It has struck me that most recommenders and lovers of choral music and themselves singers (or conductors) of choral music.  It helps a great deal to be right there.  So it occurred to me there are a few reasons why choral music is harder to appreciate than say either symphonies or chamber music:

1. Mixtures of voices do not translate onto recordings as well as do most symphony orchestra instrumental blends.  For one thing, the different voices are harder to sort out.  They are best understood when you are singing in the midst of the action.

2. A good deal of choral music is sung in a different language, and so most listeners do not understand the words.

3. A good deal of quality choral music has a background religious context.  Most listeners have only a modest knowledge of this background context.  For instance, how many people know that Elgar’s