Why have printed music?

Learning a new song used to be a very simple process, requiring only a group of people who didn’t know the song, one person who did, and no sheet music. In the simplest case the song consisted of a simple phrase, or series of phrases, which the teacher repeated over and over until everyone could sing it reliably – this was the ground or basis. At that point, the teacher started to sing the descant, decorative, part which complemented and completed the ground.

(This musical division into ground and descant, persists today – for example, many rap songs work in the same way!)

More complicated songs had two choirs singing two grounds which fitted together with the descant parts singing over the top. For example, a choir of men and a choir of women could mimic a domestic conversation.

Learning a song in this way is incredibly satisfying, if slightly hypnotic. The learning process seems to be quite different for music which is learned by rote, and music which is always sung from printed music. Very often the process of reading printed music can inhibit the ability to fully express the music - the brain is preoccupied in processing the information. If you can memorise the music, it becomes part of you, and you can often express it in a more personal, and ultimately more satisfying, way.

Here is a famous example of this type of singing, using men only. Apparently they have no top tenors.