A choral score marked SSAATTBB asks each of the four voice parts to do what?Answer: Divide into two. Source: Wikipedia: Choir
A countertenor is a man whose singing range matches which women's voices?Answer: Contralto or mezzo-soprano. Source: Wikipedia: Countertenor
A young male singer with a voice in the soprano range is a boy soprano. What do the British also call such a singer?Answer: A boy treble. Source: Wikipedia: Boy soprano
Basso profondo is the lowest kind of bass voice. What does the Italian name mean?Answer: Deep bass. Source: Wikipedia: Bass (voice type)
Falsetto, the register just above the normal voice, takes its name from the Italian for what?Answer: False. Source: Wikipedia: Falsetto
In a choir the altos sing the second-highest part, yet the term alto comes from an Italian word. What does that word mean?Answer: High. Source: Wikipedia: Alto
Many singers use vibrato to add expression to a long held note. By its definition, vibrato is a regular, pulsating change of what?Answer: Pitch. Source: Wikipedia: Vibrato
Tenor parts are often written with a treble clef. How do they sound, compared with the written notes?Answer: An octave lower. Source: Wikipedia: Clef
What is a singer's tessitura?Answer: The most comfortable part of the range. Source: Wikipedia: Tessitura
What is it called when a singer carries a single syllable of the text across several different notes in succession, as in a vocal run?Answer: A melisma. Source: Wikipedia: Melisma
Which is the lowest of the classical female voice types?Answer: Contralto. Source: Wikipedia: Contralto
Which male voice type lies between the tenor and the bass?Answer: Baritone. Source: Wikipedia: Baritone
The word tenor, the name of the highest male chest voice, derives from the Latin word tenere. What does tenere mean?Answer: To hold. Source: Wikipedia: Tenor
Choral forms 13
A choral setting of the Mass usually has five movements. Which one comes first?Answer: Kyrie. Source: Wikipedia: Mass (music)
A church anthem uses English words. Which older form, Roman Catholic in origin, sets a Latin text instead?Answer: The motet. Source: Wikipedia: Anthem
A Requiem is a Mass for the dead. What does the Latin word requiem mean?Answer: Rest. Source: Wikipedia: Requiem
The chorale began as the hymn tune of which church?Answer: The Lutheran church. Source: Wikipedia: Chorale
Glee clubs traditionally sing short songs for trios or quartets. Where did the first named Glee Club hold its first meeting, in 1787?Answer: A London coffee house. Source: Wikipedia: Glee club
In barbershop singing, overtones of the four voices can reinforce each other so that listeners hear an extra tone. What is that chord called?Answer: The ringing chord. Source: Wikipedia: Barbershop music
The oratorio was named for the musical services held in an Oratory church in which city?Answer: Rome. Source: Wikipedia: Oratorio
Row, Row, Row Your Boat and Frère Jacques are well-known examples of which kind of song?Answer: A round. Source: Wikipedia: Round (music)
The sea shanty was once sung aboard large merchant sailing ships. What kind of song was it?Answer: A work song. Source: Wikipedia: Sea shanty
Which is the oldest surviving round in English?Answer: Sumer is icumen in. Source: Wikipedia: Round (music)
Which secular form, typical of the Renaissance, is sung unaccompanied, usually by three to six voices?Answer: The madrigal. Source: Wikipedia: Madrigal
The word cantata comes from the Italian verb cantare. What does cantata literally mean?Answer: Sung. Source: Wikipedia: Cantata
The word hymn comes from the Greek hymnos. What does hymnos mean?Answer: A song of praise. Source: Wikipedia: Hymn
In the score 14
After a passage that slows down or speeds up, the marking a tempo tells a choir to do what?Answer: Return to the steady tempo. Source: Wikipedia: Glossary of music terminology
The fermata, the sign for holding a note, takes its name from the Italian verb fermare. What does fermare mean?Answer: To stay or stop. Source: Wikipedia: Fermata
In a score, the marking div., short for divisi, tells a single section to do what?Answer: Divide into smaller groups. Source: Wikipedia: Divisi
In choral music, the Italian marking tutti calls for whom to sing?Answer: The whole section or choir. Source: Wikipedia: Tutti
In church music today, a descant is a high, florid melody sung by a few sopranos. What does it decorate?Answer: A hymn. Source: Wikipedia: Descant
In English-speaking countries Sarah Glover changed the syllable si to ti in the nineteenth century. Why?Answer: So each syllable began with a different letter. Source: Wikipedia: Solfège
In the eleventh-century system of Guido of Arezzo, which syllable named the note that singers now call do?Answer: Ut. Source: Wikipedia: Solfège
The Italian phrase a cappella means in the style of what?Answer: The chapel. Source: Wikipedia: A cappella
Singing a piece that the singer has not seen or learned before is sight-reading. By which Italian phrase is it also known?Answer: A prima vista. Source: Wikipedia: Sight-reading
Sotto voce is an instruction to sing how?Answer: In an undertone. Source: Wikipedia: Glossary of music terminology
The term counterpoint comes from the Latin punctus contra punctum. What does that mean?Answer: Point against point. Source: Wikipedia: Counterpoint
What does the marking crescendo tell a choir to do?Answer: Get gradually louder. Source: Wikipedia: Glossary of music terminology
Which marking asks for the volume to drop away little by little?Answer: Diminuendo. Source: Wikipedia: Glossary of music terminology
Which sign in a vocal part is also known as a luftpause?Answer: The breath mark. Source: Wikipedia: Breath mark
Choirs and rehearsals 14
A choir learning a work with orchestra usually rehearses from a vocal score. What happens to the orchestra's music in it?Answer: It is reduced for piano. Source: Wikipedia: Piano–vocal score
A men's chorus, or male voice choir, is known by which German name?Answer: Männerchor. Source: Wikipedia: Men's chorus
A show choir combines choral singing with what?Answer: Choreographed dance. Source: Wikipedia: Show choir
For a musical performance, what does a dress rehearsal not require, in spite of its name?Answer: Formal concert outfits. Source: Wikipedia: Rehearsal
In a church or cathedral, where is the part of the building called the choir, or quire?Answer: Between the nave and the sanctuary. Source: Wikipedia: Choir (architecture)
In the 18th and 19th centuries, what were pitch pipes most often used for in churches that had no organ?Answer: To give the first note of a hymn. Source: Wikipedia: Pitch pipe
John Shore, who invented the tuning fork in 1711, played which instruments at the British royal court?Answer: Trumpet and lute. Source: Wikipedia: Tuning fork
Kapellmeister, a German title for the leader of an ensemble of musicians, literally means master of what?Answer: The chapel choir. Source: Wikipedia: Kapellmeister
Lining out is a kind of unaccompanied hymn-singing. What does the leader do in it?Answer: Gives out each line before it is sung. Source: Wikipedia: Lining out
Precentor is a title from Latin for a person who leads worship in song. What does it mean?Answer: The one who sings before. Source: Wikipedia: Precentor
Sacred Harp singers always sing without instruments. In which arrangement do they sit?Answer: A hollow square. Source: Wikipedia: Sacred Harp
Shape notes were a popular teaching device in American singing schools of the 19th century. What is different about the printed music?Answer: The noteheads have different shapes. Source: Wikipedia: Shape note
The two sides of a church choir are called decani and cantoris. Decani is the side of which official?Answer: The dean. Source: Wikipedia: Decani and cantoris
The word choir goes back to the Latin chorus. What did chorus mean?Answer: A dance in a circle. Source: Wikipedia: Choir
History of choirs 14
An eisteddfod is a festival with ranked competitions in poetry and music. To the culture of which country does it belong?Answer: Wales. Source: Wikipedia: Eisteddfod
Before the five-line staff was invented, what were the basic signs of Western musical notation called?Answer: Neumes. Source: Wikipedia: Neume
By custom, what does an audience do during the Hallelujah chorus of Handel's Messiah?Answer: Stand up. Source: Wikipedia: Messiah (Handel)
The chorus of Greek tragedy had fifty members at the start of the 5th century BC. At what size did it settle by the century's end?Answer: Fifteen. Source: Wikipedia: Greek chorus
Gregorio Allegri's Miserere, probably of the 1630s, was composed for the exclusive use of which chapel?Answer: The Sistine Chapel. Source: Wikipedia: Miserere (Allegri)
Guido of Arezzo, an Italian monk and music theorist, is regarded as the inventor of what?Answer: Modern staff notation. Source: Wikipedia: Guido of Arezzo
Thomas Tallis wrote the motet Spem in alium in about 1570. How many voice parts does it have?Answer: 40. Source: Wikipedia: Spem in alium
Venetian composers wrote for separated choirs, known as cori spezzati. What does that term literally mean?Answer: Broken choruses. Source: Wikipedia: Venetian polychoral style
What was organum, which developed in the Middle Ages?Answer: A plainchant melody with an added voice. Source: Wikipedia: Organum
Which composer, a pupil of Thomas Tallis, published the Cantiones sacrae together with him in 1575?Answer: William Byrd. Source: Wikipedia: William Byrd
Which symphony by Gustav Mahler needs such huge vocal and instrumental forces that it is often called the Symphony of a Thousand?Answer: The Eighth. Source: Wikipedia: Symphony No. 8 (Mahler)
Which two composers are the only names that have come down from the Notre-Dame school of polyphony?Answer: Léonin and Pérotin. Source: Wikipedia: Notre-Dame school
Who coined the term choral symphony, to describe his own Roméo et Juliette?Answer: Hector Berlioz. Source: Wikipedia: Choral symphony
Why were the choirbooks of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance made in such a large format?Answer: So the entire choir could read from one book. Source: Wikipedia: Choirbook
How it works
What does alto really mean, and why does an audience stand for the Hallelujah chorus? These choir trivia questions cover the voices, the forms, the markings in a score, the rehearsal room and the history of choirs.
Read the full guide
Choir trivia for a rehearsal break
Voice parts and In the score are the rounds singers argue over: what the word tenor first meant, how a tenor line sounds beside its written notes, what tutti and divisi ask for. Read each question aloud and let the sections vote before you tap.
Choir trivia for a banquet
Choral forms runs from the madrigal to the sea shanty. Choirs and rehearsals has the show choir, the hollow square of Sacred Harp singers and the dress rehearsal. History of choirs closes with a motet in forty parts and a symphony named for a thousand performers.
Seat the tables by voice part, then give the sopranos the questions about basses.
Questions and answers
What are some choir trivia questions?
What does a cappella literally mean? Which male voice lies between the tenor and the bass? Which is the oldest surviving round in English? The answers are in the style of the chapel, the baritone and Sumer is icumen in.
What are the four voice parts of a choir?
Soprano, alto, tenor and bass, shortened to SATB. A score marked SSAATTBB divides each of the four in two. A smaller choir with few men may sing SAB, with one baritone part for all the men.
What is the difference between a choir and a chorus?
The word choir is very often used for a group attached to a church, while a chorus performs in theaters or concert halls. The distinction is not rigid, and a choir is also known as a chorus.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 15, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article linked beside it, 62 articles in all. Sacred works are asked about as music, and no living singer, conductor or present-day choir is an answer.