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Orchestra with choir

Choral

A musical line sung by a choir. Choral music has been written through the ages and includes all kinds of music, sometimes with different names like backing vocals in pop music where voices accompany a lead singer, to the earliest music of the church from the 13th and 14th centuries. Listen to a lead singer with backing vocals in this pop song; the effect is still choral. 

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   Listen to some other different examples; first, a verse of a hymn sung by a choir, accompanied by an organ, the melody sung by male voices and with a descant sung by high voices.
  Now listen to unaccompanied singing from South Africa with a male solo voice and accompanying voices singing in harmony.
   Finally, listen to one of the most famous choruses of all time: the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus from Handel's 'Messiah'. This is a mixed-voice choir with an orchestra and is from the Baroque period.

(The Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus in performance. Photograph: Jeremy Hardie.)

Folk Music

Music which is traditionally handed down from one generation to another by word of mouth. It is an important part of the folklore of many countries. Today folk music is usually written down and can be songs, or instrumental versions of traditional melodies. Listen to this example of a Scottish folk song accompanied by acoustic guitars, one of which is strummed. 

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   Folk songs of course can come from any country and represent the music of the people of the country of origin. Listen to another example played and sung by students from the National Centre of Excellence for Traditional Music in Plockton, Wester Ross. A Gaelic song with clarsach accompaniment. 
   Listen to the first section with several voices in unison and then a solo verse, and notice the counter melody played by a whistle.