Chorus girl

“ Since music has become one of the recognised branches of study, we do not obtain many candidates for the task of stair-sweeping. And it is not surprising. A girl who can play the piano, or lead a chorus, is surely worthy of a better fate than that which usually falls to the lot of a servant in a middle-class establishment. ”

“ She remained there one year, entering into the hard work of learning the score of a new opera each week, and rehearsing one for the following week, while singing in two performances daily, with such courage and enthusiasm that she was very often taken from the chorus and given some small part, only one or two lines, yet an honor for a girl not sixteen and with only a few months' experience. ”

“ Speaking of attractions, all the chorus girls are certainly an attraction. But frankly, ladies and gentlemen, we're just showing you the chorus girls for purposes of ballyhoo. It's pretty nice ballyhoo. ”

“ For, to dance at the end of her little ditty, and to have the chorus girls relieve her of further action at the end of the first verse, brings as great a relief to her as well as to the audience, as do his trouser pockets to the young man who makes-believe to love her for ever and for ever . ”

“ The first row of the chorus is composed of five children, clothed in purple, crowned with flowers; two rows of maidens, in blue and white, come next; and these in turn are succeeded by some boys with cymbals. The interest of the passing procession is very much enhanced by the effect produced on two lovely bystanders,—a girl and child in blue, beautifully designed, who are drawing water in the left foreground. In the valley below is seen the town of Thebes.
THE DAPHNEPHORIA (1876)
By permission of The Fine Art Society. ”

“ Flute, pipe and wood-wind blend in a full, rich movement. There is no definite melody but full, powerful rhythm like soft but steady wind above forest trees. Into this, like rain, gradually creeps the note of strings.
As the strings grow stronger and finally dominate the whole, the bride-chorus passes before the curtain. There may be any number in this chorus. The figures—tall young women, clothed in long white tunics—follow one another closely, yet are all distinct like a procession of a temple frieze. ”

“ Nothing—it might be supposed—could have more enraptured the eye, nothing so effectively set the imagination rioting, with regard to individual charms; but, instead, there was sounded the grand note of the whole of woman's beauty, which the senses cannot grasp, but the spirit grasps, a united chorus blending all voices, white, pink and red, into a single voice. ”

“ While there was a stateliness about their movements, there were also the most startling acrobatic surprises, made possible by the feeble gravity.
The singing women, or what might be called the chorus, were in twelve sets, each group clad in a different colour or design of feather-silk. Their head-dress, while composed of the entire body of a bird of plumage, lacked the flamboyant tail of the peacock. The music was weird and whimsical, as there were neither stringed nor brass instruments. It was made wholly by women playing upon a vast variety of drums and reeds. ”

“ One sees within the hall how bad the weather must be without. The lusty male chorus, with their pear-shaped Flemish faces, their picturesquely soiled linen, and their luxuriant growth of hair, knock off the clay from their boots and turn down the legs of their trousers. The disheveled female chorus, on whose shoulders the locks are hanging out of curl, complain of indisposition, and exchange cough lozenges. The members of the orchestra work away sulkily on their instruments. Across the dissonance of the thrilling fiddles darts the sharp sound of a string that breaks. ”

“ Sadko 102.
* Legend of Kitesh 54-56 (cf. Ex. 196 and 197) .
Solo voice with chorus.
When an aria or recitative is coupled with the chorus great care must be taken in the choral writing. A woman's solo voice stands out well against a male voice chorus, likewise a solo male voice against a women's chorus, for in both cases, the timbre of the solo voice differs from the rest. But the combination of solo-129- voice and chorus, of the same timbre, or mixed chorus, creates a certain amount of difficulty. ”

“ We can only indicate here a few instances of various treatments of the chorale.
Every one knows the opening double chorus in the Matthew Passion. After an instrumental introduction full of dignity and solemnity, built chiefly on tonic and dominant pedals (E minor) , the first chorus sings, “Come ye daughters, weep with me, behold the Lamb as a bridegroom.” The second chorus exclaims, “Whom? How?” while the first continues its course, and a “Soprano ripieno” chorus enters with the chorale—
O thou begotten son of God. ”

“ But as the Ancient Concert chorus is at a considerable distance from that just described, we are confident that if about four or five voices to each part were selected from the main body, comprising of course all the principal singers, the result would be highly beneficial. At present, the female singers appear to have no idea of what they are required to do; each seems determined to be heard, by singing as loud as possible, thus overpowering the other parts, the basses especially, and materially injuring the general effect. ”

“ Those standing on the stage hastily moved back behind the scenes, for at the moment the entire chorus rushed out in a gallop: a throng of women, chiefly young women, but with painted faces, faded and blighted by their feverish life. ”

“ The numerous vocal music Unions and Männerchöre, as such, contribute as little as school singing to the elevation and improvement of the vocal art, the sole object of which is to cultivate the individual voice for artistic singing. Considered as a means of moral culture, the rise and increasing prevalence of chorus singing among all orders of the people merit commendation and aid, but not in the interest of the art of song. ”

“ As a general rule a female chorus does not contain the real harmonic bass part when this part is situated in the low register, so that no octaves are formed between the real bass and the lower choral voice. Harmony in a chorus for women is generally given to the three upper parts, the lower part acting as accompanying bass. ”

“ CHORUS. All our love is all for one, Yet that love he heedeth not, He is coy and cares for none, Sad and sorry is our lot! Ah, miserie! ELLA. Go, breaking heart, Go, dream of love requited! Go, foolish heart, Go, dream of lovers plighted; Go, madcap heart, Go, dream of never waking; And in thy dream Forget that thou art breaking! CHORUS. Ah, miserie! CHORUS. Twenty love-sick maidens we, etc.
ANGELA. There is a strange magic in this love of ours! Rivals as we all are in the affections of our Reginald, the very hopelessness of our love is a bond that binds us to one another! ”

“ It is sufficient to say that the necessity of accurate definition was universally desired in the earliest ages of which we have any record by peoples who did not employ harmony. But our own use of chords makes questions of intonation much more intricate. We not only require a song or melody, but several songs or melodies to be given simultaneously, as in the ordinary church quartet or fugal chorus, where each singer demands the right to be provided with some important subject-matter, worthy the delivery of a feeling, acting, willing spirit—some "part" which fully occupies him. ”

“ They have different modes of singing for different grades of sacred festivals. Responses made by the people or the choir, enter largely into their mass. The number of choristers is from eight to twelve, and they have all powerful voices; this is in fact a prime necessity, as at the door of the church, during service, a constant din of drums, cymbals, and sistrums is kept up.
On certain days, the priests and people have a 296 grand religious dance, to the sound of these instruments, while the chorus sing a litany and all mark the time by a clapping of hands. ”

“ Men and women at times shed tears, and made not the slightest effort to hide their emotion. The black head-*kerchiefs of many of the women spectators, tight to the skull with ends hanging down behind, seemed in harmony with the scene.
The prelude ended, the Chorus entered with slow and dignified pace—seven men and women from one side, six from the other, all in a kind of Oriental costume, picturesque and handsome. The tallest came first, and so on in gradation, so that when ranged in front of the curtain they formed a kind of pyramid. ”

“ We have in our modern theatre no chorus, and when, in the opera, something of the nature of a chorus appears in the ballet, it is a chorus that really dances to amuse and excite us in the intervals of operatic action; it is not a chorus of doddering and pottering old men, moralizing on an action in which they are too feeble to join. ”

“ My father also believed the development of amateur choruses to be a very strong factor in the musical growth of a people. Under his inspiration the chorus of the Oratorio Society constantly grew in numbers and technical proficiency; but it suffered from the great dearth of men singers, especially tenors. The terribly one-sided condition of musical development in our country, proceeding almost exclusively on feminine lines, showed itself markedly in this branch of the art. ”

“ She will probably have about forty minutes' choral singing weekly, and possibly—though this is by no means the rule—half an hour at theory, but of real music she does not understand even the rudiments. Pick out any ordinary girl of sixteen, take her to a concert, and ask her to name for you the various instruments in the orchestra: the chances are a hundred to one that the violin and the 'cello are about the limit of her knowledge. She could not tell you the difference between a sonata and a symphony, or give you the vaguest idea of the bass for such a simple tune as 'God save the King'. ”

“ Because these things are so difficult of attainment under present conditions our feeling is that, all in all, chorus music is probably considerably more effective as a vehicle for making a religio-esthetic appeal, than solo singing. ”

“ The chorus as a factor in drama survived only in the various imitations or revivals of the ancient Greek theatre in other languages. A chorus is found in Milton’s Samson Agonistes. The Elizabethan dramatists applied the name to a single character employed for the recitation of prologues or epilogues. Apart from the uses of the term in drama, the word “chorus” has been employed chiefly in music. ”

“ Following this aria, the male chorus has a few measures, invoking a curse upon the Fay, which leads to a full chorus of an animated character, foretelling that there shall dawn a day when a young voice, more powerful than witchcraft, will save her; at the close of which the guardian fays are again heard drawing the thread and weaving the woof in low, murmuring tones, with a spinning accompaniment. ”

“ The best conservatories of music in the world require of their students a large amount of practice in concerted performance and will not grant diplomas without it. All the great soloists have served their time as chorus singers. Parepa-Rosa, when singing in the solo parts in oratorio, would habitually sing in the chorus parts also, singing from beginning to end with the others. ”

“ Closer questioning wised me up that she had been a chorus lady, first on the road then in the Follies. She had the looks all right. Born with most of them and the rest cultivated—like the blond hair and the nice-looking eyebrows and the color in her cheeks. ”

“ As the chorus gives life to the language—so also it gives repose to the action; but it is that beautiful and lofty repose which is the characteristic of a true work of art. For the mind of the spectator ought to maintain its freedom through the most impassioned scenes; it should not be the mere prey of impressions, but calmly and severely detach itself from the emotions which it suffers. The commonplace objection made to the chorus, that it disturbs the illusion, and blunts the edge of the feelings, is what constitutes its highest recommendation ”

“ The young girls all have sharp, forced voices, but from a distance the effect of these voices in chorus is not unpleasant. As to the male choirs, which are heard on every possible occasion, they are really charming and very impressive. ”

“ The interval is filled up by a song from the Chorus of Women, the first part of which is light and playful enough, and so thoroughly modern in its tone that it does not lose much in a free translation:—
They're always abusing the women. ”

“ The air is in two movements, the first slow in three-four time, the last quicker, in common time. We prefer the former. The chorus, with a principal soprano added, to which a few florid passages are given, is simple, therefore—according to our notion of choral church music—appropriate; but it is also graceful. The flute accompaniment (by Mr. Nicholson) is good, as such, but not of that grave character which the words so imperatively demand.
TERZETTO, ‘Soccorso, sostegno,’ for soprano, contr’alto, and basso, composed by JOHN LODGE, Esq. ”

“ The organs of to-day are larger and have a more flexible action and greater varieties of tone color than in the time of Bach. The piano of to-day has a much greater volume of tone and an increased compass over the piano of Beethoven's time. In the field of choral music the choruses have been largely augmented, though, to be sure, a large chorus does not always promise the best results in shading and promptitude. ”