A hymn, psalm, or simple church song sung by a congregation, particularly a Lutheran hymn, or a group singing such pieces.
From German 'Choral,' borrowed from Latin 'choralis' (relating to a chorus), brought into English via Lutheran religious traditions in the 16th-17th centuries.
Bach didn't invent the chorale, but he made it immortal—his chorales are like the Shakespeare of hymns, and you hear them everywhere from church services to concerts because they're so perfectly constructed that nothing sounds quite like them.
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