Part 18 (1/2)

In size mixed choirs ordinarily range from forty voices to five hundred. It were well if it were understood by choristers as well as the public that numbers merely are not a sign of merit in a singing society. So the concert-room be not too large, a choir of sixty well-trained voices is large enough to perform almost everything in choral literature with good effect, and the majority of the best compositions will sound better under such circ.u.mstances than in large rooms with large choirs. Especially is this true of the music of the Middle Ages, written for voices without instrumental accompaniment, of which I shall have something to say when the discussion reaches choral programmes. There is music, it is true, like much of Handel's, the impressiveness of which is greatly enhanced by ma.s.ses, but it is not extensive enough to justify the sacrifice of correctness and finish in the performance to mere volume. The use of large choirs has had the effect of developing the skilfulness of amateur singers in an astonis.h.i.+ng degree, but there is, nevertheless, a point where weightiness of tone becomes an obstacle to finished execution. When Mozart remodelled Handel's ”Messiah” he was careful to indicate that the florid pa.s.sages (”divisions” they used to be called in England) should be sung by the solo voices alone, but nowadays choirs of five hundred voices attack such choruses as ”For unto us a Child is Born,”

without the slightest hesitation, even if they sometimes make a mournful mess of the ”divisions.”

[Sidenote: _The division of choirs._]

[Sidenote: _Five-part music._]

[Sidenote: _Eight part._]

[Sidenote: _Antiphonal music._]

[Sidenote: _Bach's ”St. Matthew Pa.s.sion.”_]

The normal division of a mixed choir is into four parts or voices--soprano, contralto, tenor, and ba.s.s; but composers sometimes write for more parts, and the choir is subdivided to correspond. The custom of writing for five, six, eight, ten, and even more voices was more common in the Middle Ages, the palmy days of the _a capella_ (_i.e._, for the chapel, unaccompanied) style than it is now, and, as a rule, a division into more than four voices is not needed outside of the societies which cultivate this old music, such as the Musical Art Society in New York, the Bach Choir in London, and the Domchor in Berlin. In music for five parts, one of the upper voices, soprano or tenor, is generally doubled; for six, the ordinary distribution is into two sopranos, two contraltos, tenor, and ba.s.s. When eight voices are reached a distinction is made according as there are to be eight real parts (_a otto voci reali_), or two choruses of the four normal parts each (_a otto voci in due cori reali_). In the first instance the arrangement commonly is three sopranos, two contraltos, two tenors, and one ba.s.s. One of the most beautiful uses of the double choir is to produce antiphonal effects, choir answering to choir, both occasionally uniting in the climaxes. How stirring this effect can be made may be observed in some of Bach's compositions, especially those in which he makes the division of the choir subserve a dramatic purpose, as in the first chorus of ”The Pa.s.sion according to St.

Matthew,” where the two choirs, one representing _Daughters of Zion_, the other _Believers_, interrogate and answer each other thus:

I. ”Come, ye daughters, weep for anguish; See Him!

II. ”Whom?

I. ”The Son of Man.

See Him!

II. ”How?

I. ”So like a lamb.

See it!

II. ”What?

I. ”His love untold.

Look!

II. ”Look where?

I. ”Our guilt behold.”

[Sidenote: _Antiphony in a motet._]

Another most striking instance is in the same master's motet, ”Sing ye to the Lord,” which is written for two choirs of four parts each. (In the example from the ”St. Matthew Pa.s.sion” there is a third choir of soprano voices which sings a chorale while the dramatic choirs are conversing.) In the motet the first choir begins a fugue, in the midst of which the second choir is heard shouting jubilantly, ”Sing ye! Sing ye! Sing ye!” Then the choirs change roles, the first delivering the injunction, the second singing the fugue. In modern music, composers frequently consort a quartet of solo voices, soprano, contralto, tenor, and ba.s.s, with a four-part chorus, and thus achieve fine effects of contrast in dynamics and color, as well as antiphonal.

[Sidenote: _Excellence in choral singing._]

[Sidenote: _Community of action._]

[Sidenote: _Individualism._]

[Sidenote: _Dynamics._]

[Sidenote: _Beauty of tone._]

[Sidenote: _Contralto voices._]

The question is near: What const.i.tutes excellence in a choral performance? To answer: The same qualities that const.i.tute excellence in an orchestral performance, will scarcely suffice, except as a generalization. A higher degree of harmonious action is exacted of a body of singers than of a body of instrumentalists. Many of the parts in a symphony are played by a single instrument. Community of voice belongs only to each of the five bodies of string-players. In a chorus there are from twelve to one hundred and fifty voices, or even more, united in each part. This demands the effacement of individuality in a chorus, upon the a.s.sertion of which, in a band, under the judicious guidance of the conductor, many of the effects of color and expression depend. Each group in a choir must strive for h.o.m.ogeneity of voice quality; each singer must sink the _ego_ in the aggregation, yet employ it in its highest potency so far as the mastery of the technics of singing is concerned. In cultivating precision of attack (_i.e._, promptness in beginning a tone and leaving it off), purity of intonation (_i.e._, accuracy or justness of pitch--”singing in tune”