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Descants are beautiful light melodic phrases floating above the familiar melodies of any song, Psalm, or Alleluia.
They are meant to be sung above the soprano line as a beautiful countermelody. In my parish, we often sing the soprano and the descant parts. In larger demographic parishes, a descant may be added to an SATB choir, depending on choir size and trained singers.
They are very ethereal and moving if done correctly with proper diction and technique. That saying, it’s not only sopranos who can sing descants, though most often it is sung that way.
A descant, also known as a “song apart”,(from the Latin discantus) started in the medieval music period when descant countermelodies were added to organ parts of plainsong melody.
We know now that they are used not only in instrumental music but in vocal and choral music.
I truly enjoy most of the descants that are provided in many of the Psalm and Gospel Acclamation books for cantors. We use Respond & Acclaim, and those descants are often simple, beautiful, and effective.
The art of singing descants comes with knowing that to sing a descant does not mean to drown out the melody or harmonies, but rather to complement it. One must learn how to sing them with proper techniques and style, as we will discuss for the rest of this article.
Like I said before, it’s not only the sopranos who can be able to sing a descant. I have heard tenors and altos also sing descants with beauty and ease.
I myself am a mezzo-soprano/alto, and singing descants takes some time and practice. They don’t all come easily, though some of them are not as hard as others.
With the right techniques and practice tricks, you can figure out how to tackle that descant and provide another layer of beauty to your parish’s music experience.
One thing that is important to note is that your posture will not differ much from any other normal singing. You may have to raise your eyebrows a bit more for higher notes or visualize your phrase going above the note to sing descants with ease.
We will go into some tricks for posture and things not to do and do in the video below when it comes to singing descants.
if you want to learn how to sing descants, this and the next couple of techniques are important. If you are a soprano or a tenor, chances are you understand vowel modification.
Altos and basses are not as familiar with this concept in choral singing, though certain vowels can be modified across all voice parts. The reason for vowel modification is to keep the word from becoming distorted in a higher pitch, and to keep the sounds as clear and pure as possible.
For example, singing words like “day” or “mercy” are going to sound different sung in a higher register if we keep the same basic vowel and shape for those words. Therefore, we can modify them in order to keep the integrity of the phrase and keep the descant light and floating.
I show you some examples of how you have to change the vowels in order for the descant to be sung well.
I discuss diction for cantors extensively in this guide, but again, it will vary slightly for descants.
Some consonants will be used to power through the phrase, while other consonants may be touched on softly to protect the sake of the overall phrase (which we will discuss next).
Watch the video to compare the differences in diction to sing descants vs. the melody.
As you know, breath support is the biggest thing to have down when singing, especially with descants. Descants require extra breath, extra support, and a whole lot of breath management.
If you run out of air at the wrong time, the descant will sound off. If you plan carefully and sneak in breaths where is appropriate, delivering the descant becomes that much easier. This is another practice trick when you sing descants.
The same thing goes for phrasing. Often, you don’t want to sing the entire descant at the same volume or energy, but rather peek out and say hello when the time is right.
The video will give you some examples of how to pace your breath, phrase the descant so you are approaching it with the right energy, and sing descants with much more ease!
Descants are not for the faint of heart or for shortness of breath. But I want you to think about one thing if you are a person who has a lot of natural vibratos. Note: this is also a personal preference, some people are totally okay with the heavy operatic sound of a descant.
The art of singing descants requires one to be careful in their diction, phrasing, breath support, and vowel modification. One must also be aware of the dignity and beauty of a descant so as to not overtake the main melody and phrase of the piece.
If you have learned how to sing descants, you know they can be beautiful and enhance any piece of music when done well. This article gives you tips, techniques, and ways you can make your next descant singing come naturally.
What is your favorite thing about singing descants? Comment below!
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Unintelligible descants are just lazy sound, often overpowering the choir. Especially in church music every consonant and well shaped vowel needs to be understandable. All parts including descant need to be clear so the Word of God can be understood. Making it "easier" to sing by screwing up the vowel sounds is laziness. Descant are not operatic selfish solos, they are higher in pitch fitting INTO the choral sound.