choir

choir [O.Fr.] 1 A group of singers; traditionally the chorus organized to sing in a church. Usually, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran choirs are composed of men and boys, but occasionally in these churches and customarily in other Protestant churches men and women form the choir. 2 That division of an organ usually used to accompany the singers, played from the lowest manual on the console. 3 A section of a chorus or orchestra, as the contrasted choirs of polychoral music, or brass choir, woodwind choir. 4 That part of a church reserved for the singers and the officiating clergy in a cathedral or abbey; the same area in a parish church is the chancel: see stall .

choir Group of singers who perform as a musical unit. The earliest choirs were ecclesiastical and sang the plainsong in church services. From the 10th century onwards, polyphonic composition gradually replaced unharmonized plainsong in liturgical use. In the 16th and 17th centuries, pieces were written for two or more contrasting choirs. The birth of opera marked the development of the secular choir, or chorus. Most modern choirs, apart from some all-male cathedral choirs, are mixed.