choirbook means A hymnal large enough to be used by an entire choir at once in a church or cathedral, and showing all the parts to be sung, used during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 100 out of 100.
Why this word is great
CHOIRBOOK — [Noun] A large-format manuscript or printed book, used from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance, containing polyphonic music with all vocal parts arranged on a single page or opening for simultaneous use by a choir. The word is a compound of Middle English 'quer' or 'quier' (from Old French 'cuer', from Latin 'chorus', from Greek 'khoros' meaning "band of dancers or singers") and 'book' (from Old English 'bōc', related to Proto-Germanic '*bōks'). Unlike a "hymnal," which offers simple, homophonic music for congregational song, or a "partbook," which isolates a single line for an individual performer, the choirbook is a communal architecture of sound, its visual field a map for collective navigation. It is the vast vellum expanse beneath a master scribe’s meticulous hand; the precise, inky black mensural notation awaiting the breath of singers; and the heavy weight of it on a wooden lectern before the voices converge. Polyphony is here not merely written but spatially ordained, a frozen potential that waits, in the quiet of the sacristy, for the moment when sight becomes breath, and breath becomes praise.
noun
- A hymnal large enough to be used by an entire choir at once in a church or cathedral, and showing all the parts to be sung, used during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.“Whereas the four who hover behind Mary sing a cantilena-style Ave regina caelorum from rotuli, the angelic choir in heaven is divided into two groups, each of which sings from a choirbook on a lectern.”
- A hymnal, especially one used by members of a choir.“Asked her to play a waltz , and handed her a choirbook —opened at " Corinth " and " Silver street ” — found I was wrong, and turned over the leaf to "Sinners turn, why will ye die?"—discovered that all was not right yet, and then requested her to play some sacred music, and in my anxiety to get the right notes this time, placed before her the "Jenny Lind Polka," which she at once began to play—I a”