Choir

Also called quire, chancel

The part of the church east of the crossing where the clergy sing the office; often used of the whole eastern arm.

Rules that use the word

The width of the choir is the measure of all. Proportion every member of a vaulted choir from its clear width: the wall a fixed fraction of the width (a tenth, as the rule is usually read), and buttresses, window jambs, mullions and ribs as simple multiples or fractions of the wall.

The chevet: ambulatory and radiating chapels. End the choir in a semicircle of piers; wrap an aisle (the ambulatory) around it, and open a ring of chapels off the ambulatory, each with its own altar and windows, so that the east end steps down in tiers of roofs and buttresses.

Ever taller, ever narrower. Within a generation the nave vaults of the French cathedrals rose from about 37 m to 48 m while their spans stayed near 15 m: the ratio of height to width climbed from about 2.3 to over 3, until at Beauvais part of the choir vault fell.

Apses in echelon. Multiply altars at the east end by opening apses off the transept arms and the choir, stepped back from the main apse in echelon, each with its own small semidome and roof.

Where it appears in the book

In the chapters The Arch, Vaults, Romanesque and Gothic.

Nearby in the glossary

Chicago window · Chigi · Chini khana · Chiwen · Chuandou · Clapboard · Claude glass · Clerestory