We started a new piece with my community choir this month, and the edition we’re using has certain entrances labelled “all women” or “all men,” when what is actually intended (and shown by the staves/clefs) is “all sopranos and altos” or “all tenors and basses.”
I took a moment in the first rehearsal to clarify that wherever it says “all women,” I would like all sopranos and altos to sing, and that where it says “all men,” it should be all tenors and basses.
“But Katy,” I hear you say, “they mean the same thing! And isn’t it just faster to say ‘men’ instead of ‘tenors and basses’?”
And to that I reply, “They don’t mean the same thing. And if taking the time to say 5 syllables of ‘tenors and basses’ bothers you, perhaps you need to look at your rehearsal time management...”
But seriously: the language you use in rehearsal, matters. The language we put on our published scores, matters.
What do I mean when I say that they aren’t the same? Your voice on its own is inherently ungendered. A voice is just a voice, and the way it sounds has everything to do with your physiology and the shape of your vocal folds/larynx, and nothing to do with your gender.
Society has placed the signifiers on voices that ties the way they sound to particular genders, but we don’t have to go along with that. In fact, many people don’t. There are people in your choir who may have diverse genders, whose identity doesn’t ‘match’ what our society expects based on the way they look or the way their voice sounds.
And we, as conductors, may never know about them. We may look at our bass section and see “men,” or at our altos and see “women,” when in reality, there could be any number of gender identities present. Gender identity is extraordinarily personal and each person decides for themselves what their gender identity is. By lumping our sections by “men” and “women,” we remove the agency of our singers to decide their own identity.
Using the correct name of the sections you are referencing is just more accurate and precise, no matter how you look at it. There will never be confusion or hurt in asking all sopranos to sing, or all tenors. We strive to use precise and factual language elsewhere in our rehearsals for clarity, and it is no different when using the names of voice parts instead of genders.
It may seem insignificant, but even small things add up - for better or worse. And if we want our choirs to be safe, inclusive places, then we must shift our language to match.
For a more in-depth (but still approachable) look at the role that language plays in choir, especially as it relates to gender, read this blog post on Chorus Connections: Understanding the Linguistic Nuances of Gender Identity in the Choral Ensemble by Melanie Stapleton.