A choir is a vocal group or group of people who interpret a piece of music in a sung and coordinated way.
A group of often professionally trained individuals who can collectively perform sung works through the intervention of their voices directed by a conductor or teacher is called a singing choir.
A choir has the capacity to interpret monodic works or to a single voice, or, polyphonic, that is to say, to several simultaneous voices. As such, the chorus is made up of different types of voices that are grouped into strings. In the case of female voices, there is the soprano, which is the highest voice and often leads the main melody of the work, the mezzo-soprano, a more frequent and intermediate voice for women, and the contralto, the deepest voice among the females. In the case of male voices, we can find the falsetto, a male voice that imitates or resembles the register of a soprano, the countertenor, the highest male voice that can reach the contralto register and which is considerably rare. among men, the tenor, the high-pitched voice of the masculine, and the baritone, the most common voice among the masculine. Bass and deep bass, which are the lowest among male voices, are also counted.
At the same time, there is a choral typology that allows them to be classified according to various criteria. When it comes to an instrumental criterion, the choir can be: “a capella” (without instrument accompaniment) or concertante (with accompaniment). When the criterion is timbre and tessitura, there are choirs of equal voices (white, low, two or more voices) and choirs of mixed voices. If we talk about a choir based on the composition of its voices, we speak of a choir when it comes to a children’s choir (often linked to religious settings), a women’s choir, a men’s choir, and a mixed choir. Choirs are also classified according to their size, and then one can speak of quartets, octets, chamber choir (from 12 to 20 members), symphonic (from 30 to 60), orfeón or grand choir (with more than 100 members). ).
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