A Chorus is a group of singers who perform together, usually in parts; also a piece of music written for such a group. In the performance of vocal part-music a distinction is generally made between a group of soloists (one singer to each part) and a Chorus or Choir (more than one singer to each). The designations ‘Chorus’ and Choir are often used with qualifying terms (e.g. mixed Choir, women's Chorus, opera Chorus etc). In English a distinction is often made between ‘Choir’ and ‘Chorus’: an ecclesiastical body of singers is normally called a Choir, as is a small, highly trained or professional group; ‘Chorus’ is generally preferred for large secular groups.
In ancient Greek drama, an all-male Chorus played an essential part. In biblical times, Choruses were used in Jewish worship. Western choral tradition begins with early Christianity, where patristic writers refer to antiphonal and responsorial singing in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. There are reasons for believing that some chant was chorally performed in the Middle Ages; not until c 1430 was polyphony assigned to Choirs. In medieval churches and monasteries, Choirs were composed entirely of men, sometimes with boys, because of St Paul's prohibition of women's singing in church; women were permitted to sing only in convents. A typical cathedral Choir might consist of four to six boys and ten to 13 men.
During the Renaissance, secular music continued to be sung by soloists, except in certain festive contexts (e.g. royal wedding festivities). Sacred polyphony began to be sung chorally, however, with Choir commonly in four basic voice parts, akin to the modern soprano-alto-tenor-bass (SATB) distribution. Soprano parts were normally assigned to boys until the 16th century, when castrato singers were introduced into Roman Catholic church Choirs; the alto parts were sung by men with high voices, or in falsetto, or by boys. Later, castrato singers took over the alto as well as soprano parts. Choirs of 20-30 were used in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, though it is uncertain how many were used at any individual performance. But instances are recorded of larger Choirs, for example 62 singers at Munich, under Lassus, c 1570, and English performances with more than 70 when the Chapel Royal combined with another institution.
In the Baroque period these trends continued, for example at a feast in honour of S Petronio at Bologna in 1687, with a Choir of 65, and at Handel's funeral in London, in 1759, where three Choir combined. In the late Baroque period, St Mark's, Venice, had a Choir of 36; the English Chapel Royal had 34 to 38; there were 30 at Buxtehude's Abendmusik concerts at Lübeck; and Bach's Choir at full strength numbered 36 (though in practice the number singing at any individual service was probably much smaller, even one or two to a part; in a plan for reforms Bach requested that some 12 singers be on call). Antiphonal effects were often used, for example in the traditional decani-cantores arrangement in English churches, the famous Venetian cori spezzati (‘broken Choirs’, spatially apart) and similarly in Germany and in Rome where polychoral performance particularly flourished.
In early opera, the Chorus played a structurally important part, but by c 1640 it had virtually disappeared from Italian opera except at festive performances. It did, however, appear in Lully's tragédies lyriques and in English theatre music of the Restoration. It was also used in oratorio, in the works of Carissimi at Rome, Charpentier in Paris and Schütz at Dresden: it has been suggested that some of these performances, right up to Bach's time, were commonly sung one to a part. Handel's oratorio Choruses were sung by groups of c 25. In late Baroque opera, the items marked ‘coro’ were generally intended only for the assembled principals.
During the late 18th century and the early 19th a tradition of larger-scale performance developed, particularly in the Protestant countries. The commemoration of Handel at Westminster Abbey in 1784 brought 300 singers and 250 instrumentalists together; the number increased in successive years, to over 1000 by 1791. A Chorus of 400 is reported as having sung in an oratorio in Vienna in 1773; the next year, 300 sang at Jommelli's funeral in Naples. In the special circumstances of late 18th-century France, a Chorus of 2400 was assembled for a festival in 1794, celebrating the Revolution. In Germany, many new Choirs were founded around the turn of the 18th century, often all-male, to sing convivial and patriotic music. With the industrialization of Britain, many new choral societies, with women as well as men, sprang up, to perform music by Handel and more recent composers. The growing festival movement fostered this development, as did the development of new technologies for printing music cheaply and new systems for teaching the reading of music. The Bach revival, affecting much of northern Europe in the early 19th century, should be seen in this context. But the concern for improvement in church music can be seen equally in the work of the Cecilian movement in the Roman Catholic countries of Europe and the growing popular traditions of choralism in the Methodist and other evangelical movements in the Protestant countries.
This applies equally in North America, where evangelical music played a large part in popular choral traditions, with hymns and gospel songs. An additional element was brought into religious choral music by the African-American population. The hymns of Moody and Sankey suited the revivalist tradition, which reached its apogee with Homer Rodeheaver's direction of mass singing by crowds estimated at between 60,000 and 250,000 at the beginning of the 20th century.
In Europe, the late 19th century saw the cultivation on a new scale of the oratorio and sacred cantata repertory. Characteristic developments at the time were the foundation of numerous Bach societies and Bach Choirs, the monster Handel festivals (with 400 voices) at Crystal Palace, London, and the growth of choral festivals for children. In the early 20th century, the Chorus's place at the centre of concert life became strengthened with the composition of many choral symphonies or works of similar kind, of which Mahler's Symphony no.8 (‘Symphony of a Thousand’) has claims to be regarded as the largest and most important. It was natural, too, that in the 19th century the Chorus should have become increasingly important in opera, as plots moved from classical history and mythology towards themes which involved more recent or even contemporary history and dealt with the fate of communities and nations rather than the dilemmas of individuals; the trend is already to be seen in Beethoven's Fidelio, and more markedly in Meyerbeer's grand operas and in the works of Verdi. In the early 20th century, many nationalist composers wrote choral epics drawing on their own country's heritage and in its language, for example Kodály's Psalmus hungaricus and Janáček's Glagolitic Mass. 20th-century political movements also found a natural expression in choral music.
Many early choral foundations, such as those in Vienna, Dresden or Cambridge, survive and maintain their status in world music. Where older traditions prevail, these retain boy trebles with men singing alto, tenor and bass. But in Germany, Britain and the USA, arguably the countries with the strongest choral traditions, new chamber Choirs have developed, offering performances of high precision and responsiveness and meeting the interest in the use of authentic forces in Baroque and Classical music.
Chorus is also used for that
section of text and music which is repeated
after each stanza or verse in a strophic
composition. See
It is also a term for various
kinds of instrument: a 9th-century source refers
to a simple bagpipe and a plucked string
instrument; later it may be identified with a