Hi, Mickey.  You omitted some crucial information:  the age and level of your singers.  If they are young, is it both girls and boys?  And are you talking about REAL altos singing a low part, or more relistically 2-part treble?  All that makes quite a difference.

 

OK, given that ommission, I have to ask WHY you have more sopranos than altos?  Did they self-select their voice parts?  Did you assign them that way?  Did you classify them without regard to your ensemble balance?

 

But in any case, what you have to do is balance two competing factors.  One, obviously, is balance.  And if your singers are out of balance (which seems to be what you are saying), then you need to restrict the number of sopranos OR you need to divide your singers differently.  The other is actual voice types.  If you assigned more singers to soprano because they really ARE sopranos and you don't want to ask them to sing a lower part, then that controls your decision.  But if you assigned fewer singers to alto because they (or their voice teachers) claimed that they were NOT altos, you're not doing your job of judging individual voices on an individual basis and assigning them in a way to ensure balance.  But again, it depends on the age and level of experience of your singers.

 

I happen not to care for a soprano-heavy sound.  Others will surely disagree.  One of my former colleagues directed a huge (about 160-voice) college "show choir," and auditioned his women and placed them in 1st soprano, 2nd soprano, and alto sections.  Fair enough.  But then in SATB music (which was most of what he did) he had BOTH 1st and 2nd sopranos sing soprano, which gave a very soprano-heavy sound. 

 

In a similar situation I would have divided the 2nd sopranos between soprano and alto to maintain a more reasonable balance.  In fact I directed a much smaller women's show ensemble, and after a bit of experimenting settled on 3 1st sopranos, 4 2nd sopranos, 5 mezzos, and 6 altos, and that gave me the richer sound I prefered.  And one reason it worked was that the 1st sopranos tended to have the most vocal training, and the altos the least.  (Of course it goes without saying that I had to be very picky about my 1st sopranos!)

 

For my college entertainment ensemble here, I sent out a voice chart with the music before we started in August breaking down each gender according to whether their parts were unison, 2-part, 3-part or 4-part, so everyone knew what to sing when the parts split.  We would make fine adjustments after staging, when some might have been off stage changing costumes or preparing for an entrance, but those charts did most of the balance work for me.  And as I told my singers when they auditioned, every singer has 3 different voices:  the one you have now; the one your voice teacher knows you COULD have; and the one your choral director needs!  I always asked what they had sung in high school, but I placed some who had sung alto as 1st sopranos and some who had sung 1st soprano as 1st altos.  You have to judge each voice individually.

 

For my Studio Singers ensemble (no dancing required!) I used SSAATTBB, but one year all four women were so flexible that I changed voice parts on every number.  Another year my "tenor" section was one woman with a solid, healthy chest voice and one man with an almost haut-contre voice, and they blended beautifully.  Every human voice is different.

 

So *my* answer to your question would be that numbers don't matter, but balance definitely does.  If your choir is children, there won't really be any true altos so you're talking about sopranos and mezzos.  If it's adults, the altos may well be the ones who've been smoking for 20 years, or at least the ones who haven't learned to transit the upper passaggio. 

 

All the best,

 

John

 

 

Hi: In my opinion I like more altos than sopranos in my choir. The sound is richer and deeper. However, if the balance is right for your ears then go with it.

I have had luck taking some sopranos and having them 'swing' in as altos when I need a darker sound. 2nd Sops are often versitile.

N.

 

 

It's not a silly question, but instead of asking others why not let your own ears be the judge?

 

Best regards,

Jerome Hoberman

 

Music Director/Conductor, The Hong Kong Bach Choir & Orchestra

Principal Conductor, Baguio Cathedral International Music Festival (Philippines)

 I agree with the preceding replies and would like to add a few thoughts. I direct a 30-40 voice adult women's community chorus. I nominally assign voices to the usual S1, S2, A1, and A2 parts during audition as a combination of what notes they can sing at the extremes of their ranges and the tone quality of their sounds. I also take into account what I NEED, but only where the assignment is right on the edge.

 

However, the actual section that my singers are assigned to is not as important as you might think. For 4-part (SSAA) music, they sing in their sections. But for the very common 3-part (SSA) music, I assign as follows: Top part - all S1 and most S2's. Middle part - some S2's, designated as "switch hitters" and all A1. Bottom part - all A2. We even switch back and forth between 2-part (SA), 3-part, and 4-part within a given song. This really improves the blend. Since I work a lot on upper range extension with ALL my singers, vocalizing up to high C in all parts, the Alto 1 singers have virtually no problem singing the middle part of 3-part, usualy designated SSA.

 

Bill Paisner

Director, Southwest Women's Chorus

Thank you, John, Nate, Jerome and Bill for your valuable advice! Initially, I did have more sopranos than altos in my choir, but now I ended up having an equal number of them because there are some who have stopped turning up for practice simply because they thought they didn't want to sacrifice their 2nd recess (after lunch) for the practice. Shame on them!  .\_/. Anyway, I've already demanded them a parent's letter for such irresponsibility and terrible conduct. Thank you once again for taking the time to advise. I've learned a lot from you all! =)

 

Mickey L