Odd voicing?
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    I was just wondering, does anyone else have odd voicing in their choir?

    I have two adult sopranos, and two girl trebles; a male alto; two female tenors; and three baritones.

    Am I the only one with voicing like this?
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    Well, there are lot of choirs where baritones are pressed into service as tenors or basses; the issue is whether they and their director are in denial about it (Catholic church folk get Olympic gold medals in the sport of team denial, featured at winter, spring, summer and autumn games).
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen Blaise
  • Andrew_Malton
    Posts: 1,187
    We have a two tenors, who are both (male) baritones, and one lady bass, in a choir of about twenty all told.
  • mrcoppermrcopper
    Posts: 653
    And i wonder why so few choirs do my four part works for chorus and orchestra ... gotta start writing for 2 trebles, a baritone, and a very very low alto, with organ.
    Thanked by 2Ben Heath
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    5 soprano/7 alto (my favorite section!)/three tenor/three true basses.
    If my tenors weren't so sleepy, I'd love to sing countertenor with my altos.
    I have lots of former students from HS and college that wander in when they are visiting home, I love that when it happens.
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    I have a paid high school choir, with 1 soprano, two altos, three tenors, and one bass. Pretty much the inverse of any other parish choir.

    Of course, when I merge them with my adult choir, it fills out to a very balanced ensemble!
    Thanked by 1Patricia Cecilia
  • mrcoppermrcopper
    Posts: 653
    The notion of a 'paid' high school choir is brilliant. For very little money, I imagine, you are creating a significant next generation. Wtg Gavin.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    For amateur choirs, write assuming 70% of your forces will be mezzos and baritones.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    For amateur choirs, write assuming 70% of your forces will be mezzos and baritones


    Write for ATB, except call the A line "Soprano" and the T line "Alto," and don't let the B line go below a B-flat.

    I don't understand why there isn't more SAB literature for choirs. It's where most of us live most of the time, I think.
    Thanked by 4Liam Patricia Cecilia donr ClergetKubisz
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    I don't understand why there isn't more SAB literature for choirs.
    Just as SATB was the new SSATTTBB (or similar such 6-8 part voicing) towards the end of the Renaissance and into the Baroque, SAT, SAB, and ATB are the new SATB today (and this, really, is only in the last decade or so). What does this say about sacred choral music nowadays?
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Y'know, Chuck, were that the case today. You can't approach the biggies today without SSS/AAA/TTT/BBB level armadas (Yes I'm talking to you, Skippy Lauridsen, Arvo, Eric "Surferdude" Whitacre et al.)
    That's why the discipline of the classic schools, Roman or otherwise, of the true Renaissance genii is stunningly still fresh, vibrant and very much alive.
    Thanked by 1Patricia Cecilia
  • mrcoppermrcopper
    Posts: 653
    Some truth there, melo. Also Paul Mealor, a wonderful new (to me) composer, uses a great deal of divisi.
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Yeah, William, I made a vow long ago to only tell "some of the truth, and nothing but some of the truth.
    While we're playing with semantics, what sort of "great deal" did Mssr. Mealor get on his divisi?
    2 for the price of 1? A Guitar Center gift card? A white suit if he divides up to 100?
  • mrcoppermrcopper
    Posts: 653
    Paul got: the Royal Wedding music. More fame in 6 months or so, than I've gotten so far in many years, and was probably paid for writing. Not bad. But genuinely good music, again imo.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Yep, Charlie ... but I'm not a "biggie" ... and so rarely does one of my 6 or 8 part works get performed ... and my 12 part piece is still unperformed. At least my SSATBB "Ave verum corpus" has been sung in two separate seasons in France, and my SATB divisi "This Advent Moon" has been sung by several groups/choirs ... still waiting for someone to sing my (difficult) "O magnum mysterium" though.
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Oh Chuck, I know, only two choirs have attemped my "Anima Christi" (truncated version at that.)
    But at least the local college kids said to me, at its native premiere, "This is the best music we've sung this semester."
    Even though the impetus is a work of the soul and heart, it is of some value to have the singers validate one's efforts. Deo gratias.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • donr
    Posts: 971
    I don't understand why there isn't more SAB literature for choirs


    THIS
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