Choir
choir
The part of the church reserved for the stalls of canons, priests, monks, and choristers, separated from the rest by low carved partitions of stone or wood. In early churches it extended from the apse to the nave of which it was part, and the term was later made to include the entire eastern end of the church, regardless of its use. In a cruciform church the choir may be beyond the transepts, between them, or projecting into the nave.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Choir
There is much ambiguity about the terms choir and presbytery. Strictly speaking, the choir is that part of the church where the stalls of the clergy are. The term is often loosely used for the whole of the eastern arm, including the choir proper, sanctuary, retro-choir, etc. At Westminster Abbey the stalls are in the east nave and therefore no part of the choir is in the eastern arm. At Canterbury the stalls are in the eastern arm and the choir occupies its western bays, i.e. the space between the crossing and the sanctuary. In non-collegiate churches the eastern arm is called the chancel, the eastern portion of which is the presbytery or sanctuary. In the earliest Christian churches, e.g. Santa Maria Maggiore at Rome, there were but two parts, a nave and sanctuary; there was no architectural choir. The sanctuary occupied the apse, and the apse was joined immediately to the nave, or, in the double-aisled basilicas of the fourth century, such as those of St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome, to the transept; there was no interposition of a choir between nave and apse. The choir was simply the east part of the nave, and was fenced off by low walls, usually of marble, carved or perforated with interlacing patterns — peacocks (the symbol of immortality), lions, doves, etc. These walls were called cancelli, hence the English word “chancel”. The word choir is first used by writers of the Western Church. Isidore of Seville and Honorius of Autun derive it from the corona or circle of clergy or singers who surrounded the altar. The choir proper did not exist until the time of Constantine, when the clergy were able to develop the services of the Church. The introduction of the choir, or enclosed space in the centre of the nave, attached to the bema or presbytery, as the raised space came to be called, was the last great change of plan. Round three sides of this choir the faithful were allowed to congregate to hear the Gospels or Epistles read from the two pulpits or ambones, where were built into its enclosure, one on either side; or to hear the services which were read or sung by the inferior order of clergy who occupied its precincts. The enclosure of the choir was kept low, so as not to hide the view of the raised presbytery. In the south- western districts of France and throughout Spain, also in St. John Lateran, St. Clement, St. Laurence Without-the-walls, and St. Mary Major in Rome, the choir occupies the centre of the nave with an enclosed passage to the sanctuary. In parts of Italy the choir still retains its ancient position behind or eastward of the altar. In the Duomo of Fiesole, and at Lucca, there are two choirs, one behind and the other in front of the high altar. In the north of Germany choirs are usually elevated upon crypts (that of Milan stands over the confessio) and shut in with solid stone screens; the same arrangement exists at Canterbury, Auch, Augsburg, Chartres, Bourages, St-Denis, Amiens, and Notre-Dame in Paris. The finest existing enclosures are those of Paris and Amiens.
———————————–
BOND, Gothic Architecture in England, 183-85; FERGUSSON, History of Architecture, I, 407; PARKER, Glossary of Architecture, I, 102, 103; WALCOTT, Sacred Archaeology, 146, 147, 148; REBER, History of Medieval Art, 182, 183.
THOMAS H. POOLE Transcribed by Thomas M. Barrett Dedicated to choir volunteers from the assembly
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IIICopyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, November 1, 1908. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Choir (1)
A body of singers entrusted with the musical parts of the Church service, and organized and instructed for that purpose. The Talmud witnesses to the careful organization of the Temple choir, and as the first Christians worshipped with the Jews, we find them from the first using the psalmodic solo with congregational refrain, and from the fourth century psalmody in alternating chorus, both possibly based on Jewish practice. Thus early, and all through the plain-chant period, the choir seems to have been influenced by the liturgical division of the music into solo and chorus chants. Soon after Constantine’s conversion we hear of lector-schools in which, as boys, many of the clergy had received their raining. But perhaps the most famous song-school of history was the Roman schola cantorum of St. Gregory, described by John the Deacon, called also orphanotrophium, as its singing boys came chiefly from orphanages. Many of the popes of the seventh century were connected with or came from it. Following this we have the establishment of many other schools, of which the most famous were those of Metz and St. Gall, in the eighth century. The current system of oral instruction rendered such schools necessary. About the year 1100, after the introduction of the musical staff, they began to decline in importance. So thoroughly was music practised in the medieval song-schools connected with churches or monasteries, founded for the purpose of setting forth the liturgy with the utmost splendour and beauty, that until the Protestant Reformation the history of music is practically the history of church music. Yet even about the fourteenth century the gradual substitution of musica mensurata for the cantilena romana, part-music for unisonous, wrought an increasing change in the relation of choir to altar. This change was marked when Pope Gregory XI, in 1377, returned to Rome from Avignon, where the new music had flourished, and amalgamated his choir with the schola cantorum, reorganizing it under the title Collegio dei Capellani Pontificia and placing it under a Maestro della Capella Pontificio. The choir now became more laicised and self-contained. It had grown out of, and had been shaped by liturgical needs. Its place was in the sanctuary, its members were ecclesiastics or boys brought up under ecclesiastical direction in a house attached to the cathedral. Now it might occupy a gallery and be ruled by a layman. Yet the school of composition associated with this change was largely built upon plain-chant, and produced such masters of religious music as Palestrina, Vittoria, and Byrd. Later, the introduction of female voices, the toleration of mixed choirs, and the secularization in style of the music sung, brought about a still greater departure from the idea and influence of St. Gregory’s schola cantorum. During the present liturgical revival, however, boys who have been actively employed in church music for so many centuries (we find them mentioned indeed as early as the fourth century) are gradually taking their old place in the constitution and functions of the Christian choir.
———————————–
Encyclopaedia Biblica (London, 1899); GERBERT, De Cantu et Musica Sacra; WAGNER, History of Plain Chant (London, 1907); MEES, Choirs and Choral Music (London, 1901); DUCHESNE, Christian Worship (London, 1903); BAUMER, Histoire du breviaire (Paris, 1905); GROVE, Dict. of Music and Musicians (London, 1896); GASTOUE, Les Origines du chant romain (Paris, 1907).
WILFRID G.A. SHEBBAKE Transcribed by Michael T. Barrett Dedicated to Sr. Jeanne Frolick and the Oregon Archdiocesan Choir
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IIICopyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, November 1, 1908. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Choir
(Gr.). The Greeks applied the term chorus to a circular dance performed during sacrifices by a company of singers around the altar of a deity. Later it was applied to this body of singing dancers. Actors afterwards were introduced, who related some myth or legend of the deity between the songs of the chorus, thus laying the foundation of the Greek drama. In the perfected drama, the chorus (composed of fifty persons in the tragedy and of twenty-four in the comedy) occupied a position intermediate between the actors and the audience, giving in a recitative manner, rather than in a song, counsel, warning, encouragement, or consolation to the actors.
Similar bodies of singers attended the religious observances of nearly all nations of antiquity. In the Jewish worship they were specially prominent after the time of David, being composed at times of 4000 singers and 288 leaders.
1. In the development of the ritual in the Christian churches, the body of singers received the same name of chorus. The French modification of the word, chaeur, passed into the Norman and early English as quire or choir. The original term chorus is now applied to a body of singers carrying all the parts of music, in distinction from solo, duet, or quartet singers; also to the portion of music sung by this chorus. The two most noted choirs of the present day are that of the Vatican, in which the soprano and alto are sung by eunuchs, and the choir of the Cathedral of Berlin, in which the soprano and alto are sung by boys.
In the English Church, strictly, the term denotes a body of men set apart for the performance of all the services of the Church in the most solemn form. Properly speaking, the whole corporate body of a cathedral, including capitular and lay members, forms the choir, and in this extended sense ancient writers frequently use the word. But, in its more restricted sense, we are to understand that body of men and boys who form a part of the foundation of these places, and whose special duty it is to perform the service to music. The choir properly consists of clergymen, laymen, and chorister boys, and should have at least six men and six boys, these being essential to the due performance of the chants, services, and anthems. Every choir is divided into two parts, stationed on each side of the chancel, in order to sing alternately the verses of the psalms and hymns, one side answering the other.
2. The term choir is also applied in Roman churches to that portion of the church edifice allotted to the singers, nearly analogous to the chancel (q.v.) of Protestant churches. The choir is usually in the apsis (q.v.), behind the high altar, at the east (in the earlier churches in the west) end of the church. It is generally elevated one step above the level of the rest of the edifice. It has at least one row of seats or stalls. When there is more than one row, each row is a step; above that before. it. In this ritual sense of place for the singers, the choir is sometimes, especially in cruciform churches, under the tower or in front of the high altar. Large cathedrals also often have several choirs or chapels for singing mass. In Greek and Armenian churches the stalls for the singers are usually in the nave of the church, to the right and left of the front of the altar. In nunneries the choir is a part of the church, separated from the rest by a screen, where the nuns chant the service.
3. In Protestant churches generally, the word designates the body of singers, composed both of males and females, who conduct the congregational singing, with or without the aid of an organ. The name is also given to the place in the church occupied by the singers. See Bingham, Orig. Ecclesiastes bk. 8, ch. 6, 7; Bergier, Dict. de Theologie, 1:461.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Choir
CHOIR (Neh 12:8 RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ).See Praise.