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Choral music, music sung by a choir with two or more voices assigned to each part. Choral music is necessarily polyphonal—i.e., consisting of two or more autonomous vocal lines. It has a long history in European church music.
Choral music - Sacred, Polyphonic, A cappella: The ordinary of the mass (consisting of the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Benedictus, Agnus Dei, and in some medieval masses also the “Ite, missa est”) has been a focal point of choral music for more than 600 years.
choir, body of singers with more than one voice to a part. A mixed choir is normally composed of women and men, whereas a male choir consists either of boys and men or entirely of men. In the United States the term boys’ choir is often applied to a choir in which the treble parts are sung by boys instead of women.
Choral music - A Capella, Polyphonic, Renaissance: Since the vast majority of secular vocal works of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance were written with soloists in mind rather than a chorus, this repertory will be dealt with in a later section of this article.
In the passions and cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach, the chorale appears as a richly harmonized hymn tune in which the congregation is expected to join with the choir. Bach’s chorales are strictly choral arrangements of well-known hymn tunes adorned with elaborate harmony; he never composed an original chorale.
Choral music - Motets, Polyphony, Renaissance: Choral music has been enriched for centuries by the composition of motets, which were originally settings of liturgical or biblical texts.
A cappella, (Italian: “in the church style”), performance of a polyphonic (multipart) musical work by unaccompanied voices. Originally referring to sacred choral music, the term now refers to secular music as well.
Choral music - Madrigals, Motets, Cantatas: A considerable amount of music sung by choirs in the 20th century is not really choral music at all, since it was conceived for performance by small groups of soloists and attains its fullest expression only through the individually projected personality of the solo voice.
Sep 13, 2024 · As director of church music for the city of Leipzig, Bach had to supply performers for four churches. At the Peterskirche the choir merely led the hymns. At the Neue Kirche, Nikolaikirche, and Thomaskirche, part singing was required; but Bach himself conducted, and his own church music was performed, only at the last two.
Choral music - Occasional, A Cappella, Choirs: In addition to sacred and secular works, a very considerable number of compositions, many of them choral, were written for great occasions of state. These include motets and cantatas based on special texts, suitable for performance in a palace, outdoors on a platform or rampart, in a private chapel ...
