified bands, while Roman Catholic churches retain the discretion to incorporate orchestral accompaniment.

Liturgical function

Beyond leading congregational singing, church choirs often perform full liturgical services, including the propers—the specific musical texts for each day of the liturgical year. This is particularly evident in the Evangelical Lutheran, Anglican, and Roman Catholic traditions. More commonly, choirs present anthems or motets at designated points within the service. The Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy affirmed that choirs hold a "genuine liturgical function" in services like the Mass. The act of communal singing within a congregation is believed to enhance the efficacy of the ritual, imbuing the faithful with a profound Christian spirit, as noted in early Church practices.

Types

The classification of choirs often hinges on gender and age, factors historically believed to influence their sonic character and repertoire. These categories, listed in approximate order of prevalence at professional and advanced amateur levels:

Adult mixed choir: The most prevalent type, typically comprising soprano, alto, tenor, and bass voices (SATB). Sometimes, parts are further divided (e.g., SSAATTBB) or the choir is split into semi-independent groups. The baritone voice may also be incorporated (SATBarB). In smaller choirs with fewer male singers, SAB arrangements allow men to cover both tenor and bass roles.
Male choir (or choir of men & boys): Features the SATB voicing, but with boys singing the upper parts (trebles or boy sopranos) and men singing alto (often as countertenors). This was historically characteristic of British cathedral choirs, though by 2019, female choristers outnumbered males in English cathedrals.
Men's chorus (Male voice choir, [Männerchor]): Composed solely of adult men, typically with two tenor, baritone, and bass parts (TTBB). If the upper part uses falsetto in the alto range, it's sometimes denoted ATBB.
[Boys' choir]: Consists of boys, usually singing SSA or SSAA, sometimes including a tenor part for boys with changing voices and a baritone part for those whose voices have already changed.
[Women's choir]: Features adult women, typically singing soprano and alto parts, often in two parts each (SSAA or SSA). If all singers are young, it's termed a "girls' choir."
Children's mixed choir: Includes both boys and girls, often singing SA or SSA, sometimes with more parts.

Professionally, all-female and mixed children's choirs are less common than boys' choirs, men's choruses, or SATB choirs. This disparity is partly attributed to fewer scholarships and professional opportunities for women.

Choirs are also categorized by their institutional affiliation:

Church (including cathedral) choirs: Integral to religious services.
Chorale (Kantorei): Primarily focused on sacred Christian music.
Collegiate and university choir: Affiliated with academic institutions.
Community choir: Open to children or adults from the general public.
Professional choir: Either independent ensembles like Anúna or the Sixteen, or state-supported groups such as the BBC Singers or Chamber Choir Ireland.
School choirs: Part of the educational curriculum.
Signing choir: Utilizes sign language instead of vocalization.
Integrated signing and singing choir: Combines both sign language and vocal performance.
Cambiata choirs: Cater to adolescent boys with changing voices.
Virtual choirs: Members collaborate remotely, a format that gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some choirs are further defined by their musical specialization:

Bach choir: Dedicated to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Barbershop music group: Specializing in a particular style of close harmony.
Gospel choir: Performing music rooted in African-American religious traditions.
Show choir: Combines singing and dancing, often in theatrical presentations.
Symphonic choir: Typically performs large-scale works with orchestras.
Vocal jazz choir: Focuses on jazz repertoire.

In schools

In the United States, choir is a common offering in middle and high schools, often leading to competitions. Show choir is a particularly popular format. The adolescent years are marked by significant vocal changes, especially for boys. Music education literature delves into the complexities of male voice change, with researchers like John Cooksey categorizing it into five stages. Choir teachers face the challenge of adapting their instruction to accommodate these fluctuating vocal ranges.

Nationally, male enrollment in choir programs significantly lags behind female enrollment, a phenomenon often referred to as the "missing males" in music education. Explanations for this disparity are varied, ranging from scheduling conflicts to a perceived lack of encouragement for male singers. While women's choirs can help balance mixed ensembles, the absence of dedicated men's choirs can limit opportunities for boys. Some research suggests that dedicated ensembles or workshops for male singers can boost their confidence and skills. In contrast, British cathedral choirs are typically composed of students from affiliated schools.

Arrangements on stage

The physical arrangement of choir sections on stage is a matter of ongoing discussion and directorial preference. In symphonic settings, choirs are often positioned behind the orchestra, with voices ordered from highest to lowest (left to right), mirroring the string section's layout. For a cappella or piano-accompanied performances, a common setup places men in the back and women in front. Some conductors advocate for placing basses behind sopranos, believing this proximity aids tuning between the outer voices.

More experienced choirs may perform with voices intermingled, or singers of the same voice type grouped in pairs or threes. Proponents argue this enhances individual tuning to other parts, requiring greater singer independence. Critics contend it diminishes the spatial separation of voice lines, a valuable element for the audience, and reduces sectional resonance, thereby lessening the overall volume. For music with multiple choirs, singers are typically grouped by choir, sometimes significantly separated, especially in performances of 16th-century music like that in the Venetian polychoral style. Composers like Benjamin Britten, in his War Requiem, explicitly call for separated choirs to create "antiphonal" effects, fostering a musical dialogue between them.

The spacing between singers is also a critical consideration. Studies indicate that both the formation and the spatial separation—both lateral and ambient—influence how choristers and auditors perceive the sound.

History

Antiquity

The roots of choral music are deeply embedded in traditional music, with group singing being a widespread practice across cultures. This could involve singing in unison, as seen in ancient Greece, or in parts, akin to contemporary European choral music. The earliest surviving notated choral repertoire originates from ancient Greece, with the 2nd-century BC Delphic hymns and the 2nd-century AD hymns of Mesomedes being the most complete examples. The original Greek chorus played a pivotal role in Greek drama, with fragments from works by Euripides and Sophocles preserved on papyri. The Seikilos epitaph (2nd century BC) is a complete song, though possibly intended for a solo voice. The Oxyrhynchus hymn (3rd century), one of the latest examples, holds significance as the earliest known piece of Christian music.

While scant musical evidence survives from Roman drama, a single line attributed to Terence was discovered in the 18th century. However, musicologist Thomas J. Mathiesen notes that its authenticity is now disputed.

Medieval music

The earliest notated music of Western Europe is Gregorian chant, alongside other chant traditions later integrated or suppressed by the Catholic Church. This practice of unison choir singing persisted from the 4th to 6th centuries, spanning the eras of St. Ambrose and Gregory the Great, and continues to this day. During the later Middle Ages, organum, a form of singing with multiple melodic lines, emerged for specific functions, though initially, this polyphony was reserved for soloists. Further developments led to clausulae, conductus, and the motet. Unlike its Renaissance counterpart, the medieval motet involved different texts sung simultaneously in different voices. The Old Hall Manuscript (dated 1420, but containing music from the late 14th century) provides the earliest evidence of polyphony with more than one singer per part, indicated by apparent divisi passages where one part splits into two.

Renaissance music

During the Renaissance, sacred choral music was the dominant form of formally notated music in Western Europe. Composers of this era produced hundreds of masses and motets for a cappella choir, though the role of instruments remains a subject of debate for certain periods and regions. Notable composers include Guillaume Dufay, Josquin des Prez, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, John Dunstable, and William Byrd. The intricate polyphony of the Renaissance, sung by highly skilled choirs across Europe, remains popular with choirs worldwide today.

The madrigal, a partsong intended for amateur performance in a chamber setting, also originated during this period. Initially dramatic settings of unrequited love poetry or mythological tales in Italy, madrigals were adopted in England and blended with the more dance-like balletto, evolving into celebratory songs of seasons or revelry. For many English speakers, "madrigal" now refers to this latter style rather than the original poetic form with its specific syllable structure.

The interplay of voices in Renaissance polyphony profoundly influenced Western music for centuries. The "Palestrina style" continues to be a foundational element in composition training, as codified by the 18th-century theorist Johann Joseph Fux. Early 20th-century composers also drew inspiration from Renaissance styles. Herbert Howells composed a Mass in the Dorian mode entirely in the strict Renaissance style, and Ralph Vaughan Williams's Mass in G minor extends this tradition. Anton Webern's dissertation on Heinrich Isaac's Choralis Constantinus suggests that the contrapuntal techniques in his own serial music may have been informed by this study.

Baroque music

The Baroque period witnessed the development of figured bass and the basso continuo system around 1600. Figured bass was realized by the basso continuo group, typically consisting of a chordal instrument (like a pipe organ, harpsichord, or lute) and a bass instrument (such as a violone). Baroque vocal music explored dramatic solo vocal styles, exemplified by the monodies of the Florentine Camerata and the emergence of opera. This innovation built upon the existing practice of accompanying choral music with the organ, either from a reduced score or a basso seguente (the lowest sounding part).

The vocal genre of stile concertato, which combined voices and instruments, gained prominence, with its origins traceable to the polychoral music of the Venetian school. Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) masterfully employed this style in his Vespers and his Eighth Book of Madrigals, demanding considerable virtuosity from both singers and instrumentalists. His pupil, Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672), who had studied with Giovanni Gabrieli, introduced this style to Germany. Alongside the new seconda pratica, contrapuntal motets in the stile antico (old style) continued to be composed well into the 19th century. Choirs during this era were generally small, with singers classified as suitable for either church or chamber performance. Monteverdi himself is documented as participating in performances of his Magnificat with one voice per part.

Independent instrumental accompaniment significantly expanded the possibilities for choral music. Verse anthems alternated accompanied solos with choral sections, with composers like Orlando Gibbons and Henry Purcell being prominent figures in this genre. Grands motets, as composed by Lully and Delalande, further developed this by separating these sections into distinct movements. Oratorios, pioneered by composers like Giacomo Carissimi, extended this concept into concert-length works, often based on biblical or moral narratives.

The Hallelujah Chorus from George Frideric Handel's Messiah stands as one of the most iconic choral pieces ever written. While the modern concept of a chorus numbering in the hundreds emerged later with the rise of Choral Societies and Handel's centennial commemoration, Handel himself utilized diverse performing forces. From the soloists of the Chandos Anthems to larger ensembles, his works demonstrate a range of vocal and instrumental combinations. A contemporary account from the Norwich Gazette on October 14, 1727, describes a rehearsal for a Coronation Anthem at Westminster-Abby involving "40 voices, and about 160 violins, Trumpets, Hautboys, Kettle-Drums and Bass' proportionable."

Lutheran composers developed instrumentally accompanied cantatas, often drawing on chorale tunes. Significant late 17th-century sacred choral works in the burgeoning German tradition exist, such as the cantatas of Dietrich Buxtehude. However, the Lutheran church cantata achieved its more codified form in the early 18th century. Composers like Georg Philipp Telemann and Christoph Graupner produced prolific bodies of work. The cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) are perhaps the most renowned. His obituary mentions five complete cycles of his cantatas, with three cycles, comprising around 200 works, surviving today. Bach himself rarely used the term "cantata" for his purely vocal works; his church music without orchestral accompaniment is generally referred to as motets, though instruments often played colla parte (alongside the voice parts). His works featuring accompaniment include his Passions, Masses, the Magnificat, and his cantatas.

A point of considerable debate today is the "Rifkin hypothesis," which re-examines Bach's 1730 memo to the Leipzig City Council. This memo outlined the need for at least 12 singers for well-appointed church music. Joshua Rifkin posits that Bach's music was typically intended for one voice per part, arguing that Bach's responsibility for four churches and the need to perform double-choir compositions necessitated such a smaller performing force. Some original performing parts include ripieni singers who reinforced, rather than doubled, the vocal quartet.

Classical and Romantic music

Composers of the late 18th century became increasingly captivated by the potential of symphonic and other instrumental forms, often sidelining choral music. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's sacred choral works, such as the "Great" Mass in C minor and his Requiem, are considered among his greatest achievements. Joseph Haydn, particularly after his visits to England in the 1790s where he encountered large-scale Handel oratorios, developed a renewed interest in choral music, composing a series of masses and his oratorios The Creation and The Seasons. Ludwig van Beethoven wrote only two masses, both intended for liturgical use, though his Missa solemnis is exceptionally demanding. He also pioneered the integration of chorus into symphonic texture with his Ninth Symphony and Choral Fantasia.

The Johannes Brahms piece, "Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen", from Ein deutsches Requiem, translates to "How lovely is thy dwelling place" and exemplifies the grandeur of 19th-century choral writing.

During the 19th century, sacred music transitioned from the confines of the church to the concert stage. Large-scale sacred works, often unsuitable for liturgical use, emerged, including Hector Berlioz's Te Deum and Requiem, and Johannes Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem. Gioacchino Rossini's Stabat Mater, Franz Schubert's masses, and Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem further exploited the dramatic possibilities offered by orchestral accompaniment. Oratorios continued to be composed, heavily influenced by Handel's models, with notable examples including Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ and Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah and St Paul. Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms also contributed significantly to secular cantatas, with Brahms's Schicksalslied and Nänie being particularly well-known.

A few composers focused on a cappella music, notably Anton Bruckner, whose masses and motets startlingly blended Renaissance counterpoint with chromatic harmony. Mendelssohn and Brahms also composed significant a cappella motets. The amateur chorus, initially conceived as a social outlet, began to be recognized as a vital compositional venue, with part-songs by Schubert, Robert Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Brahms gaining popularity. These "singing clubs" were often gender-specific and typically featured four-part harmony, either unaccompanied or with simple instrumentation. Concurrently, the Cecilian movement sought to revive the purity of the Renaissance style within Catholic churches.

20th and 21st centuries

In the United States, the development of mixed choirs was significantly influenced by ensembles like The St. Olaf Choir and Westminster Choir College. Their arrangements of hymns and sacred works helped define the American choral sound for much of the 20th century. Secular choral music in the US was popularized by groups such as the Dale Warland Singers in the late 20th century.

The Big Choral Census, an online survey, aimed to quantify the number, type, membership, repertoire, and funding of choral groups in the UK. Results indicated approximately 40,000 choral groups and over 2 million regular singers. Community choirs constituted over 30 percent of these groups, with contemporary music being the most popular genre, though classical music remained a strong contender. Most choirs operated on self-funding models. The rise in popularity of group singing in the UK has been partly attributed to television programs like Gareth Malone's 'The Choir.' In 2017, the Purwa Caraka Music Studio Choir of Indonesia initiated a trend by covering children's songs in choral arrangements for the film Surat Kecil untuk Tuhan.

Beyond their liturgical and entertainment roles, choirs and choruses also serve social functions, including therapeutic applications for mental health treatment or as a support system for marginalized communities, such as the Choir of Hard Knocks or the Military Wives choirs.