Thread: What do you prefer to hear in a choir?

What do you prefer to hear in a choir? all male? females or joint choir? why?

I don't like boy sopranos. I mean, I appreciate their historic importance to the repertoire, I just don't like the sound. Particularly as soloists.

just so the sound is clear and not overdone, i'm happy. mixed is best for me.
deliver me from pretentious vibrato.

dj

I was a cathedral choirboy and I still find it hard to accept the ladies! Nothing like a good treble, imo, but I have to say that I've heard some terrific mixed choirs in recent years. I love male choirs, too, and barbershop choruses. The Choir of the Year competition makes me fill up without fail, whoever's singing!

I think a good mixed choir is nice, but then again a good Welsh male voice choir does it for me too

A mixed choir, yes, but after hearing Enescu's Poeme roumain and Shostakovich's 13th I can say the male choirs can do the entire job.
I also like boys choirs, but they can sometimes be a bit annoying. Nonetheless, Fauré's Requiem and Liszt's Dante Symphony would be something totally different without the boys, and I mean different in a negative sense.

I think Fauré's Requiem was intended for mixed choir.... I'm not sure if it is meant to be performed with a boys choir at all? I know that the solo soprano part was designed for EITHER a female soprano OR a solo boy soprano (which I can't stand).

In my recording of Fauré's Requiem I can hear the boys choir at least in the In paradisum section, where they sing together with the 'adults'. I don't think boy sopranos are irritating - the Pie jesu section is sublime.

I really love boys' choir. It's so transparent and clean.

But actually I am not sure if it's different from girls' choir. I do not have a CD of girls' choir.

I don't like boy sopranos. I mean, I appreciate their historic importance to the repertoire, I just don't like the sound. Particularly as soloists.

ditto.

And they don't have the power of a normal mixed choir.

I like boys only for baroque or any period before and the mixed one for the next period.

Boys only choir has somewhat calming charm... so warm..

Well, I am biased, I sing in more TTBB (male) then SATB choirs. As a general I rather listen to TTBB choirs. In SATB (mixed) choirs there can be a sight tendency for Sopranos to screech and be flat on higher notes. this problem doesn't exist in male choirs- the tenors go into the nice falsetto which can be as clear and ringy as a soprano. For almost every SATB score that has a TTBB counterpart, for example there is a Beible Ave Maria SATB and TTBB- I would rather listen to the TTBB option 99% of the time. That being said I would much rather the SATB version of Lauridsens' O, Magnum Mysterium.

I usually prefer whatever is intended in the score, but I'm open to listening to experiments with other tones -- as in piano used for baroque music for example. Still, I don't think Holst's Neptune would have the same impact with a male choir, nor Beethoven's 9th with a boys choir.