Cori spezzati (kor' ee spetz ah' tee), Italian for "separated
choirs," is the term used to describe a musical composition that
uses spatial effects to emphasize the interplay between its
various voices. Typically, this means placing two or more choirs
or groups of instruments in various places around a performance
space. Music that is intended to be performed cori spezatti is
by nature antiphonal; in fact, some consider these two terms to
be synonymous, at least when they refer to instrumental music.
Cori spezzati isn't a particularly common form of music, and for
obvious reasons. In order for it to work out right, it must be
performed in a specific type of space; namely, one which is both
big enough to accomodate the separation of the
instrumental/vocal groups and acoustically suited to the kind of
call and answer phrasing that characterizes antiphonal music.
(If the space is too echoey, the interplay among the groups just
becomes muddled. If it's just moderately echoey, though, it
sounds great.) And even in