I have never understood what music teachers mean when they say things like this.
Maybe you will find my definitions, which relate to the physical properties of the sound, helpful.
As for your two other terms, those are harder to define. “Round” I would have trouble understanding too… but I think in the context of a choir, it might mean a note sung by holding your mouth in a round ‘O’ shape rather than by stretching it vertically or horizontally. The shape of your mouth changes the overtones, even when you’re singing the same note.
As for “purple”, even though I was able to define all the other terms, I have no idea what that should mean such that every choir member would nod at hearing it. The only physical connection I can imagine is that violet is the highest-frequency spectrum of light… yet I doubt that “purple” would simply describe high-pitched sounds. Either the other students were just pretending to understand the term, or this is my own limitation.
Maybe you will find my definitions, which relate to the physical properties of the sound, helpful.
As for your two other terms, those are harder to define. “Round” I would have trouble understanding too… but I think in the context of a choir, it might mean a note sung by holding your mouth in a round ‘O’ shape rather than by stretching it vertically or horizontally. The shape of your mouth changes the overtones, even when you’re singing the same note.
As for “purple”, even though I was able to define all the other terms, I have no idea what that should mean such that every choir member would nod at hearing it. The only physical connection I can imagine is that violet is the highest-frequency spectrum of light… yet I doubt that “purple” would simply describe high-pitched sounds. Either the other students were just pretending to understand the term, or this is my own limitation.