Quire or Choir?

[Guest]

Perhaps this is better asked more widely over on the Platform3 side, but I thought The Choir posters would be better placed to answer this question of mine:

"Which is your preferred / understood to be correct spelling of the part of the church / cathedral where the choir sings: Quire or Choir?"

I ask as I am getting irritated by the use of "choir" by all the media reports on the possible Richard III remains in Leicester, but I sought Wiki's advice and it says that the two are equally correct, with "quire" now seen as archaic, no less!

I was always told quire as in "in quires and places where they [the choir] sing, here followeth the anthem", but before I do write in to the BBC and national newspapers and demonstrate my BCP affiliations, do you agree?

Sincerely asking (but perhaps not the letters to The Times bit...)!

SS

[Simon Biazeck]

Choir is the accepted modern spelling, but I think some foundations do refer to certain services taking place in quire.

As you can see in the link below, one of the ancient meanings of quire is a quaternum, or book of four folded pages.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=quire&searchmode=none

Personally, the media using 'choir' doesn't get me too hot under the collar. It does seem a tad pretentious to use quire in a secular media publication, however much I like it myself! How do the people at Leicester refer to that area?

[secret squirrel]

..a Car Park, presumably !! <gets coat>

(I don't live anywhere near there).

Perhaps all those years ago I was informed not so much 'incorrectly' but 'without both sides of the argument', so to speak.

I will let it rest, then, if indeed it is just 'me' being me and clearly they are not 'at fault'.

..but then again, I like to spell gaol well, gaol....!

SS

[Simon Biazeck]

..a Car Park, presumably !! <gets coat>

(I don't live anywhere near there).

Very good! A dear colleague at the ROH sings the Gaoler in Tosca and very much enjoys the obvious suggestive wordplay!

I'm very fond of inclement (spell-check !) and was once told by a rather pompous woman in Essex (!) that it was too arcane - I've made a point of using it ever since!

Best wishes.

Simon.

[Serial_Apologist]

One way to decide would be an in quiry

[LeMartinPecheur]

I'm very fond of inclement

Inclement: the 'quiddity' of that which has been incled??

[Pabmusic]

Quire is without a doubt archaic in this sense. This may help: http://www.geocities.jp/icu_l041035/memos/choir.html

[chrisjstanley]

In Southwell Minster a perfectly reasonable Choir exists to the East of the Nave but someone has re-named it Quire in the last ten years I think.

Chris S

[salymap]

Quire is still used for 24 sheets of paper but Oxford Dictionary says it is archaic otherwise.

A matter of choice for the Cathedrals perhaps.

[decantor]

In Southwell Minster a perfectly reasonable Choir exists to the East of the Nave but someone has re-named it Quire in the last ten years I think.

Interesting, that. Over the last ten years (twenty at most), I have noticed an increasing tendency in sacred music circles to use 'Quire' for the area of the church, and 'Choir' for the body of singers. This is surely a useful orthographical development, irrespective of the earlier history of the words.

[ardcarp]

Car parks seem to obscure much of our ecclesiastical heritage. The once important Merton Abbey (wrecked by Henry VIII of course) lies beneath a Sainsbury's car-park in Colliers Wood. The remains of the Chapter House can be visited a few times each year. I went this year, and very fascinating it was too.

[David-G]

Car parks seem to obscure much of our ecclesiastical heritage. The once important Merton Abbey (wrecked by Henry VIII of course) lies beneath a Sainsbury's car-park in Colliers Wood. The remains of the Chapter House can be visited a few times each year. I went this year, and very fascinating it was too.

How do you go about visiting the Merton chapter house?