Male voice choir One country synonymous with choral singing is Wales.Growing up with the enormous rise in the urban population in the early 19th ABOVE: The choir of St John's College Chapel, Cambridge. of polvphony culminated in works by the Roman school, led by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1 525-94).
Church choir The sung mass became one of the most important forms of church music. Composers of all periods have written settings of it, and choral singing has a central role in almost every religious service. Renaissance choirs sang in a minimum of four parts, often six, eight or more. The choirs grew larger, and were accompanied by instrumental groups. After the Reformation, Protestant choirs were modelled on the Catholic pattern, and women therefore continued to be excluded, preserving the tradition of using boys' voices. This tradition is only gradually being challenged.
Choral societies The overwhelming popularity of Handel's oratorios in late 18th-century Britain — especially The Messiah (1742) - led to the formation of new choral societies, which did include women, in almost every town. At first only religious music was sung, including, as well as Handel, Haydn's Creation (1799) and later Mendelssohn's Elijah (1846), but secular music eventually crept in, such as the popular songs of Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy Operas.
Choral singing reached extraordinarily high standards in Germany, where choral societies grew up in the industrial towns, a movement that was fostered by numerous choral festivals, such as those held at Frankenhausen, Mannheim, Magdeburg and Halle. Excellent folk choirs still flourish today.
century, choral singing has been an important focal activity of the eisteddfod since it was first introduced in 182S. For many years virtually the onlv songs the singers knew were hymns, but by the second half of the 19th century cantatas, oratorios and works by contemporarv Welsh composers such as Joseph Parry (1841-1903) and David Jenkins (1849-1915) were added to the repertoire.
ABOVE: A girls' choir performing at a concert. During the 20th century many outstanding choirs were formed, and choral festivals have included Harlech (1867-1934), Cardiff (1892-1910) and the Three Valleys Festival (1930-39). Since 1947 choral singers from all over the world have flocked to Llangollen for the annual International Eisteddfod.