In typical 18th- to 21st-century oratorios and masses , chorus or choir is usually understood to imply more than one singer per part, in contrast to the quartet of soloists also featured in these works. Choirs are often led by a conductor or choirmaster. Most often choirs consist of four sections intended to sing in four part harmony, but there is no limit to the number of possible parts as long as there is a singer available to sing the part: Thomas Tallis wrote a part motet entitled Spem in alium , for eight choirs of five parts each; Krzysztof Penderecki 's Stabat Mater is for three choirs of 16 voices each, a total of 48 parts.
Other than four, the most common number of parts are three, five, six, and eight.
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Choirs can sing with or without instrumental accompaniment. Singing without accompaniment is called a cappella singing although the American Choral Directors Association [1] discourages this usage in favor of "unaccompanied," since a cappella denotes singing "as in the chapel" and much unaccompanied music today is secular. Accompanying instruments vary widely, from only one instrument a piano or pipe organ to a full orchestra of 70 to musicians; for rehearsals a piano or organ accompaniment is often used, even if a different instrumentation is planned for performance, or if the choir is rehearsing unaccompanied music.
Many choirs perform in one or many locations such as a church, opera house, or school hall. In some cases choirs join up to become one "mass" choir that performs for a special concert. In this case they provide a series of songs or musical works to celebrate and provide entertainment to others. Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as a choral concert , by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face and head.
The primary duties of the conductor or choirmaster are to unify performers , set the tempo , execute clear preparations and beats meter , and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble. The conductor or choral director typically stands on a raised platform and he or she may or may not use a baton ; using a baton gives the conductor's gestures greater visibility, but many choral conductors prefer conducting with their hands for greater expressiveness, particularly when working with a smaller ensemble.
In the s, most conductors do not play an instrument when conducting, although in earlier periods of classical music history, leading an ensemble while playing an instrument was common. In Baroque music from the s to the s, conductors performing in the s may lead an ensemble while playing a harpsichord or the violin see Concertmaster.
Conducting while playing a piano may also be done with musical theatre pit orchestras. Communication is typically non-verbal during a performance this is strictly the case in art music , but in jazz big bands or large pop ensembles, there may be occasional spoken instructions. However, in rehearsals , the conductor will often give verbal instructions to the ensemble, since they generally also serve as an artistic director who crafts the ensemble's interpretation of the music.
Conductors act as guides to the choirs they conduct. They choose the works to be performed and study their scores , to which they may make certain adjustments e. Choral conductors may also have to conduct instrumental ensembles such as orchestras if the choir is singing a piece for choir and orchestra. They may also attend to organizational matters, such as scheduling rehearsals, [3] planning a concert season, hearing auditions , and promoting their ensemble in the media.
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Eastern Orthodox churches, some American Protestant groups, and traditional synagogues do not use instruments. In churches of the Western Rite the accompanying instrument is usually the organ, although in colonial America , the Moravian Church used groups of strings and winds. Many churches which use a contemporary worship format use a small amplified band to accompany the singing, and Roman Catholic Churches may use, at their discretion, additional orchestral accompaniment.
In addition to leading of singing in which the congregation participates, such as hymns and service music, some church choirs sing full liturgies, including propers introit, gradual, communion antiphons appropriate for the different times of the liturgical year. Chief among these are the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches; far more common however is the performance of anthems or motets at designated times in the service. In the United States, middle schools and high schools often offer choir as a class or activity for students.
Some choirs participate in competitions. One kind of choir popular in high schools is show choir. Middle school and high school is an important time, as it is when students' voices are changing. Although girls experience voice change , it is much more drastic in boys. A lot of literature in music education has been focused on how male voice change works and how to help adolescent male singers. Nationally, male students are enrolled in choir at much lower numbers than their female students. One researcher found that boys who enjoy choir in middle school may not always go on to high school choir because it simply doesn't fit into their schedules.
However, without a men's choir also, this could be making the problem worse by not giving boys as many opportunities to sing as girls. There are various schools of thought regarding how the various sections should be arranged on stage. It is the conductor's decision on where the different voice types are placed. In symphonic choirs it is common though by no means universal to order the choir behind the orchestra from highest to lowest voices from left to right, corresponding to the typical string layout.
In a cappella or piano-accompanied situations it is not unusual for the men to be in the back and the women in front; some conductors prefer to place the basses behind the sopranos, arguing that the outer voices need to tune to each other. More experienced choirs may sing with the voices all mixed.
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Sometimes singers of the same voice are grouped in pairs or threes. Proponents of this method argue that it makes it easier for each individual singer to hear and tune to the other parts, but it requires more independence from each singer. Opponents argue that this method loses the spatial separation of individual voice lines, an otherwise valuable feature for the audience, and that it eliminates sectional resonance, which lessens the effective volume of the chorus. For music with double or multiple choirs, usually the members of each choir are together, sometimes significantly separated, especially in performances of 16th-century music such as works in the Venetian polychoral style.
Some composers actually specify that choirs should be separated, such as in Benjamin Britten 's War Requiem. Some composers use separated choirs to create "antiphonal" effects, in which one choir seems to "answer" the other choir in a musical dialogue. Consideration is also given to the spacing of the singers. Studies have found that not only the actual formation, but the amount of space both laterally and circumambiently affects the perception of sound by choristers and auditors. The origins of choral music are found in traditional music , as singing in big groups is extremely widely spread in traditional cultures both singing in one part, or in unison , like in Ancient Greece, as well as singing in parts, or in harmony , like in contemporary European choral music.
The oldest unambiguously choral repertory that survives is that of ancient Greece , of which the 2nd century BC Delphic hymns and the 2nd century AD. The original Greek chorus sang its part in Greek drama , and fragments of works by Euripides Orestes and Sophocles Ajax are known from papyri. The Seikilos epitaph 2c BC is a complete song although possibly for solo voice. One of the latest examples, Oxyrhynchus hymn 3c is also of interest as the earliest Christian music.
Of the Roman drama's music a single line of Terence surfaced in the 18c. However, musicologist Thomas J.
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Mathiesen comments that it is no longer believed to be authentic. The earliest notated music of western Europe is Gregorian chant , along with a few other types of chant which were later subsumed or sometimes suppressed by the Catholic Church. This tradition of unison choir singing lasted from sometime between the times of St. Ambrose 4th century and Gregory the Great 6th century up to the present.
During the later Middle Ages, a new type of singing involving multiple melodic parts, called organum , became predominant for certain functions, but initially this polyphony was only sung by soloists. Further developments of this technique included clausulae , conductus and the motet most notably the isorhythmic motet , which, unlike the Renaissance motet, describes a composition with different texts sung simultaneously in different voices.
The first evidence of polyphony with more than one singer per part comes in the Old Hall Manuscript , though containing music from the late 14th century , in which there are apparent divisi , one part dividing into two simultaneously sounding notes. During the Renaissance , sacred choral music was the principal type of formally notated music in Western Europe. Throughout the era, hundreds of masses and motets as well as various other forms were composed for a cappella choir, though there is some dispute over the role of instruments during certain periods and in certain areas.
Some of the better-known composers of this time include Guillaume Dufay , Josquin des Prez , Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina , John Dunstable , and William Byrd ; the glories of Renaissance polyphony were choral, sung by choirs of great skill and distinction all over Europe. Choral music from this period continues to be popular with [12] many choirs throughout the world today. The madrigal , a partsong conceived for amateurs to sing in a chamber setting, originated at this period. Although madrigals were initially dramatic settings of unrequited-love poetry or mythological stories in Italy, they were imported into England and merged with the more dancelike balletto , celebrating carefree songs of the seasons, or eating and drinking.
To most English speakers, the word madrigal now refers to the latter, rather than to madrigals proper, which refers to a poetic form of lines consisting of seven and eleven syllables each. The interaction of sung voices in Renaissance polyphony influenced Western music for centuries. Composers are routinely trained in the "Palestrina style" to this day, especially as codified by the 18c music theorist Johann Joseph Fux.
Composers of the early 20th century also wrote in Renaissance-inspired styles. Anton Webern wrote his dissertation on the Choralis Constantinus of Heinrich Isaac and the contrapuntal techniques of his serial music may be informed by this study. The Baroque period in music is associated with the development around of the figured bass and the basso continuo system. The use of figured bass was a dramatic change in the way composers thought of musical pieces. Unlike a typical Renaissance piece, which was based around interweaving, independent melody lines , a Baroque composer using figured bass thought of a piece as a chord progression.
The figured bass part was performed by the basso continuo group, which at minimum included a chord-playing instrument e. Baroque vocal music explored dramatic implications in the realm of solo vocal music such as the monodies of the Florentine Camerata and the development of early opera. This innovation was in fact an extension of established practice of accompanying choral music at the organ, either from a skeletal reduced score from which otherwise lost pieces can sometimes be reconstructed or from a basso seguente , a part on a single staff containing the lowest sounding part the bass part.
A new genre was the vocal concertato , combining voices and instruments; its origins may be sought in the polychoral music of the Venetian school. Claudio Monteverdi — brought it to perfection with his Vespers and his Eighth Book of Madrigals, [13] which call for great virtuosity on the part of singers and instruments alike. Alongside the new music of the seconda pratica , contrapuntal motets in the stile antico or old style continued to be written well into the 19th century.
Choirs at this time were usually quite small and that singers could be classified as suited to church or to chamber singing. Monteverdi, himself a singer, is documented as taking part in performances of his Magnificat with one voice per part. Independent instrumental accompaniment opened up new possibilities for choral music.
Naomi would like to send a special thanks to her youngest brother, Nor Ortiz, for being her inspiration and to her entire family for their continuing love and support. Stephanie Leotsakos is a senior at Princeton University majoring in music composition and minoring in vocal performance and teacher preparation. She aspires to be a professional opera singer and attend graduate school soon after graduation.
She currently studies with David Kellett, active lyric tenor and voice faculty at Princeton University. She has an active performance schedule, along with audio and video of recent performances, at mchelseafriedlander. Cali School of Music. Taylor studies with Professor Anastasia Swope. After Taylor finishes her degree in the spring of she plans to go right back to school to pursue a Masters in Vocal Performance.
Jason Tramm, and was dedicated to the subject of peace and the peacemakers that made a difference in our world. Awe and Wonder", under the direction of Matthew Lee, which featured a collection of familiar musical treasures and choral gems. Selections included works by Rutter, Busto, and Rachmaninoff. The concert concluded with sing-along selections as well as a rousing medley of carols.
Also on the program was a selection of seasonal music by the Express Male sext et. Accompanying the chorus was a full orchestra, and professional soloists also performed. The Express Male sextet also performed several selections.
Works of Whitacre, Praetorius, Caldwell and Ivory, Leavitt and many others combined to present a night that celebrated over three centuries of fine holiday choral music. With a distinct homage to Renaissance music, Respighi tells the Christmas story through the eyes of angels and shepherds, but with modern harmonic language and elegant instrumental writing.
The concert featured the Express Male sextet, and a surprise guest high school ensemble. This concert marked the debut of Dr. Our Spring concert for will be on Saturday, May 12, at 8: We will be accompanied by the MidAtlantic Chamber Orchestra. We look forward to having you join us for a delightful evening of song. See and hear us! Beethoven Choral Fantasy, Op. Purchase concert tickets using a credit card or PayPal: Please do not purchase tickets on-line less than 1 week before performance date. If you have not received your ticket by the performance date, you may pick up your ticket at the door.
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