Your Conservatory training:

I previously addressed the words Chorus versus chorus here.

Some people say “it doesn’t matter what you call things,” including in classical music — well in anything really in our increasingly, stupid, dumbed-down society where some people have completely ruined their speech by saying the pop-culture word “like” every other word and making every statement they make sound like they are asking a question — but the classical music field is just as detailed with words and language as the legal or medical fields, if not more so.

A brief aside:  I recently had a medical appointment with one of my physicians and I mentioned something I read on the NIH site, and he asked me, “Do you work for the NIH (National Institute of Health)?”  He asked that because I was using medical terminology — I take it that most of his patients don’t — that his colleagues would use with him, and not the language used by his average patients.  We have a really good rapport, which may be, in part, because I use medical terminology with him.

It’s similar to Ophthalmology.  There’s a Visual Field test that is given to the appropriate patients, that, I think, most patients call “the clicking test.”  The correct name of the test is the Visual Field test.

So, if you really want to have any credibility when talking about music — and don’t want to come off as an amateur or a complete idiot — with another trained musician, use the correct language.  It takes work, but you’ll be learning something, and be more respected because one is using the correct terminology.

I’m not talking about the usual conducting worshipping rubbish or calling the conductor or any other musician “maestro,” an extremely overused word used by many pretentious commenters under YT videos who like to give the impression they know something about music, when “maestro” is the only word they know.  Or the overused descriptor “sublime,” again, to give the impression that they know something about music, even though they occasionally slip up and unknowingly reveal that they don’t.  With them, every performance is “sublime.”  Then others start using “sublime” in a copy/paste.

Now, is it Choir or Chorus?

When I trained at the Conservatory, we were taught that the word Choir is an ensemble connected with a religious organisation, such as [name of church] Church Choir.

Whereas, the word Chorus is an ensemble connected with a secular organisation, such as the San Francisco Symphony Chorus or the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus (in the UK).  Or the University of Maryland Chorus, when they were around.

But since I trained, I’ve noticed that some people apparently didn’t get the same training I did, and those definitions have become foggy/blurred with some choral ensembles calling themselves a Choir even when they have nothing to do with religion.  So it’s the word Choir that has changed by (incorrect) usage.

I have always preferred the word Chorus, and sometimes I refer to a Choir as a Chorus because they are a secular organisation, but somehow there were mis-named a Choir.

I remember noticing when James Burton, the Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Festival Chorus referred to his Chorus as “the Choir” in an interview — he said, “so what I tell the Choir is that…” — even though the word Chorus is part of their name:  Tanglewood Festival Chorus.  But James is originally from the UK and I think the word Choir is used more often in the UK, so that could explain why he said that.

Also, James Burton had The Hallé Choir (a large adult Symphony Chorus) in Manchester before he moved to Boston, and they performed for the BBC Proms.

Directly above:  The Hallé and Hallé Choir perform Händel’s Zadok The Priest, conducted by Matthew Hamilton in the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.

By the way, a reader told me fairly recently that he had heard the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and they sound no differently today than they did when I was complaining about them.  Assuming that’s true and I have no reason to doubt him, it’s like I’ve said repeatedly:  James can only do so much with what he has to work with and with the choristers who audition for the TFC.

As for Choir versus Chorus:

The Oxbridge Collegiate Chapel Choirs are correctly named a Choir since they are part of a religious organisation, the established Church of England/Anglican. I always refer to them as a Choir, using an upper case C to denote respect for the Choir.

Some of the Orchestra Choruses in the EU use the word Choir as part of their name, such as the Bavarian Radio Choir, that I’ve been featuring. They’re part of the public broadcasting media and not connected with any religious organisation.  Sometimes I refer to them as the Chorus since they should be named the Bavarian Radio Chorus, so I’m not sure why the name Choir was chosen for them, or did anyone give any thought to that when they were founded.  Perhaps someone used the word Choir for them, and it stuck.