Monday, Herr. Dr. Director said, “Sopranos, I need more of you. Sing louder, those of you who can.”
Sopranos: Looking at each other with growing elation and anticipation*. Boss Sop: “Can we get that in writing, for posterity?” Much choral laughter ensued.
Wednesday, Senior Conductor said, “Basses! Where are you? The tenors are drowning you out, and they’re not even trying.”
Tenors: Much hand-slapping, and “At last!” and “We did it!”** Much choral laughter ensued.
Based on this, I think it is safe to say that a certain perpetually warm location is starting to suffer the effects of the energy crunch, and has lowered the thermostat.
*Sopranos are never, ever ordered to sing louder. Usually we get the polite version of “down boy! Heel!”
** The basses outnumber the tenors two to one, and there are two true operatic (professionally trained, sang operas in the US and Europe) basses in the herd.
Cat Rotator's Quarterly 
I’d call that a noteworthy development.
😉
Not enough coffee to make a serious or a humorous comment. 😉
Yay!
Only 2-1 Basses to tenors? You are Tenor rich 🙂 I’m used to about 3 or 4-1. Of course then there was the Men’s Glee club at the Engineering school I went to. 75 men total a dozen First Tenors it was VERY odd when I was used to being one of 3-4 tenors and often the ONLY first tenor in most community choirs I was in. Of course in 4 part mens (TTBB) arrangements 2nd Tenors usually have the melody, and we had 20+ of those
We’ve got seven tenors and two bari-tenors (low tenors who hop to baritone when the going gets too high. The professional choir is closer to parity. In both groups altos outnumber the sopranos. Which means the balance is about right.
Altos and Mezzo/2nd soprano’s tend to be a bit of a glut on the market, although at least in church choirs I’ve been in the 1st sopranos are most common as in most simple SATB compositions the Sopranos have the melody and so don’t necessarily need to be good readers of music. Tenors and Altos always seem to get either boring johnny one note or insane jumps all over their range, or alternate between the two states.
ROTFLMAO!
Some sent a Pw3rsian cat to reset thermostat low … like B below lower F.
In my (limited) experience, the reason there are so many women singing second soprano or also is because many of them have never been trained to be comfortable in their higher ranges. So any woman who “hates singing high notes” tends to choose those parts. My choir director commented that voices with the “true” also voice quality are actually not that common.
Another cause, or it used to be a cause, was girls singing along with male pop-stars, and causing changes in the vocal cords. Learning to sing in “head voice” or to “free up the upper register” is not done in some schools.
The standard male pop star is singing in a higher register than 40 years ago too.
Good point. I like baritones because I can sing along without having to switch octaves mid-phrase.