A quick personal scan of the choral world in Europe at large, between Moscow (Russia) and Reykjavik (Iceland), indicates that more than 30 million Europeans, approximately 4 percent of the population, participate in choral music at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Europe's long-standing choral tradition has consisted since as early as the 1830s until well after World War II of both a musical and a socio-political component. These components are largely interconnected, as for example when a composer writes choral music in which the social and political circumstances of its performance – for example, singing together for a political event or singing in a choir which is formed by a specific professional group such as firemen or diamond cutters – are incorporated. Since the 1960s this socio-political tradition has diminished.

Well into the twentieth century, most choirs, except for opera choruses and later radio choirs too, were composed of amateurs. Before World War II, some professional chamber choirs were founded primarily to perform a cappella music. After the war, however, some of the best amateur choirs (for example, the Berlin-based Ernst Senff Chor, which is now semi-professional, the Arnold Schoenberg Chor in Vienna, and the London Philharmonic and the London Symphony choirs) began to perform on a level that is difficult for even professional choirs to attain. The main difference between amateurs and professionals is that professional symphonic and professional chamber choirs offer full seasons and perform a broad repertoire, and are thus comparable to professional symphony orchestras. Another difference is that professional choirs employ only fully trained professional singers.