How Choir Music is Performed and How the Choir is Arranged

 Choir is the most popular term for a group of singers although the terms chorale and chorus are often used swell. The term 'Choral music' is the name given to the type of music that is written specifically for such a group of singers.

The term 'choir' is often associated with a church. More often that not, if a group is performing outside of the church setting they are referred to as a chorus. This isn't always the case though - parts of an orchestra are referred to as 'choirs', for example a 'woodwind choir' or, sometimes different sections of a chorus can be German Jewish tunes referred to as a choir, differentiating the types of voice, for example 'soprano choir'.

The choir is led by someone given the title 'conductor' or 'choirmaster'. They will lead the choir with a number of visual prompts. A conductor is not only used by a choir, you'll find conductors at the heart of orchestras, concert bands and many other performing musical groups.

Traditionally the choir is split into four distinct sections who all sing a different part of the harmony. This isn't always the case though, some writers have even composed pieces that call for numerous choirs containing numerous voices! Pendereckis 'Stabat Mater' is to be performed with three choirs, each with 16 voices - a total of 48 parts!

Choirs sometimes sing alongside an orchestra or other musical accompaniment. If the choir does not have an accompaniment the song is termed 'a cappella', an Italian term meaning 'In The Manner of The Church'. Some choral associations disapprove of this term and prefer the phrase 'unaccompanied' due to the religious connotations tied to the former.

The choir can be arranged in a number of different ways. The final say will usually lay with the composer or the writer of the piece. Often the choir will be behind the orchestra and the voices will run from left to right, highest (usually soprano) on the left and the deepest (usually bass) on the right. This is in keeping with the normal string layout. Sometimes the choir can be split by sex, men standing behind the women. Composers sometimes argue that the bass voices need to be close to the sopranos in order to tune to one another.

In professional or more experiences choral arrangements the voices will mix freely. This demands a much higher level of independence and confidence in each individuals ability and some composers will argue that by doing this, the choir loses some of the resonance gained by keeping the types of voice closely knit.

Sometimes a piece will require multiple choirs to perform with each other. Sometimes the members of the choir will perform together, with no clear definition between the two. Sometimes the choirs will perform side by side. Very occasionally choirs will oppose each other completely - as was the case when Benjamin Britten penned his piece 'War Requim', in which a boys choir performed away from the audiences main focus, thus producing an strange ghostly sound, while the other two choirs performed a poems in English and traditional Latin requiem.