Much good choral singing is dependent on the ability to sing chant well. If the choir can develop the ability to sing unison chant, or chantlike melodies with sensitivity, this ability can be quite readily transferred to choral music in parts.
A properly produced tone will be capable of more beauty, better intonation, and better diction than a tone that is incorrectly produced. The beauty of choral music lies first in the choral tone. It is necessary to also sing the text so that it is easily understood, and to sing in tune, but if the tone is not pleasant, the audience will not be moved, and the music will not have been communicated. A piece of music that can be used to enhance the development of a warm,lyric tone with growth is the chorale, "Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light" from J.S. Bach's "Christmas Oratorio". Every phrase lends itself to teaching the concept. It can be used as such a tool in rehearsals and will finally be an excellent beginning for a Christmas choral concert.
Exercises need not always occur at the beginning of the rehearsal. A choir's tone is noticeably worse when rehearsing music that the choir has not totally learned, and particularly when the music is difficult. While the singers struggle for pitches and rhythms, or in a high tessitura, the amount of concentration that each singer is able to give to tone is far less than desired. It is only when the singer is comfortable with the music that he is able to sing vowel sounds with the tone desired. One method that has proved successful to aid this process is to have the choir sing in unison, in rhythm, on one pitch the more difficult phrases. This will allow them to concentrate on the vowel sounds of the phrase and to stretch each vowel sound to its greatest possible rhythmic duration. The singers will become more secure and will be able to transfer the improvement of tone to the pitches of the phrase. Another method that is also helpful is to sing the phrase as written without consonants, letting the singers connect vowel sound to vowel sound. This is particularly helpful when the choir has had difficulty singing in a legato manner. It helps the choir understand the importance of singing the vowel sound for its longest possible rhythmic duration, and of short, crisp consonants. Both techniques are most applicable to homophonic phrases.
The problem of all singers is to transfer the tone used in vocal exercises into the music itself. The combination of pitch, rhythm, and text often makes it difficult for the singer to achieve the same degree of success as when vocalizing. Sometimes in a choral rehearsal the singers are working so hard and struggling with difficult music that the tone becomes strained. That is why, as mentioned above, it can be beneficial to insert one of the above exercises or a similar one into the rehearsal, and let the singers regain a lyrical tone. This may be done by using a vowel sound or by using a text from the music. After several repetitions one can return to the music or, often effective, go on to another piece. This does not have to be a long insertion; often 30 seconds of singing will be helpful.