At 8:38 AM +0100 3/1/06, themark wrote:
sorry for leaving the path for a while, what is the difference
between "choir" and "chorus"?
thanks
As it happens, this is a question with which I bedevil the students
in my choral literature class. Why? Because while there is no real
difference, there are competing and very strong traditions, a number
of which have already turned up in answering posts, just as they turn
up in my class.
A choir is a group of singers with 2 or more on each part that sings
in church services. Yes. A choir can also be any ensemble of like
instruments: flute choir, oboe choir, clarinet choir, trombone
choir, saxophone choir (oh ye saxophonophobes!). And by extension,
any group of instruments that have some affinity but are not
identical: low brass choir, string choir. Or it can be a vocal
ensemble that does NOT sing in church services: concert choir,
women's choir, men's choir, childrens' choir. (I was unaware of
organists' use of the term, and have learned something new today.)
A chorus is a group of singers with 2 or more on each part that sings
in secular settings. Yes. As in community chorus, opera chorus,
musical theater chorus. (And "Greek chorus" in the dramas of
antiquity, which may or may not have sung or chanted their lines, as
the members of the Florentine Camerata believed.) But "chorus" also
designates a piece of music intended to be sung by such an ensemble,
as in opera, oratorio or musical theater, or in sacred music in
multimovement works, just as the word "symphony" equally identifies
both an instrumental ensemble of specific instrumentation and a
multimovement work intended to be played by that ensemble. "Chorus"
also designates the entire song in Tin Pan Alley song form, which is
repeated as various soloists in a jazz band "take choruses." And the
"chorus" of a musical theater song (which another writer calls the
"refrain" with some justification) which follows the "verse" designed
to lead from the spoken dialog into the song, just as a recitative
leads into an aria in traditional opera.
Why do I put my class through this? To make sure they realize that
there is no single pat answer to the question, and that a variety of
traditions are at work, as they often are in musical terminology.
And then we can leave the question behind and move on to the music
itself.
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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