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100-534: The first clue as to the work's structure is in Liszt's title: "A Faust Symphony in Three Character Sketches after Goethe: (1) Faust, (2) Gretchen, (3) Mephistopheles." Liszt does not attempt to tell the story of Goethe's drama. Rather, he creates musical portraits of the three main protagonists. By doing so, though this symphony is a multi-movement work and employs a male chorus in its final moments, Liszt adopts

200-482: A basso continuo "for harpsichord or lute".) His pupil Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672) (who had earlier studied with Giovanni Gabrieli ) introduced the new style to Germany. Alongside the new music of the seconda pratica , contrapuntal motets in the stile antico or old style continued to be written well into the 19th century. Choirs at this time were usually quite small and that singers could be classified as suited to church or to chamber singing. Monteverdi, himself

300-515: A basso seguente , a part on a single staff containing the lowest sounding part (the bass part). A new genre was the vocal concertato , combining voices and instruments; its origins may be sought in the polychoral music of the Venetian school . Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) brought it to perfection with his Vespers and his Eighth Book of Madrigals, which call for great virtuosity on the part of singers and instruments alike. (His Fifth Book includes

400-412: A polychoral composition. In typical 18th century to 21st century oratorios and masses , 'chorus' or 'choir' implies that there is more than one singer per part, in contrast to the quartet of soloists also featured in these works. Choirs are often led by a conductor or choirmaster/mistress or a choir director. Most often choirs consist of four sections intended to sing in four part harmony, but there

500-490: A bass instrument (e.g., violone ). Baroque vocal music explored dramatic implications in the realm of solo vocal music such as the monodies of the Florentine Camerata and the development of early opera . This innovation was in fact an extension of established practice of accompanying choral music at the organ, either from a skeletal reduced score (from which otherwise lost pieces can sometimes be reconstructed) or from

600-408: A cappella motets. The amateur chorus (beginning chiefly as a social outlet) began to receive serious consideration as a compositional venue for the part-songs of Schubert, Schumann , Mendelssohn, Brahms, and others. These 'singing clubs' were often for women or men separately, and the music was typically in four-part (hence the name " part-song ") and either a cappella or with simple instrumentation. At

700-568: A challenge to teaching this age range. Nationally, male students are enrolled in choir at much lower numbers than their female students. The music education field has had a longtime interest in the "missing males" in music programs. Speculation as to why there are not as many boys in choir, and possible solutions vary widely. One researcher found that boys who enjoy choir in middle school may not always go on to high school choir because it simply does not fit into their schedules. Some research speculates that one reason that boys' participation in choir

800-464: A circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music , in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words is the music performed by the ensemble. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which spans from the medieval era to the present, or popular music repertoire. Most choirs are led by a conductor , who leads the performances with arm, hand, and facial gestures. The term choir

900-419: A diatonic interval, so that the interval is made larger or smaller by the interval of half step ["altered diatonic intervals"]. A chromatic scale is one which proceeds entirely by semitones, so dividing the octave into twelve equal steps of one semitone each. Linear chromaticism is used in jazz : "All improvised lines ... will include non-harmonic, chromatic notes." Similar to in the bebop scale this may be

1000-607: A long established "dualism" in Western European harmonic language: "the diatonic on the one hand and the chromatic on the other as in the time of Monteverdi and Gesualdo whose madrigals provide many examples and employ virtually the same symbolism. The chromatic symbolizing darkness doubt and grief and the diatonic light, affirmation and joy—this imagery has hardly changed for three centuries." When an interviewer asked Igor Stravinsky (1959, p. 243) if he really believed in an innate connection between "pathos" and chromaticism,

1100-472: A modified recapitulation of the first one. The music is pushed to the very verge of atonality by use of high chromaticism , rhythmic leaps and fantastic scherzo-like sections. A modified version of Faust's second and third themes then creates an infernal fugue . Mephistopheles is, however, powerless when faced with Gretchen's innocence, so her theme remains intact. It even pushes the Spirit of Negation away towards

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1200-502: A passionate love duet. This draws the second movement to a peaceful and short recapitulation . An alternative interpretation of the Gretchen movement is that, as Lawrence Kramer writes, "What we have been calling Gretchen's music is really Faust's." The entire Gretchen movement could be seen as representing her from the perspective of Faust. Consequently, the listener really learns more about Faust than about Gretchen. In Goethe's drama, she

1300-446: A raised platform and he or she may or may not use a baton ; using a baton gives the conductor's gestures greater visibility, but many choral conductors prefer conducting with their hands for greater expressiveness, particularly when working with a smaller ensemble. In the 2010s, most conductors do not play an instrument when conducting, although in earlier periods of classical music history, leading an ensemble while playing an instrument

1400-424: A regular diatonic scale (major or minor) is laced with many accidentals, and although all 12 tones of the chromatic scale may appear, the tonal characteristics of the diatonic scale are maintained. ... Chromaticism [is t]he introduction of some pitches of the chromatic scale into music that is basically diatonic in orientation, or music that is based on the chromatic scale instead of the diatonic scales. Chromaticism

1500-485: A singer, is documented as taking part in performances of his Magnificat with one voice per part. Independent instrumental accompaniment opened up new possibilities for choral music. Verse anthems alternated accompanied solos with choral sections; the best-known composers of this genre were Orlando Gibbons and Henry Purcell . Grands motets (such as those of Lully and Delalande ) separated these sections into separate movements. Oratorios (of which Giacomo Carissimi

1600-440: A small amplified band to accompany the singing, and Roman Catholic Churches may use, at their discretion, additional orchestral accompaniment. In addition to leading of singing in which the congregation participates, such as hymns and service music, some church choirs sing full liturgies, including propers (introit, gradual, communion antiphons appropriate for the different times of the liturgical year ). Chief among these are

1700-472: A special concert. In this case they provide a series of songs or musical works to celebrate and provide entertainment to others. Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as a choral concert , by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face and head. The primary duties of the conductor or choirmaster/mistress are to unify performers , set the tempo , execute clear preparations and beats ( meter ), and to listen critically and shape

1800-495: A substitute for each voice, Joshua Rifkin concludes that Bach's music was normally written with one voice per part in mind. A few sets of original performing parts include ripieni who reinforce rather than slavishly double the vocal quartet. Composers of the late 18th century became fascinated with the new possibilities of the symphony and other instrumental music, and generally neglected choral music. Mozart 's mostly sacred choral works stand out as some of his greatest (such as

1900-744: A variety of performing forces, from the soloists of the Chandos Anthems to larger groups (whose proportions are still quite different from modern orchestra choruses): Yesterday [Oct. 6] there was a Rehearsal of the Coronation Anthem in Westminster-Abby , set to musick by the famous Mr Hendall: there being 40 voices, and about 160 violins , Trumpets , Hautboys , Kettle-Drums and Bass' proportionable..! Lutheran composers wrote instrumentally accompanied cantatas , often based on chorale tunes . Substantial late 17th-century sacred choral works in

2000-624: Is a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic pitches and chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale . In simple terms, within each octave, diatonic music uses only seven different notes, rather than the twelve available on a standard piano keyboard. Music is chromatic when it uses more than just these seven notes. Chromaticism is in contrast or addition to tonality or diatonicism and modality (the major and minor , or "white key", scales). Chromatic elements are considered, "elaborations of or substitutions for diatonic scale members". Chromaticism began to develop in

2100-584: Is a complex heroine. In Liszt's symphony, she is innocent and one-dimensional—a simplification that could arguably exist exclusively in Faust's imagination. The listener becomes aware of this masquerade when the "Gretchen" mask Faust is wearing slips with the appearance of the Faustian themes in bars 44 through 51 and bar 111 to the end of the movement. [REDACTED] Some critics suggest that, like Gretchen, Mephistopheles can be seen as an abstraction—in this case, one of

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2200-452: Is also of interest as the earliest Christian music . Of the Roman drama's music a single line of Terence surfaced in the 18th century. However, musicologist Thomas J. Mathiesen comments that it is no longer believed to be authentic. The earliest notated music of western Europe is Gregorian chant , along with a few other types of chant which were later subsumed (or sometimes suppressed) by

2300-501: Is called a cappella singing (although the American Choral Directors Association discourages this usage in favor of "unaccompanied", since a cappella denotes singing "as in the chapel" and much unaccompanied music today is secular ). Accompanying instruments vary widely, from only one instrument (a piano or pipe organ) to a full orchestra of 70 to 100 musicians; for rehearsals a piano or organ accompaniment

2400-667: Is dangerous for me to handle." However, the final catalyst for the symphony came in a two-month period between August and October 1854. This period coincided with a visit to Weimar by English novelist Mary Ann (Marian) Evans, better known by her pen name George Eliot . Her consort George Henry Lewes was gathering information for his biography of Goethe. During visits to Liszt's residence, the Altenburg, Lewes and Eliot had several discussions with both him and Princess Carolyne about Goethe and his place in German literature. Once Liszt began writing, it

2500-501: Is illustrated in miniature by the substitution of a chromatic harmony for an expected diatonic harmony. This technique resembles the deceptive cadence , which involves the substitution of another diatonic chord for the expected diatonic goal harmony. ... In the major mode a substitute chromatic consonance often proves to be a triad which has been taken from the parallel minor mode. This process ["assimilation"]...is called mixture of mode or simply mixture ... Four consonant triads from

2600-576: Is interested in his own little happiness. Manfred could certainly not have thought of putting up with the bad company of Mephistopheles, and if he had loved Marguerite he would have been able to kill her, but never abandon her in a cowardly manner like Faust. Despite Liszt's apparent antipathy toward the character of Faust, his residency in Weimar surrounded him with Goethe and the Faust legend at practically every turn. He had barely served out his first year as Kapellmeister when Grand Duke Carl Alexander decreed that

2700-449: Is much more significant in boys. A lot of literature in music education has been focused on how male voice change works and how to help adolescent male singers. Research done by John Cooksey categorizes male voice change into five stages, and most middle school boys are in the early stages of change. The vocal range of male and female students may be limited while their voice is changing, and choir teachers must be able to adapt, which can be

2800-479: Is no limit to the number of possible parts as long as there is a singer available to sing the part: Thomas Tallis wrote a 40-part motet entitled Spem in alium , for eight choirs of five parts each; Krzysztof Penderecki 's Stabat Mater is for three choirs of 16 voices each, a total of 48 parts. Other than four, the most common number of parts are three, five, six, and eight. Choirs can sing with or without instrumental accompaniment. Singing without accompaniment

2900-449: Is often associated with dissonance . In the 16th century the repeated melodic semitone became associated with weeping, see: passus duriusculus , lament bass , and pianto . Susan McClary (1991) argues that chromaticism in operatic and sonata form narratives can be chosen to be understood through a Marxist narrative as the "Other", racial, sexual, class or otherwise, to diatonicism's "male" self, whether through modulation, as to

3000-458: Is often used, even if a different instrumentation is planned for performance, or if the choir is rehearsing unaccompanied music. With the new prevalence of electronic devices, small groups can use these together with learning tracks for both group rehearsals and private practice. Many choirs perform in one or many locations such as a church, opera house, school or village hall. In some cases choirs join up to become one "mass" choir that performs for

3100-425: Is one which does not belong to the scale of the key prevailing at the time. Similarly, a chromatic chord is one which includes one or more such notes. A chromatic and a diatonic note, or two chromatic notes, create chromatic intervals. When one note of an interval is chromatic or when both notes are chromatic, the entire interval is called chromatic. Chromatic intervals arise by raising or lowering one or both notes of

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3200-545: Is probably suitable only for the grandest ceremonies due to its length, difficulty and large-scale scoring. He also pioneered the use of chorus as part of symphonic texture with his Ninth Symphony and Choral Fantasia . In the 19th century, sacred music escaped from the church and leaped onto the concert stage, with large sacred works unsuitable for church use, such as Berlioz 's Te Deum and Requiem , and Brahms 's Ein deutsches Requiem . Rossini 's Stabat mater , Schubert 's masses, and Verdi 's Requiem also exploited

3300-597: Is so low is because the U.S. does not encourage male singers. Often, schools will have a women's choir, which helps the balance issues mixed choirs face by taking on extra female singers. However, without a men's choir also, this can make the problem worse by not giving boys as many opportunities to sing as girls. Other researchers have noted that having an ensemble, or a workshop dedicated to male singers, can help with their confidence and singing abilities. British cathedral choirs are usually made from pupils enrolled in schools. There are various schools of thought regarding how

3400-491: Is that of ancient Greece , of which the 2nd century BC Delphic hymns and the 2nd century AD. hymns of Mesomedes are the most complete. The original Greek chorus sang its part in Greek drama , and fragments of works by Euripides ( Orestes ) and Sophocles ( Ajax ) are known from papyri . The Seikilos epitaph (2c BC) is a complete song (although possibly for solo voice). One of the latest examples, Oxyrhynchus hymn (3c)

3500-477: Is very often applied to groups affiliated with a church (whether or not they actually occupy the quire ), whereas a chorus performs in theatres or concert halls, but this distinction is not rigid. Choirs may sing without instruments, or accompanied by a piano , accordion, pipe organ , a small ensemble, or an orchestra . A choir can be a subset of an ensemble; thus one speaks of the "woodwind choir" of an orchestra, or different "choirs" of voices or instruments in

3600-498: The Choralis Constantinus of Heinrich Isaac and the contrapuntal techniques of his serial music may be informed by this study. The Baroque period in music is associated with the development around 1600 of the figured bass and the basso continuo system. The figured bass part was performed by the basso continuo group, which at minimum included a chord-playing instrument (e.g., pipe organ , harpsichord , lute ) and

3700-451: The Anglican and Roman Catholic churches; far more common however is the performance of anthems or motets at designated times in the service. One of the main classifications of choirs is by gender and age since these factors have traditionally been thought to affect how a choir sounds and what music it performs. The types are listed here in approximate descending order of prevalence at

3800-536: The Magnificat and the cantatas. A point of hot controversy today is the so-called "Rifkin hypothesis," which re-examines the famous " Entwurff " Bach's 1730 memo to the Leipzig City Council ( A Short but Most Necessary Draft for a Well Appointed Church Music ) calling for at least 12 singers. In light of Bach's responsibility to provide music to four churches and be able to perform double choir compositions with

3900-613: The Renaissance , sacred choral music was the principal type of formally notated music in Western Europe. Throughout the era, hundreds of masses and motets (as well as various other forms) were composed for a cappella choir, though there is some dispute over the role of instruments during certain periods and in certain areas. Some of the better-known composers of this time include Guillaume Dufay , Josquin des Prez , Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina , John Dunstable , and William Byrd ;

4000-428: The diatonic scale associated with the prevailing key , the use of such chords is the use of chromatic harmony. In other words, at least one note of the chord is chromatically altered . Any chord that is not chromatic is a diatonic chord . For example, in the key of C major, the following chords (all diatonic) are naturally built on each degree of the scale: However, a number of other chords may also be built on

4100-504: The motet (most notably the isorhythmic motet), which, unlike the Renaissance motet, describes a composition with different texts sung simultaneously in different voices. The first evidence of polyphony with more than one singer per part comes in the Old Hall Manuscript (1420, though containing music from the late 14th century), in which there are apparent divisi , one part dividing into two simultaneously sounding notes. During

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4200-537: The twelve-tone technique , a tone row being a specific ordering or series of the chromatic scale, and later serialism . Though these styles/methods continue to (re)incorporate tonality or tonal elements, often the trends that led to these methods were abandoned, such as modulation. David Cope describes three forms of chromaticism: modulation, borrowed chords from secondary keys, and chromatic chords such as augmented sixth chords . The chromatic expansion of tonality which characterizes much of nineteenth century music

4300-489: The "Great" Mass in C minor and Requiem in D minor, the latter of which is highly regarded). Haydn became more interested in choral music near the end of his life following his visits to England in the 1790s, when he heard various Handel oratorios performed by large forces; he wrote a series of masses beginning in 1797 and his two great oratorios The Creation and The Seasons . Beethoven wrote only two masses, both intended for liturgical use, although his Missa solemnis

4400-516: The "Palestrina style" to this day, especially as codified by the 18th century music theorist Johann Joseph Fux . Composers of the early 20th century also wrote in Renaissance-inspired styles. Herbert Howells wrote a Mass in the Dorian mode entirely in strict Renaissance style, and Ralph Vaughan Williams 's Mass in G minor is an extension of this style. Anton Webern wrote his dissertation on

4500-589: The 20th century. Secular choral music in the United States was popularized by groups such as the Dale Warland Singers throughout the late 20th century. The Big Choral Census online survey was established to find out how many choirs there were in the UK, of what type, with how many members, singing what type of music and with what sort of funding. Results estimated that there were some 40,000 choral groups operating in

4600-573: The Catholic Church. This tradition of unison choir singing lasted from sometime between the times of St. Ambrose (4th century) and Gregory the Great (6th century) up to the present. During the later Middle Ages, a new type of singing involving multiple melodic parts, called organum , became predominant for certain functions, but initially this polyphony was only sung by soloists. Further developments of this technique included clausulae , conductus and

4700-577: The Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1967. Liszt transcribed the complete score for two pianos, and the middle movement alone ("Gretchen") for solo piano. The transcription of 'Gretchen' was recorded by Leslie Howard as part of his set of complete recordings of Liszt's solo piano music, and later by Jeno Jando for Naxos , Imogen Cooper for Chandos Records and Lucille Chung for Signum Records . Following Liszt's tradition of transcribing orchestral works such as Beethoven 's nine symphonies,

4800-630: The Hungarian pianist Ervin Nyiregyházi transcribed the Faust Symphony for solo piano, which he performed at a recital in Novato, California on 30 April 1978. More recently, part of August Stradal 's solo piano arrangement of the Faust Symphony has been recorded. Choir A choir ( / ˈ k w aɪər / KWIRE ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin chorus , meaning 'a dance in

4900-697: The Purwa Caraka Music Studio Choir of Indonesia began the trend when they covered children's songs in a choral arrangement for the film Surat Kecil untuk Tuhan . Apart from their roles in liturgy and entertainment, choirs and choruses may also have social-service functions, including for mental health treatment or as therapy for homeless and disadvantaged people, like the Choir of Hard Knocks or for special groups such as Military Wives . Databases Professional organizations Resources Media Reading Chromaticism Chromaticism

5000-450: The UK and over 2 million people singing regularly in a choir. Over 30 percent of the groups listed described themselves a community choirs, half of the choirs listed sing contemporary music although singing classical music is still popular. Most choirs are self funding. It is thought that the increase in popularity of singing together in groups has been fed to some extent in the UK by TV progammes such as Gareth Malone 's 'The Choir'. In 2017,

5100-495: The back and the women in front; some conductors prefer to place the basses behind the sopranos, arguing that the outer voices need to tune to each other. More experienced choirs may sing with the voices all mixed. Sometimes singers of the same voice are grouped in pairs or threes. Proponents of this method argue that it makes it easier for each individual singer to hear and tune to the other parts, but it requires more independence from each singer. Opponents argue that this method loses

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5200-426: The chromatic scale and chromaticism became more widely used, especially in the works of Richard Wagner , such as the opera " Tristan und Isolde ". Increased chromaticism is often cited as one of the main causes or signs of the "breakdown" of tonality, in the form of increased importance or use of: As tonal harmony continued to widen and even break down, the chromatic scale became the basis of modern music written using

5300-457: The city would celebrate the centennial of Goethe's birth on 28 August 1849. During this celebration Liszt conducted, among other things, excerpts from Robert Schumann 's Scenes from Goethe's Faust for orchestra and choir. After the centennial remembrance, he helped in the creation of a Goethe Foundation; this culminated in the publication of Liszt's brochure De la Fondation-Goethe à Weimar . In

5400-421: The composer replied: "Of course not; the association is entirely due to convention." Nevertheless, the convention is a powerful one and the emotional associations evoked by chromaticism have endured and indeed strengthened over the years. To quote Cooke (1959, p. 54) "Ever since about 1850—since doubts have been cast, in intellectual circles, on the possibility, or even the desirability, of basing one's life on

5500-412: The concept of personal happiness—chromaticism has brought more and more painful tensions into our art-music, and finally eroded the major system and with it the whole system of tonality." Examples of descending chromatic melodic lines that would seem to convey highly charged feeling can be found in: Some individual views on chromaticism include: Not only at the beginning of a composition but also in

5600-483: The conductor will often give verbal instructions to the ensemble, since they generally also serve as an artistic director who crafts the ensemble's interpretation of the music. Conductors act as guides to the choirs they conduct. They choose the works to be performed and study their scores , to which they may make certain adjustments (e.g., regarding tempo, repetitions of sections, assignment of vocal solos and so on), work out their interpretation, and relay their vision to

5700-536: The context of liturgy . Most Eastern Orthodox Christian churches, some American Protestant groups, and traditional Jewish synagogues do not accompany their songs with musical instruments. In churches of the Western Rite the accompanying instrument is usually the organ, although in colonial America , the Moravian Church used groups of strings and winds. Many churches which use a contemporary worship format use

5800-454: The degrees of the scale, and some of these are chromatic. Examples: In music theory , passus duriusculus is a Latin term which refers to chromatic line, often a bassline , whether descending or ascending. A line cliché is any chromatic line that moves against a stationary chord. There are many different types of line clichés—most often in the root, fifth or seventh—but there are two named line clichés. The major line cliché moves from

5900-507: The destructive aspects of Faust's character, with Faust mocking his humanity by taking on Mephistopheles' character. Regardless of which interpretation a listener chooses, since Mephistopheles, Satan, the Spirit of Negation, is not capable of creating his own themes, he takes all of Faust's themes from the first movement and mutilates them into ironic and diabolical distortions. Here Liszt's mastery of thematic metamorphosis shows itself in its full power – therefore we may understand this movement as

6000-642: The emerging German tradition exist (the cantatas of Dietrich Buxtehude being a prime example), though the Lutheran church cantata did not assume its more codified, recognizable form until the early 18th century. Georg Philipp Telemann (based in Frankfurt) wrote over 1000 cantatas, many of which were engraved and published (e.g. his Harmonische Gottesdienst ) and Christoph Graupner (based in Darmstadt) over 1400. The cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) are perhaps

6100-472: The end of the work. It is here that the two versions of the Faust Symphony merit different interpretations. Liszt's original version of 1854 ended with a last fleeting reference to Gretchen and an optimistic peroration in C major , based on the most majestic of themes from the opening movement. Some critics suggest this conclusion remains within the persona of Faust and his imagination. When Liszt rethought

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6200-462: The fifth of the chord to the sixth, then back to the fifth. Assuming the starting chord is the tonic, the simplest form of the major line cliché forms a I–I+–vi–I+ progression. The minor line cliché moves down from the root to the major seventh, to the minor seventh, and can continue until the fifth. From the late 16th century onward, chromaticism has come to symbolize intense emotional expression in music. Pierre Boulez (1986, p. 254) speaks of

6300-455: The final movement. Hector Berlioz , who wrote his own version of Faust and became the eventual dedicatee of Liszt's Faust Symphony, introduced Liszt to Goethe's Faust in the 1830s through the French translation of Gérard de Nerval . Although sketches exist from the 1840s, he was hesitant about composing this work. He commented wryly to one correspondent, "The worst Jesuit is dearer to me than

6400-436: The gloomy Faust, a dreamer, in everlasting search for truth and knowledge. Next follows the so-called 'Nostalgia' theme introduced by the oboe . At the end of a slow crescendo , there appears a violent Allegro agitato ed appassionato theme, depicting Faust's insatiable appetite for the pleasures of life – this theme establishes a gingery C minor threatened with collapse under the weight of highly chromatic elements. A melody of

6500-535: The glories of Renaissance polyphony were choral, sung by choirs of great skill and distinction all over Europe. Choral music from this period continues to be popular with many choirs throughout the world today. The madrigal , a partsong conceived for amateurs to sing in a chamber setting, originated at this period. Although madrigals were initially dramatic settings of unrequited-love poetry or mythological stories in Italy, they were imported into England and merged with

6600-576: The grandeur offered by instrumental accompaniment. Oratorios also continued to be written, clearly influenced by Handel's models. Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ and Mendelssohn's Elijah and St Paul are in the category. Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms also wrote secular cantatas, the best known of which are Brahms's Schicksalslied and Nänie . A few composers developed a cappella music, especially Bruckner , whose masses and motets startlingly juxtapose Renaissance counterpoint with chromatic harmony. Mendelssohn and Brahms also wrote significant

6700-423: The institutions in which they operate: Some choirs are categorized by the type of music they perform, such as In the United States, middle schools and high schools often offer choir as a class or activity. Some choirs participate in competitions. One kind of choir popular in high schools is show choir . During middle school and high school students' voices are changing. Although girls experience voice change , it

6800-511: The late Renaissance period, notably in the 1550s, often as part of musica reservata , in the music of Cipriano de Rore , in Orlando Lasso 's Prophetiae Sibyllarum , and in the theoretical work of Nicola Vicentino . The following timeline is abbreviated from its presentation by Benward & Saker: As tonality began to expand during the last half of the nineteenth century, with new combinations of chords, keys and harmonies being tried,

6900-423: The major and minor modes, partly from secondary dominant harmony, from a special vocabulary of altered chords, and from certain nonharmonic tones... Notes outside the scale do not necessarily affect the tonality...tonality is established by the progression of roots and the tonal functions of the chords, even though the details of the music may contain all the tones of the chromatic scale. Sometimes...a melody based on

7000-507: The midst of it, each scale-step [ degree ] manifests an irresistible urge to attain the value of the tonic for itself as that of the strongest scale-step. If the composer yields to this urge of the scale-step within the diatonic system of which this scale-step forms part, I call this process tonicalization and the phenomenon itself chromatic . Chromaticism is almost by definition an alteration of, an interpolation in or deviation from this basic diatonic organization. Throughout

7100-436: The minor mode may replace their counterparts in the major mode. These we call chromatic triads by mixture . The total chromatic is the collection of all twelve equally tempered pitch classes of the chromatic scale. List of chromatic chords: Other types of chromaticity: Notes which do not belong to the key [those, "that lie within the major 2nds," of the diatonic scale] are called chromatic notes. A chromatic note

7200-475: The more dancelike balletto , celebrating carefree songs of the seasons, or eating and drinking. To most English speakers, the word madrigal now refers to the latter, rather than to madrigals proper, which refers to a poetic form of lines consisting of seven and eleven syllables each. The interaction of sung voices in Renaissance polyphony influenced Western music for centuries. Composers are routinely trained in

7300-454: The most recognizable (and often-performed) contribution to this repertoire: his obituary mentions five complete cycles of his cantatas , of which three, comprising some 200 works, are known today, in addition to motets . Bach himself rarely used the term cantata. Motet refers to his church music without orchestra accompaniment, but instruments playing colla parte with the voices. His works with accompaniment consists of his Passions , Masses ,

7400-432: The nineteenth century, composers felt free to alter any or all chord members of a given tertian structure [chord built from thirds ] according to their compositional needs and dictates. Pronounced or continuous chordal alteration [and ' extension '] resulted in chromaticism . Chromaticism, together with frequent modulations and an abundance of non-harmonicism [ non-chord tones ], initially effected an expansion of

7500-402: The oboe and clarinet represents the hero's 'painful delights'. The last theme is pentatonic and resolute. From all these elements Liszt weaves a musical structure of power and grandeur, in which some critics recognise the composer's self-portrait. [REDACTED] This slow movement is in the key of A ♭ major . Following the introduction on the flutes and clarinets, we are given

7600-466: The orchestral parts were not published until 1874. Felix Weingartner became the work's first modern interpreter (giving a performance with the Berlin Staatskapelle in 1892) but he stood practically alone in his advocacy of the score until modern times, when Thomas Beecham and Leonard Bernstein , among others, began championing the piece. Paul Paray also featured the piece in a performance with

7700-604: The organ. With this direct association to the final scene of Goethe's drama we escape Faust's imaginings and hear another voice commenting on his striving and redemption. The text of the chorus is also the end of Gustav Mahler 's eighth symphony . The work is scored for an orchestral complement of piccolo , two flutes , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , four French horns , three trumpets , three trombones , tuba , timpani , cymbals , triangle , organ , harp , and strings . A tenor soloist and TTB male choir (two tenor parts and single bass part) are also employed in

7800-690: The other choir in a musical dialogue. Consideration is also given to the spacing of the singers. Studies have found that not only the actual formation, but the amount of space (both laterally and circumambiently) affects the perception of sound by choristers and auditors. The origins of choral music are found in traditional music , as singing in big groups is extremely widely spread in traditional cultures (both singing in one part, or in unison , like in Ancient Greece, as well as singing in parts, or in harmony , like in contemporary European choral music). The oldest unambiguously choral repertory that survives

7900-417: The piece three years later, he added a 'chorus mysticus', tranquil and positive. The male chorus sings the words from Goethe's Faust : The tenor soloist then rises above the murmur of the chorus and starts to sing the last two lines of the text, emphasizing the power of salvation through the eternal feminine . The symphony ends in a glorious blaze of the choir and orchestra, backed up by sustained chords on

8000-431: The prevailing major or minor scale. ... Chromatic chords add color and motion to romantic music. Dissonant, or unstable, chords were also more freely than during the classical era. By deliberately delaying the resolution of dissonance to a consonant, or stable, chord, romantic composers created feelings of yearning, tension, and mystery. A chromatic chord is a musical chord that includes at least one note not belonging in

8100-466: The professional and advanced amateur or semi-professional levels. The all-female and mixed children's choirs tend to be professionally less prevalent than the high voiced boys' choirs, the lower voiced men's choruses, or the full SATB choirs. This is due to some extent to lack of scholarships and other types of funding, and a lack of professional opportunities for women such as that of being lay clerks or musical directors. Choirs are also categorized by

8200-409: The pure oboe's melody figurated by the viola 's tender decorations, which expresses Gretchen's virginal innocence. A dialogue between clarinet and violins describes her naively plucking the petals of a flower, in a game of 'he loves me, he loves me not'. She is obsessed by Faust, and therefore we may hear Faust's themes being introduced progressively into the music, until his and Gretchen's themes form

8300-459: The result of metric issues, or simply the desire to use a portion of the chromatic scale By chromatic linear chord is meant simply a chord entirely of linear origin which contains one or more chromatic notes. A great many of these chords are to be found in the literature. [During the Romantic period] There was more prominent use of chromatic harmony, which employs chords containing tones not found in

8400-434: The same aesthetic position as in his symphonic poems . The work is approximately seventy-five minutes in duration. [REDACTED] This large-scale movement (usually lasting around 30 minutes) is a very loose sonata-form with a short central development and a protracted recapitulation. One might say that this movement represents the very synthesis of the whole symphony, since many of its themes and motives appear throughout

8500-523: The same time, the Cecilian movement attempted a restoration of the pure Renaissance style in Catholic churches. In the United States, development of mixed choirs was pioneered by groups such as The St. Olaf Choir and Westminster Choir College . These groups were characterized by arrangements of hymns and other sacred works of christian nature which helped define the choral sound of the United States for most of

8600-449: The score in various guises, a process of thematic transformation which Liszt mastered to the highest level during his Weimar years. The basic key of the symphony ( C minor ) is already rather blurred by the opening theme made up of augmented triads and containing all twelve notes of the chromatic scale consecutively (this is the first published use of a twelve-tone row , other than a simple chromatic scale, in any music). This theme evokes

8700-450: The second movement. After its première under Liszt's baton in 1857, the symphony (in its revised version with final chorus and tenor solo) received a second performance under Hans von Bülow in 1861, the year the score was published. Richard Wagner witnessed the performance in Weimar: "Bülow, who had been chosen to conduct Liszt’s Faust Symphony, seemed to me the wildest of all. His activity

8800-498: The secondary key area, or other means. For instance, Catherine Clément calls the chromaticism in Wagner's Isolde "feminine stink". However, McClary also contradicts herself saying that the same techniques used in opera to represent madness in women were historically highly prized in avant-garde instrumental music, "In the nineteenth-century symphony, Salome ' s chromatic daring is what distinguishes truly serious composition of

8900-538: The singers. Choral conductors may also have to conduct instrumental ensembles such as orchestras if the choir is singing a piece for choir and orchestra. They may also attend to organizational matters, such as scheduling rehearsals, planning a concert season, hearing auditions , and promoting their ensemble in the media. Historically, the sung repertoire divides into sacred or religious music and secular music . While much religious music has been written with concert performance in mind, its origin lies in its role within

9000-498: The sound of the ensemble. In most choirs, the same individual acts as musical director (responsible for deciding the repertoire and engaging soloists and accompanists), chorus master/mistress (or répétiteur) (responsible for training and rehearsing the singers), and conductor (responsible for directing the performance). However, these roles may be divided, especially when the choir is combined with other forces, for example in opera . The conductor or choral director typically stands on

9100-696: The spatial separation of individual voice lines, an otherwise valuable feature for the audience, and that it eliminates sectional resonance, which lessens the effective volume of the chorus. For music with double (or multiple) choirs, usually the members of each choir are together, sometimes significantly separated, especially in performances of 16th-century music (such as works in the Venetian polychoral style ). Some composers actually specify that choirs should be separated, such as in Benjamin Britten 's War Requiem . Some composers use separated choirs to create "antiphonal" effects, in which one choir seems to "answer"

9200-403: The summer of 1850 Gérard de Nerval himself stayed as Liszt's guest. There was much talk about Faust and the topic would spill over into their subsequent correspondence. The performance of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust in 1852, conducted by the composer, encouraged Liszt further, though he still hesitated, writing Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein , "Anything having to do with Goethe

9300-515: The tertian system; the overuse of the procedures late in the century forewarned the decline and near collapse [ atonality ] of the system [tonality]. Chromaticism is the name given to the use of tones outside the major or minor scales. Chromatic tones began to appear in music long before the common-practice period , and by the beginning of that period were an important part of its melodic and harmonic resources. Chromatic tones arise in music partly from inflection [alteration] of scale degrees in

9400-412: The various sections should be arranged on stage. It is the conductor's decision on where the different voice types are placed. In symphonic choirs it is common (though by no means universal) to order the choir behind the orchestra from highest to lowest voices from left to right, corresponding to the typical string layout. In a cappella or piano-accompanied situations it is not unusual for the men to be in

9500-576: The whole of your Goethe." In an 1869 letter, Liszt makes a revealing comparison between Faust and Manfred : In my youth I passionately admired Manfred and valued him much more than Faust, who, between you and me, in spite of his marvellous prestige in poetry, seemed to me a decidedly bourgeois character. For that reason he becomes more varied, more complete, richer, more communicative ... (than Manfred) ... Faust's personality scatters and dissipates itself; he takes no action, lets himself be driven, hesitates, experiments, loses his way, considers, bargains, and

9600-528: Was a pioneer) extended this concept into concert-length works, usually based on Biblical or moral stories. A pinnacle of baroque choral music, (particularly oratorio), may be found in George Frideric Handel 's works, notably Messiah and Israel in Egypt . While the modern chorus of hundreds had to await the growth of Choral Societies and his centennial commemoration concert, we find Handel already using

9700-464: Was all-consuming; the work was produced in a white heat of inspiration. The symphony was revised three years after it was completed. Additional parts for heavy brass were added, as was a Chorus Mysticus to the finale; in the latter, words from Faust Part II are sung by a male chorus and a tenor soloist to music from the middle movement. Other minor changes were made but much of the original score remained unchanged. In 1880, Liszt added some ten bars to

9800-497: Was common. In Baroque music from the 1600s to the 1750s, conductors performing in the 2010s may lead an ensemble while playing a harpsichord or the violin (see Concertmaster ). Conducting while playing a piano may also be done with musical theatre pit orchestras . Communication is typically non-verbal during a performance (this is strictly the case in art music , but in jazz big bands or large pop ensembles, there may be occasional spoken instructions). However, in rehearsals ,

9900-403: Was extraordinary. He had learned the entire score by heart, and gave us an unusually precise, intelligent, and spirited performance with an orchestra composed of anything but the pick of German players." In later years von Bülow was highly critical of the work: "I have given that nonsense a thorough going-over! It was indescribably painful. It's sheer rubbish, absolute non-music! I don't know which

10000-451: Was greater, my horror or my disgust! Suffice it to say that to cleanse my palate I picked up Ivan the Terrible [by Anton Rubinstein ] – it seemed like pure Brahms , by comparison! No, Faust is an aberration: let us drop the subject once and for all." Thereafter, apart from one or two sporadic performances, the symphony was neglected for roughly 50 years. Lack of interest was so great that

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