Questions tagged [choral]
For questions related to music that is sung by vocal ensembles.
23
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Best practices for community choir audition with unknown song
I recently auditioned for an SATB community choir local to me. Prior to auditioning, I sent them an email and asked what the audition process entailed, so that I could prepare. The choir director ...
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7
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Is there a word in English to describe instances where a melody is sung by multiple singers/voices?
I'm talking mostly in popular music / rock / etc. One prominent example of what I'm referring to is the start of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (pretty much up to the "I'm just a poor boy ... "; ...
- 143
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Why doesn't vocal music use C clefs nowadays? [duplicate]
I've noticed that in older scores the tenor parts (and sometimes the alto parts) are notated using C clefs, but nowadays you almost never see C clefs but instead the tenor parts are notated using an ...
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1
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Where does divisi marking go if vocalists begin a slurred/tied note together, but end it divided?
In a vocal piece, the basses sing a B as a section. Half the basses tie to a second B in the next measure; the other half descend to a low E. In this divisi writing, bass 1 has a tie and bass 2 has ...
- 4,649
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Why does Bach not resolve this chordal seventh down by step?
I was reading this chorale by Bach (#130, "Meine Seele erhebet den Herrn", BWV 324) and discovered something curious. It starts in Em and modulates to G. In the last beat of the third bar, ...
- 305
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4
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Name and meaning of "mirrored" accent sign
I'm currently engraving a hand-written SATB piece in LilyPond and encountered some music notation I'm not really sure what to do with. It consists of four consecutive quarter notes with each note ...
- 171
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3
answers
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How should I choose a piece for a beginners choral audition?
I am having a difficult time choosing a piece for a choral audition. The chorus I am aiming for admits new singers with no previous experience in singing, and I was told the audition is not much of a ...
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How do I balance equity and tradition in "Holiday" concert repertoire? [closed]
I teach music at a public elementary school in the US. Our population includes a majority of families who celebrate Christmas (both the sacred holy one and the secular, Santa-based one), a ...
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What's wrong with my strategy of recording two groups of 50 chorus members singing to an accompaniment over Zoom, and then mixing everything together?
I direct a school-aged chorus of 100 students, divided equally into sections A and B. The two sections sing different parts of 2-part arrangements. Our COVID restrictions this year state that: (1) I ...
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6
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1
answer
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Does "the original" Dies Irae show up in Verdi?
Does Verdi's (or Mozart's) famous Dies Irae draw on the original plainchant melody
in any less obvious way, or does it just use the text?
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2
answers
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voice independence in SATB setting [closed]
I am looking for a suggestion for sheet music. I would like to study a piece of chorale or SATB style music that
is simple to read (preferably transposed to C major)
exemplifies good technique in ...
- 1,244
7
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1
answer
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In what form are the pieces "12 Days of Christmas" and "Green Grow the Rushes-O"?
The two pieces in the title share similar forms. I want to know what the name for this form is, if there is one.
Basically, the form appears to be a repetition with an additional numbered fragment ...
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3
votes
1
answer
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How to condense an SATB choir section with mixed dynamics, voices & hairpins
The score I’m working on has a four-part SATB choir, thus:
For space-conservation reasons I usually condense my choir parts down to a SA/TB grand staff. But this choir section has different dynamics ...
- 1,195
1
vote
1
answer
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How to identify the 4-part chorale?
All I know so far is how to identify triad. However, in this asisgnment, there are 4 notes for each part. So how should I identify each chord, as the question requires? Thanks in advance!
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How did composers use the technique of "fauxbourdon"?
I've recently learned of a harmonisation technique called fauxbourdon (or faux bourdon, fauxbordon or false drone), used in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, e.g. by Giullaume Dufay; you can ...
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0
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Forms of Latin in Choral Music [closed]
I was always taught that the choice of Germanic or Italianate Latin is determined by the nationality of the composer. The exception would be composers AFTER the pope's letter on CHURCH LATIN (...
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1
answer
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Bobby McFerrin Psalm 23 [closed]
Bobby McFerrin's Psalm 23 in Measures 7 & 15 does the E flat in the bass line make the tenor an E flat also?
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1
answer
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can you major in choral works as an instrumentation or is it just voice?
Sorry for, like, the dumb question, but do people actively try to join choral ensembles (and thus major in the choir as an instrumentation), or do they just go into voice for their majors?
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4
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1
answer
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Organizing a HUGE music library
In addition to my own music teacher library (texts, octavos, sight-reading, composer biographies, instrumental method books, theory, etc.), I inherited an enormous library (thousands of pieces from a ...
5
votes
1
answer
319
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Numbers at the start of hymn [duplicate]
In my school hymn book I always see numbers and a name at the start of a hymn, eg
Slane 10 11 10 10
Or 'irregular'
What do these mean? Are they indications for the organist?
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5
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1
answer
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What do these measures mean at the beginning of this choral piece?
The piece is "Es ist ein Ros entsprungen," and it was composed in the 1600s by Michael Praetorius. This score is edited.
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2
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282
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Reducing staff numbers in LilyPond
I have a choral piece where some of it is 4-part divisi SATB, and some of it is unison (true unison, not octaves). I would love to notate this in LilyPond with the two (women's & men's) staves ...
- 215
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1
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SATB - how to balance the parts?
I have been wondering how to determine the optimal balance of voices in SATB music. I have found quite a bit of material on how to arrange the parts but less on the numbers. The arrangement issues ...
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