Women's choir
A women's choir is a group of women or girls singing in unison or with several voices, with multiple members in each voice range ( choir ). Furthermore, choral works that are to be sung by such a choir are referred to as women's choir.
Compared to a children's choir , which usually moves in the same vocal range as a women's choir, the latter has a larger sound volume. The part names are: 1st soprano, 2nd soprano, 1st alto, 2nd alto.
history
antiquity
In Egypt , female choirs are attested as respected temple singers as early as the Middle and New Kingdom. In Assyria and Palestine , women's choirs sang in honor of a victorious king. Virgin choirs also appeared in the Greek tragedies. Lamentation for the dead by women's choirs was cultivated among the Assyrians, Jews and Teutons.
Early Christianity and Monasteries
In early Christianity, alternating chants were practiced between women and men. At the end of the fourth century, female singing in the church was pushed back. In the women's monasteries, however, the main foster home for choral female singing was until the 19th century, although it was limited to worship. An exception is Hildegard von Bingen , who composed spiritual games in addition to liturgical music. In Italy, in addition to choral singing, instrumental music has also been cultivated in women's monasteries since the 16th century.
According to presenters in the ARD / ZDF morning magazine, the women's choir has a tradition in Georgia .
Italian orphanages
The four Venetian Ospedali (originally orphanages) for girls had a prominent position in the history of girls' and women's choirs, and since the 16th century they had focused on the musical education of girls. Their concerts have been an international attraction for Venice's tourism for centuries. Composers such as Giovanni L Limiti , Johann Rosenmüller , Johann Adolph Hasse , Nicola Antonio Porpora , Baldassare Galuppi , Niccolò Jommelli , Domenico Cimarosa and Antonio Vivaldi wrote choral and instrumental music for this charitable institution. Charles Burney , Johann Joachim Quantz and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe expressed their enthusiasm for the Venetian conservatories. The women's choirs in these houses were mostly composed of four voices. The lists contain references to tenorists and bassists. In 1791 Johann Friedrich Reichardt reported on female tenor voices with the sound effect of a bass voice.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Charles Burney : Diary of a musical journey, complete edition, Hamburg 1772/1773. German translation ed. by Christoph Hust, Bärenreiter Kassel, 2nd edition 2004 in: Documenta Musicologica. first row: pamphlet facsimiles XIX , ISBN 3-7618-1591-3 .