Double choir |

Double choir (German Doppelchor) – a choir divided into 2 relatively independent parts, as well as musical works written for such a choir.

Each part of the double choir is a full mixed choir (such a composition is required, for example, by the round dance “Millet” from the opera “May Night” by Rimsky-Korsakov) or consists of homogeneous voices – one part is female, the other is male (a similar composition is provided for example, in the double choir No. 2 from the cantata “After reading the psalm” by Taneyev); less common are double choirs of only homogeneous voices (for example, double male choirs from Wagner’s Lohengrin).

In a number of cases, composers resort to a combination of a homogeneous and complete mixed choir (for example, A. P. Borodin in the choir of Polovtsy and Russian captives from the opera “Prince Igor”), a homogeneous and incomplete mixed choir (for example, HA Rimsky-Korsakov in mermaid songs from opera “May Night”). Parts of a double choir are usually labeled as I and II choirs. Homogeneous choirs can consist of one, two, three, four parts.

I. Mr. Licvenko