Coro

As Printed on a Score

Labels the choir as a group, often bracketing its staves (Coro; Coro I and Coro II for a double choir, Cori for both), with the individual parts named Soprano, Alto, Tenore and Basso. In opera scores Coro marks where the chorus enters, as opposed to the named characters or Soli.

Also spelled: Cori

How Composers Use It

A choir sustains words, harmony and colour that no instrument can, but it needs time to find its pitch and breath to keep it: give the singers their starting notes from the orchestra, avoid long unsupported chromatic passages, and keep each part in a moderate range. Against an orchestra a choir is easily covered in its low register, so thin the orchestra where the text matters. A double choir (Coro I, Coro II) invites antiphonal writing, as in Bach’s St Matthew Passion.

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