We prefer to sing in unison, but we are so few (two or three women and two or three men) and we also prefer not to have extended solos. So, at present we do this:

* Someone (rotating by week) sings the incipits of the proper; and someone else, of the other voice, the incipits of the ordinary.
* The voice that sings the proper incipits
* The psalm verses are sung half by the men alone, and half then by all.
* The men sing the gradual responsory, with two (or only one when necessary) singing the verse. And something similar for the tract.
* The women sing the Alleluia with its verse.
* The introit and offertory and communion, and the ordinary, we sing in parallel octaves.
* When we sing a motet it's always at the offertory and usually mixed.
* Hymns are sung SATB.
* We have started using a... keyboard... which sometimes accidentally gets called an “organ”. It is played when the faithful sing: the hymns, the ordinary, and half the responses.

We never had mixed octaves when I was at St Martin’s in Louisville. But the women usually did 3/5 propers by that point, leaving the men weaker by a great deal. And those were non (practicing) Catholic vocalists paid to be there so it was not ideal to have such a disparity.

I personally don’t like it at all for that reason: either have only men, and leave the women to lead the Ordinary, or rotate by week or whatever.

We sang the propers with a mixed schola, but there were no mixed octaves. There are many women with full use of their voice and range whose timbre falls in the tenor and baritone choral ranges. They’re not all older menopausal women who once sang soprano or alto either.

It’s almost 2027. It’s time to end the stereotype that men have deep voices and women have high voices.

It’s almost 2027. It’s time to end the stereotype that men have deep voices and women have high voices.

It's hardly a stereotype if it's vastly true, no? It is a certifiable fact that not a single woman in my choir can sing below typical alto range, and likewise a fact that none of my men can sing in alto/soprano range. Unless I'm woefully ignorant, your experience of singing in a mixed ensemble where the women sing in the same octave as the men is unusual, to say the least.

We have a mixed schola and do a mix of propers together and separately at our TLM. Most commonly we sing the introit mixed with either men or women intoning and taking the first half of the verse & Gloria. Women most commonly take the gradual & alleluia with a soloist intoning, sometimes the verse will be solo. Men take the offertory & communio, with a soloist on the verses.

Practically, this works very well in rehearsal for us. Women & men can simultaneously rehearse their chants in separate rooms thanks to having both male and female co-directors.

It's hardly a stereotype if it's vastly true, no? It is a certifiable fact that not a single woman in my choir can sing below typical alto range, and likewise a fact that none of my men can sing in alto/soprano range. Unless I'm woefully ignorant, your experience of singing in a mixed ensemble where the women sing in the same octave as the men is unusual, to say the least.

Excluding myself, every choir I’ve sung in has women, not just elderly women, singing tenor. My current choir has six female tenors out of 164 members. While it might not be as common, especially in North America, where there is a bias towards training women to sing in their upper registers, in European countries it’s much more common and not the big “you should probably go to a doctor and get that checked out” issue as it is in Latin Mass communities here where ignorance and stereotyping women abounds abundantly.

One, in the second tenors, has such a range she sings bass in her church choir when it's short of men.

I sing first tenor, but only because my chorus director switched me from second so I can stand next to the alto section and wear a dress rather than a tuxedo. All my other directors put me singing first tenor. I hit a new low on Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with an Gb2 when the tenors doubled part of the bass part. Prior to that my lowest I’ve sung in a piece was G2. I can give the Guinness Book of World Records holder for lowest note sung by a female a run for her money.

My range is at the point where for a lot of music, I can sing all of the parts in the correct octave. My absolute lowest note is a quiet Fb2 to weakish A5. My tessitura is A2 to D5. I have no issues blending with the rest of my section, and I don’t sound like an alto singing in the bottom of my range.

Yes, well, my point is simply that "men low women high" does tend to statistically be the norm. In any case, this tangent has no real bearing on my initial question as none of my choristers have anything beyond a typical range. I am not in a TLM environment, I work for the Ordinariate.

@SponsaChristi, 3 and a half octaves? Respect. we're preparing the M2 as well. While much of it is high enough and T2 could sing B1, there's no way we can do the chocolatey B2 "Hör auf zu beben". Besides we need all the T2 colour we can get there. I can see how you could add to the misterioso sound of the "Mit Flügeln" entry.

We sing the five proper chants each Sunday and a Latin Ordinary. The men sing the Introit, Offertory and Communion, while the women sing the Gradual and Alleluia. This seems an equitable and happy arrangement for all (the women’s pieces are fewer by one, but more difficult). All sing the Ordinary, while alternating men/women within the Kyrie, Gloria and Credo. The variety achieved by this approach lends a freshness to each chant. It also keeps the two “choirs” on their toes!