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The words chorus and choir--both derived
from the ancient Greek choros, meaning a band of dancers and
singers--are commonly understood to mean a large group of
singers who combine their voices (with or without instrumental
accompaniment) in several "parts," or independent
melodic lines. This definition, however, is very elastic.
The most common type of choral ensemble today performs music
in 4 parts, each assigned to a different voice range: soprano
(high female), alto (low female), tenor (high male), and bass
(low male). The abbreviation "SATB" refers to this
type of "mixed" chorus, and to the music composed
for it. There are many other common types: women's chorus
(two soprano parts and two alto, of SSAA), men's chorus (TTBB),
and double chorus (two distinct SATB groups), to name a few.
Many choral works are in more or less than 4 parts, from as
few as one ("monophonic," all singers singing the
same melody) to as many as several dozen (as in the 40-part
motet Spen in alium, by Thomas TALLIS, or certain 20th-century
works). Furthermore, there is no agreement as to the minimum
number of singers in a "chorus." It has been suggested,
for example, that certain choral works by composers such as
Heinrich SCHUTZ and J. S. BACH were originally performed with
just one singer to a part. The more usual term for such a
small group, however, would be not "chorus" but
"vocal ensemble."
The distinction (unique to English) between choir and chorus
is fairly clear: a choir generally sings sacred or art music
of earlier centuries (as in "madrigal choir"), while
a chorus is associated with concert works, opera, musical
theater, and popular entertainment. Among other names for
vocal groups, glee club usually refers to a school chorus;
a chorale of singers is a concert chorus; and the meaning
of consort, properly an instrumental group that plays 17th-
or 18th-century music, is sometimes extended to include singers.
Early Choral Music
Many cultures have traditions of group singing, but the two
that laid the foundations of Western choral music were the
Greek and Jewish cultures of the pre-Christian era. The chorus
in Greek drama grew out of groups that sang and danced at
religious festivals. (The sense of "dance" survives
in such terms as choreography and chorus line.) The Old Testament
contains many references to choral singing on important occasions
in Jewish life; the large and skillful choir at the Temple
of Jerusalem (supplied by a famous choir school attached to
the Temple) was the model for smaller synagogue choirs throughout
ancient Israel. Both Greek and Jewish choral music of this
period was monophonic and antiphonal--that is, performed responsively
between soloists and choirs, or between two choruses.
As an underground sect of Judaism, the early Christian church
inherited the anitphonal style but not the splendor of Jewish
public worship. Soon after the Roman emperor Constantine the
Great officially sanctioned Christianity in 313, the first
schola cantorum (literally "choir school," as well
as the performing group from such a school) was founded in
Rome by Pope Sylvester I. Schools of this type joined with
monasteries (notably those of the order founded by Saint Benedict
in the early 6th century) to develop the art of choral singing.
(Secular vocal music of this time was usually performed by
solo singers, not choruses.)
In early medieval choirs, a small number of men, or men and
boys, sang PLAINSONG, a metrically free, monophonic setting
of liturgical text. Until the 8th century, when reliable musical
notation was invented, plainsong melodies were passed down
orally from generation to generation. GREGORIAN CHANT, an
outgrowth of the liturgical reforms of Pope Gregory I (reigned
590-604), became the dominant form of plainsong by the 10th
century, and has remained in use ever since.
Part-Singing and the Renaissance
The practice of singing in unison began to give way in the
8th century to ORGANUM, which began simply as a second voice
part that moved in parallel with a chant melody, above or
below it. By the 11th century, organum had flowered into a
truly polyphonic style, in which one or more independent parts
departed from and decorated the melody. At first the province
only of skilled soloists playing or singing together, polyphony
reached the choir early in the 15th century.
By this time, the term MOTET had come to mean a polyphonic
vocal setting of any sacred Latin text except sections of
the Mass. Between about 1450 and 1600, the motet and MASS
developed into elaborate compositions with three to six melodic
lines, as in the works of John DUNSTABLE, JOSQUIN DES PREZ,
and PALESTRINA. Andrea and Giovanni GABRIELI added to the
splendor of Venice with works in eight parts or even more,
performed by multiple choirs. In the Church of England, which
separated from the Roman Catholic church in 1534, a motet
on an English text became known as an anthem (which is still
the English and American term for a choral piece sung during
worship).
As compositions in many parts appeared, choirs began to take
their modern form: ensembles of singers divided into groups
according to the range of their voices. The exclusion of women
from liturgical roles extended to the choir as well; high
voice parts were sung by boys, falsetto singers, or (in Roman
Catholic countries after about 1570) CASTRATO. In England
particularly, the training of boy singers for cathedral choirs
became a well-established tradition that continues today.
As the Middle Ages came to a close, the average size of a
choir began to increase gradually; the Sistine Choir in Rome,
for example, grew from 18 singers in 1450 to 32 in 1625.
The Baroque Era
Virtually no secular choral music existed before 1600; the
Renaissance MADRIGAL, a polyphonic song, was only rarely performed
with more than one singer to a part. The first Italian operas,
of which Claudio MONTEVERDI's Orfeo is the leading example,
represent an attempt to revive classical Greek drama, and
so featured the chorus prominently. But because the audience's
attention focused on solo virtuosity and spectacle, the chorus
lost some of its importance in baroque opera. It thrived,
however, in ORATORIO, a form of concert opera that dramatized
a story (usually biblical) without the use of costumes or
scenery. George Frideric HANDEL's oratorios sometimes put
the chorus ahead of the soloists in importance; composing
for an egalitarian English audience, he cast "the people"
as protagonist in such works as Israel in Egypt (1738).
For centuries, instrumentalists had had the option of playing
along on one or the other of the choir parts, but now composers
such as Monteverdi and Alessandro Scarlatti were giving them
their own "obbligato" (that is, not to be omitted)
parts.
Whether composed for a prince's birthday or a Sunday on the
liturgical calendar, the CANTATA included such operatic elements
as arias, recitatives (a kind of sung-spoken narration), and
often choruses, but with a text more likely to be meditative
or celebratory than dramatic.
The Reformation, with its doctrine of "the priesthood
of all believers," brought new ideas about church music.
Calvinist congregations made their own music by singing psalms
in unison, shunning anything that smacked of performance,
even accompaniment on the organ. Martin LUTHER favored congregational
singing too, but he kept choirs for their inspirational value.
The cantatas of composers such as J. S. BACH and Georg Philipp
TELEMANN incorporate the old German CHORALES (hymn tunes)
that Luther had collected.
Choral Music in the Age of Democracy
The political and industrial revolutions of the late 18th
and early 19th centuries were made to order for choral music.
A large and prosperous middle class emerged, eager for cultural
accomplishments. They founded such choruses as the Berlin
Singakademie--a choir comprising both men and women from its
inception in 1791. Many a factory owner encouraged loyalty
among his workers by sponsoring a choral group in which they
could sing. The mania for Handel, continuing for decades after
the composer's death, led to ever-larger performances of Messiah
(a London concert in 1791 used over 1,000 performers) and
to the formation of choral clubs such as the Sons of Handel
(Dublin 1810) and the Handel and Haydn Society (Boston 1815).
Following Handel's lead, romantic composers glorified the
mass of humanity, whether in this life (Beethoven's "Choral"
Symphony) of the next (Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony,
in works for large chorus and orchestra. The chorus returned
to the opera stage in force after dwindling during the Classical
period. Improved methods of music publication and distribution
put affordable scores of new opera favorites and old masters
in the hands of choral societies in every town and hamlet.
Music written for church was performed in theaters, and sometimes
new church music (such as Giuseppe VERDI's Requiem, sounded
theatrical.
Choral music is also the ideal medium for nationalistic sentiments;
in times of war the tide of patriotic choruses reaches flood
stage. On the other hand, 20th-century works such as Arnold
SCHOENBERG's Gurrelieder and Benjamin BRITTEN's War Requiem
match the power of choral utterance with a text of protest
and social idealism.
The strong choral traditions of the United States arrived
with European immigrants, spread through music programs in
the public schools, and were transformed by Afro-American
church music, which contributed rhythmic complexity and a
call-and- response style of composition. Professional choruses
explore not only older classical repertory but new works that
contain every innovation found in new instrumental music:
the tone clusters and vocal slides of Krzysztof PENDERECKI,
the aleatory (chance) techniques of John CAGE and Lukas FOSS,
and the minimalist pattern-music of Philip GLASS.
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