There are a lot of choirs with only female singers. Writing for such choirs is challenging. How do you go about writing for women’s voices? Is it possible to take an arrangement for men and simply sing it an octave higher? And if you do, does it sound the same as the men’s version? Or do other rules apply to arranging for female voices?
High notes
According to the classical composing theory women’s voices lie an octave higher than men’s voices. That is, sopranos sing an octave higher than tenors, and altos an octave higher than basses. In pop and jazz though, women and men do not lie an octave apart. Especially in pop music, men often sing relatively high in their range. Just listen for example to singers like Freddy Mercury, Sting and Prince. On the other hand, women often sing low in their range. Men often sing up to an A4 (a’) and sometimes in falsetto even higher. Women regularly sing up to a high E5 or F5 (e” or f”), but not often higher. In pop and jazz, female singers use their voice in general not an octave higher than male singers, but a little less. The highest notes of women’s voices sound too shrieky or too classical. In arranging for female choir, you should keep this in mind.
Bass line
Another important subject is the height of bass lines. A bass line that is played on an bass instrument lies low, in general below G3 (the G below the middle C). Higher notes simply don’t work for a bass line. You might check this on the piano. Play a bass line between G2 and G3 (G and g). Next, play the same line an octave up. The latter sounds a lot less convincing as a bass line. The same goes for voices. A bass line sung by a male bass voice is far more convincing than an alto singing the same notes an octave higher.
Restrictions
The two points above show that a female choir sounds essentially different than a male choir. You cannot take chord up an octave and expect it to sound the same as the low voicing. You cannot let female singers sing very high, because it will not have the warmth male singers will have. Thus, with women, you have a smaller range to write your chords in. Apart from than, a bass line sung by altos will never have the charm of such a line sung by a male bass voice. If you really need a solid bass line with a female choir, you will have to write them in accompanying instruments.