Expert: Marbeth - 5/28/2009

Question
Hi, I sing in an early music group, and we aim for some semblance of
historical accuracy; we sing with one voice per part, using historical
pronunciation where possible. My question is about countertenors, by which I
mean male falsettists and not men with a singing voice naturally higher than
a tenor's. Were such countertenors used in Renaissance (or earlier) choirs?
Come to think of it, was one-per-part singing widely practised, or was that
only for madrigals?

Answer
Yes.  A good case can be made for music of mid- to late-14th century + early 15th century.

As for performance practice, one-per-part-or-not is largely a function of how many folks were available to sing and whether it was a "concert" situation.  

In the Renaissance, people picked up whatever instrument that was handy and that they could play - or they sang.  So you ended up with a joyous jumble.  Maybe too many people singing the low parts and only one on the high part so the melody got lost entirely.  Maybe someone was playing the drum and couldn't keep a steady tempo.  Or someone(s) got lost in the music.  Someone else couldn't play the zink very well but gave it a try and played only 5% of the notes correctly.  To say nothing about qualityt of tone production! Or someone singing out of tune.  Much opportunity for hilarity.  Toss in a little mead.......

Today, we are so very serious in making sure we produce a faithful rendition of what [we think] the music sounded like.  

With accomplished players, of course, the performance was better!  And more closely aligned with what we currently think is the proper way to perform the music.

So....bottom line....do as-many-as-you-want-on-a-part if it's a casual setting, tho try to make sure the melody is heard and none of the lower voices predominates (even over the other lower voices).  If it's a prim-and-proper setting, do one (or two - max of 3) on a part.

Have fun!!
mb