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Well, the big thing I have noticed about this word, 'chorus' is that in jazz, it means something different than in rock, pop, folk and country. Also, the word 'verse' means something different to both, as well.
A 'chorus' in jazz is the head, as opposed to the 'verse', which is the vocal intro sung free style. in many standards, which have a 'verse', it's often not sung. But, on some songs in particular, those with really tuneful verses, it's sung more often.
In Pop, the 'chorus' is the B section of an ABC form or AABA or ABA. It's the 'big hook' part and the 'bridge' is the third section, if it has one, and the 'verse' are the sections other than the B section. Pop guys often call the C section, if a song has one, a bridge. This has been my experience, anyway.
The question is, why is this so?
I know the answer, though many or some might disagree, but I believe I have the answer because I was 50s/60s child and I saw how this word evolved in the pop arena.
It's like this. We had our guitars, and there were NO jazz books to speak of (I think there was the Micky Baker book) and we got our music from piano/vocal sheet music. Now, the standards of these songs often had a 'verse' and a 'chorus' or 'refrain', (where chorus and refrain were used interchangeably. But, thing is, we didn't pay attention to these terms, they just lingered in the back of our minds.)
Now then, at some point, especially in the early seventies, there came the emergence of songwriting guilds, songwriting clubs, where they started teaching about the craft of how to write a 'hit song', and someone started pontificating about the 'chorus', noting that they saw the term in sheet music, likely didn't pay attention to what it really was, and in pop songs, which often had AABA or ABC structures, ASSUMED the 'chorus' was the section in the song with the big hook. And it stuck. It all started from a misunderstanding of this term and now, in pop, rock, folk and country, it means pretty much the big hook part of a song.
If, as a jazz guy, you said to a pop musician, okay, I'll take the solo on the second chorus, you take the third, he would be confused. I know this because I once invited a rock guitarist to jam with me on a 'standard'. He didn't know what I was talking about, because, it didn't make sense to just jam on the 'bridge' (which he thought was the chorus. No dude, the chorus IS the 'song' all of it, the AABA song) then we argued about the word. I told the young fella, hey, I'm old, I grew up with this crap, I saw how it came to be, now listen to me. by the way, I'm not big on jamming anyway, but in my youth, I tried to get into it. Later I realized my forte was jazz songwriting (think Michael Franks, Mose Allison, David Frishberg, etc) and concentrated on composition and pretty much gave up on improvisation because i wasn't that good at it, though I envied those who were (see my improvisation thread).
But the misunderstanding took root, and now it's a thing, they teach it. It's so entrenched in pop music, well, I noticed that the wikipedia entry on the term didn't make note of this evolution, so I took it upon myself to correct the wiki entry. Well, within a couple of hours the wiki gods changed it back. Apparently, you have to be in the wiki in crowd to actually edit things. It's not true, then, that just anyone can edit a wikipedia entry.
Anyway, back in the 80s, I had a girlfriend who grew up in the music theatre world. And her use of the terms was identical to that used by those of us in the jazz world. It dawned on me, of course, this is where our terms came from, just as much of the standard repertoire came from, it came from music theatre terminology. Where the 'verse' was sung by one person, and the 'chorus' well, in music theatre, there is chorus, consisting of everyone standing on the stage when the song starts, they jump in on the familiar part of the song, and everyone sings. now, It's not always true that the entire chorus sings, but it is how the word came to be. I imagine in songs where a chorus wasn't meant to sing the head, they used the term, in sheet music, called 'refrain'.
Now, of course, I do have to mention that many standards have second and third 'lyric verses'. So, a verse can also refer to the entire lyric body sung in the chorus, the second, third verses, and the term is used in that way, too, I believe.
Any one don't believe me, order some original standards piano/vocal that came from music theatre (plenty on Ebay, and btw, I love getting the original sheet music, a nostalgia kind of thing) and you'll see the verse and the chorus clearly labeled. On "I Left My Heart In San Francisco, where the song head begins, 'I Left My heart......." above the staff where that lyric starts, it will say 'Chorus'. (The song really doesn't have a bridge, and it's rarely sung more than one chorus, probably because the build ending really doesn't allow for it nor do I ever see jazz guys call the song on gigs). See for yourself:
Tony Bennett I Left My Heart In San Francisco Sheet Music Vintage 1954 | eBay (don't worry, it links to an Ebay sheet music, and no, I'm not the guy selling it, I have no idea, it's just to prove a point --hope I didn't violate a forum spam rule).
Now, of course, the famous song sung by and made famous by Tony Bennett 'round about '62, it wasn't a music theatre song, but it followed the tradition.
I"ve been trying to educate pop and rock guys about this, but they don't wanna hear it.
Oh well, okay folks, the 'chorus' rant is over and, of course, you probably knew this, anyway, especially if you are as old as I am.Last edited by PatrickJazzGuitar; 12-27-2023 at 12:13 PM. Reason: Spelling
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12-27-2023 12:08 PM
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I guess if you pare it down enough, the chorus is still the part people actually know
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I"ve been trying to educate pop and rock guys about this, but they don't wanna hear it.
Language is ever evolving. Chorus now means different things to different people, you'll never get it back in the box. Don't even try.
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The chorus (or refrain) is the sing along part. It's been that way as long as I can remember. But I'm only 66 years old.
Lyrically, a lot of the time:
The verse... the fundamental story, basic information, the details of the story.
The chorus... the central idea of the song that often repeats throughout the song.
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In jazz and musical theatre, the 'chorus' is the head. So, you're on a gig, and a sideman asks the band leader, 'okay, when it comes to my solo, how many choruses do you want me to take?' see? How many times around the head he is asking about, ergo, the chorus is the head, and in jazz, it's always been that way. Jazz inherited the terminology from musical theatre. As opposed to the 'verse'. So, it's the song, whatever the form, AABA, ABA, AAA, AABC, etc. The point of the OP is that in pop, rock, country and folk, it's usually the hook, a section of the song. Pop songs these days do not have 'verses' like they do in music theatre and standards.
Originally Posted by fep
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Four reputable dictionaries tell me the same:
Chambers: a set of lines in a song, sung as a refrain after each verse.
Collins: part of a song which is repeated after each verse.
Cambridge: part of a song that is repeated several times, usually after each verse
Oxford online: a part of a song which is repeated after each verse.
The jazz and musical theatre cats are the minority here. It is no wonder the pop and rock guys do not want a bar of it.
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Dictionaries just consult musicologists who flow with the crowd, and there are more pop,country, and rock guys than jazz guys. Originally Posted by Litterick
However, if you look at old piano vocal scores, I am right, they are wrong. There is only one verse, never repeated, and the chorus can be repeated several times, and the 'chorus' is the 'song' as the song is known.
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Lexicographers study how words are used in printed texts. Dictionaries are compilations of definitions based on usage. Originally Posted by PatrickJazzGuitar
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