{{Short description|Form of choral music}}
A '''part song''', '''part-song''' or '''partsong''' is a form of [[choral music]] that consists of a song to a [[secular]] or non-[[Liturgy|liturgical]] sacred text,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=John Michael |last2=Kinnett |first2=Randy |date=2013 |title=Historical Dictiionary of Romantic Music |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=td5_AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA449 |location=Lanham, MD |publisher=Scarecrow Press |page=449 |isbn=9780810872301 |access-date=3 August 2022 }}</ref> written or arranged for several [[voice type|vocal parts]]. Part songs are commonly sung by an [[SATB]] choir, but sometimes for an all-male or all-female ensemble.<ref name="baker">{{cite book|last=Baker|title=A Dictionary of Musical Terms|publisher=Read Books|year=2007|isbn=978-1-4067-6292-1}}</ref> Part songs are intended to be sung [[a cappella]], that is without accompaniment, unless an instrumental accompaniment is particularly specified.
== In Britain == The part song was created in Great Britain, growing out of the [[madrigal]] tradition (though initially with more emphasis on [[Homophony|homophonic]] harmony and less on [[Polyphony|polyphonic]] part writing) and the 18th century [[Glee (music)|Glee]].<ref>[[Michael Hurd (composer)|Michael Hurd]]: 'Glees, Madrigals and Partsongs', in ''Music in Britain: the Romantic Age, 1800–1914'', ed. N. Temperley (London, 1981), pp. 242–65</ref> [[Paul Hillier]] describes the Glee as "a uniquely English creation...the convivial music of all-male musical societies". The classic Glee is "essentially a work for unaccompanied men's voices, in not less than three parts...simpler [than the madrigal] in texture, less sophisticated in design, and generally based on the simplest kind of diatonic harmony".<ref name=hill/> One of the most famous examples is [[Samuel Webbe]]'s ''Glorious Apollo'', composed in 1790.<ref>Richard Franko Goldman. 'After Handel - in Britain and America', in [[Arthur Jacobs]] (ed.), ''Choral Music'' (Pelican, 1963), pp. 192-194</ref>
The part song was soon established as more suitable for mixed-voice choirs, its development marked by increasing complexity of form and contrapuntal content.<ref name=grove/> It gradually attracted the attention of a wider range of composers. One of these was [[Felix Mendelssohn]], already influential in the English choral tradition through his oratorios. Translated into English, his part songs became very popular in England. Mendelssohn was familiar with Glees, his teacher [[Carl Friedrich Zelter]] founded the [[Berliner Liedertafel]] in 1808, the German equivalent of the [[Glee club]].<ref name=hill>Hillier, Paul. Preface to ''English Romantic Partsongs'', Oxford University Press (1986)</ref>
Part songs were quickly seen as a commercial opportunity by music publishers. From the early 1840s [[Wise Music Group|Novello and Co]]'s ''[[The Musical Times|Musical Times and Singing Class Circular]]'' included a simple piece of choral music (alternating secular and sacred) inside every issue, which choral society members subscribed to collectively for the sake of the music.<ref>Scholes, Percy.A. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/922024 'The 'Musical Times' Century'], in ''The Musical Times'', Vol. 85, No. 1216, Centenary Number 1844-1944 (June, 1944), pp. 173-176</ref>
Early British composers of part songs include [[R. J. S. Stevens]], [[John Liptrot Hatton]], [[Henry Smart]] and [[George Alexander Macfarren]], the latter renowned for his Shakespearean settings. Around the turn of the 20th century in the heyday of the part song, [[Hubert Parry]], [[Charles Villiers Stanford]] and [[Edward Elgar]] were the principal exponents, often bringing a high-minded seriousness to their settings of great English poetry both contemporary and from earlier epochs. More recent major contributors to the genre include [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]], [[Granville Bantock]], [[Arnold Bax]], [[Peter Warlock]], [[Gustav Holst]] and [[Benjamin Britten]] (his ''Five Flower Songs'' of 1950). Interest declined rapidly from the 1950s as more specialist choirs began to champion the madrigal tradition.<ref>[[Herbert Antcliffe]]. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/933547 ''The Disappearance of the Partsong''], in ''The Musical Times'', Vol. 94, No. 1330 (December 1953), pp. 562-563</ref>
Composers have also successfully used the part song medium to make contemporary arrangements of traditional [[folk song]]s, including those of [[Music of Scotland|Scotland]], [[Folk Music of England|England]], [[Music of Wales|Wales]] and [[Folk music of Ireland|Ireland]]. Part songs can sometimes be sacred as well as secular. The unaccompanied [[Anthem#Notable_composers_of_liturgical_anthems:_historic_context|liturgical anthem]] can be closely related in form and texture. [[Arthur Sullivan|Sullivan]]'s ''Five Sacred Partsongs'' were published in 1871.<ref name=grove>[https://doi-org.lonlib.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.20988 Judith Blezzard, 'Partsong'], in ''Grove Music Online'' (2001)</ref>
== In Europe == The first German ''[[Berliner Liedertafel|Liedertafel]]'' male-voice music society, was founded in Berlin by [[Carl Friedrich Zelter]] in 1808. [[Heinrich Marschner]] and [[Carl Maria von Weber|Carl Weber]] wrote examples for male voices only. These were followed by mixed-voiced pieces setting German romantic poetry by [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]], [[Robert Schumann|Schumann]], Mendelssohn, [[Peter Cornelius]] and [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]].<ref>Judith Blezzard: '[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1002434 Sing, Hear: the German Romantic Partsong]', in ''The Musical Times'' Vol. 134, No. 1803, May 1993, pp. 254–5</ref> Similarly in France, the first Orphéons choral societies for men were established in the mid-19th century. [[Charles Gounod|Gounod]], [[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint-Saëns]], [[Léo Delibes|Delibes]], [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]] and [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]] all wrote examples for mixed-voice choirs.<ref name=grove/>
== In Ukraine == In Ukraine part song replaced the [[Znamenny chant]]. About half a century before the advent of a party part song, the old hook notation began to be replaced by a non-linear one, close to the modern one. Orthodox fraternities initiated the introduction of party singing. They opened schools at monasteries and introduced the study of part song in fraternal and church choirs. The first mention of such a study is associated with the Lviv Stauropean Brotherhood and dates back to the 1590s. The theoretical foundations of part song have been set out in a number of treatises. The most famous of them and the only surviving (in several editions) - "Musical Grammar" by [[Mykola Diletsky]].<ref name=Korniy>{{Cite journal|author=Korniy L.|url=http://history.org.ua/?encyclop&termin=Partesnyj_spiv|title=Партесний спів [Partsong]|journal=Encyclopedia of the History of Ukraine|year=2011}}</ref>
According to the number of voices and the nature of polyphony, Ukrainian part songs are divided into three groups: party concerts, party motets and party works with constant polyphony. Party concerts include all works with 8 or more voices, and motets include party works of variable polyphony with 6 or less voices. Seven-part works have not yet been found, so they are not included in this classification, but most likely they must also be included in concerts. According to the themes of the texts and the predominant musical means, the part songs are divided into two large groups: vivatno-panegyric (glorious) and lyrical-dramatic (repentant).<ref name=Korniy/>
== In the USA == The Mendelssohn Glee Club was founded in New York in 1866. Its second musical director was [[Edward MacDowell]]. Part songs flourished in the USA from 1860 well into the 1930s. Examples were composed by [[Amy Beach]], [[Dudley Buck]], [[George Whitefield Chadwick]], [[Arthur Foote]], [[Henry Hadley (died 1914)|Henry Hadley]], [[Margaret Ruthven Lang]], Edward MacDowell and [[Horatio Parker]], and more recently by [[Randall Thompson]] and [[Elliott Carter]].<ref>[https://doi-org.lonlib.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2252141 William Osborne. 'Partsong (USA)'], in ''Grove Music Online'' (2001)</ref>
==Examples== * ''Ye spotted snakes'', text by [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]], music by [[R. J. S. Stevens]] (1782) * ''[[Sechs Lieder, Op. 59 (Mendelssohn)|Abschied vom Walde]]'' ("Farewell to the Forest"), text by [[Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff|Joseph von Eichendorff]], music by [[Felix Mendelssohn]] (1843) * ''[[Lay a garland]]'', music by [[Robert Lucas Pearsall]] (1854) * ''Orpheus with his lute'', text by Shakespeare, music by [[George Alexander Macfarren]] (1864) * ''Sweet and Low'', text by [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]], music by [[Joseph Barnby]] (1865) * ''[[The Long Day Closes (song)|The Long Day Closes]]'', text by [[Henry Chorley]], music by [[Arthur Sullivan]] (1868) * ''Waldesnacht'', Op. 62, No. 3, text by [[Paul Heyse]], music by [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]] (1874) * ''Calme des nuits'', Op 68 No 1, music by [[Camille Saint-Saëns|Saint Saens]] (1883) * ''As Torrents in Summer'', text by [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow|Longfellow]], music by [[Edward Elgar]] (1896) * ''[[The Blue Bird (Stanford)|The Bluebird]]'', text by [[Mary Elizabeth Coleridge|Mary Coleridge]], music by [[Charles Villiers Stanford]] (1910) * ''Twilight Night'', text by [[Christina Rossetti]], music by [[John Ireland (composer)|John Ireland]] (1922) * ''Songs of Springtime'', texts by six authors, music by [[Ernest John Moeran|E J Moeran]] (1930) * ''[[Five Flower Songs]]'', texts by four authors, music by [[Benjamin Britten]] (1950) * ''[[Three Shakespeare Songs]]'' – text by Shakespeare, music by [[Ralph Vaughan Williams|Vaughan Williams]] (1951)
==References== {{Reflist}}
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[[Category:Song forms]] [[Category:Part songs| ]] [[Category:Choral music genres]]