'Upper voices'

[FlorbelaEspanca]

Anybody just listened to the Planets at the Proms? Did you notice that the announcer referred to the women's chorus that closes the piece as the 'upper voices' of the Royal College of Music Chamber Choir? As if they weren't all women.

They could well have had men as part of the upper voices - singing the alto part (ie countertenors).

I don’t think this is a misogyny thing: in many church choirs the upper voices are boy trebles.

I didn't see the prom but in most choirs, while the sopranos and altos are likely to be all women (unless it's a children's choir, when there may be both boys and girls), the tenors will probably also include a couple of women. I have even seen a female bass.

‘Upper voices’ is pretty standard terminology in choral singing, in my experience, @FlorbelaEspanca.

What I mean is - it's common to say "upper voices" in choir rehearsals rather than just "ladies" or "men" because there may well be some male altos.

So the choir director might say "upper voices from bar 57 please, lower voices join from bar 82".

I sing in church choirs.
We now use the term 'upper voices' rather than 'boys' to reflect reality.
And there is a woman tenor in my current choir too.

Tbh, I was just captivated by the music.

Yeah this really isn't an issue to do with erasure of women @FlorbelaEspanca if that's what you were trying to imply. It's standard choral terminology.

Upper voices = soprano and alto lines
Soprano/treble line might be sung by women and/or boy trebles
Alto line might be sung by women and/or male altos (counter-tenors)
Neither of these things are rare or unusual.

It's just appropriate classical music commentary.

In my old choir there were two female basses and a number of female tenors. For certain works even I could manage the tenor part and I'm usually a soprano. I've never sung with men in the altos or sopranos.

My parish choir's head alto is aman, and there have at times been boy s in the soprano section.

It's fairly common for older women who were altos to become tenors.

It is usual, as people say. Though it depends on context, ‘back row’ in my church choir is used interchangeably with ‘lower voices’, but it means ATB, and most of the altos are female. In other choirs ‘upper voices’ means SA, and as others say, I know several female tenors.

But not that long ago at church (15 years ish), it was just ‘the gentlemen of the back row’ and the boy trebles. Women and girls weren’t admitted.

As an experienced choral singer, just to add my agreement to the others. Church choirs traditionally had only boys on the soprano (treble) line and men on the alto line. Now it’s a lot more mixed, so much so that when I train my choir I have to remember to say “back row” rather than “gentlemen”, since two of the regular altos are women. And we have a mix of boys and girls on the top line.

Nothing to do with erasing women - in fact the perhaps increased use of the terminology “upper/lower voices” in recent years is testimony to the greater number of opportunities for girls and women in traditional choral music, especially in church settings.