A musical style understood as a historic epoch in art and conveying a certain social and aesthetic content originates as the result of perception, synthesis and creative transformation of many principles inherent in the preceding development of musical culture or its considerable part. Elevating the spiritual culture to a new, higher stage of development is one of the principal means that warrant calling a new art trend an epoch or style.

Recognition by the creator of the laws for using various modifications of tempo, dynamics, touches, timber, and nature of phrasing is a precondition for the desired interpretation. Yet all these elements of the creator’s expressiveness are brought to life within the confines of a certain style, for every work represents not an isolated phenomenon, but an element or particle of an integral tonally stylistic system in the artistic life of a particular epoch. This particle, as if a microcosm, reflects not only the stylistic traits of contemporaneous musical phenomena, but also characteristic traits of a specific historical epoch as a whole.

The modern choral repertoire for concerts encompasses the largest number of historical epochs compared to other forms of art. Concert programs of any full-fledged academic choir include works dated from the 16th century to present day. At the same time, it is noteworthy that a choir’s practice of improving its mastery does not always involve efforts to perceive the essential specifics of performing works that belong to different styles and epochs. Meanwhile, the understanding of style and the ability to convey it is one of the most essential and indispensable traits of a choir’s performance mastery. The issue of performance style in the overall subject of the evolution of choir culture is as important as the professional aspects of choir structure, tone, ensemble, and expressiveness of vocal sound.