Bit of choral singing Hot Press briefly hammered (7)
I believe the answer is:
strophe
'bit of choral singing' is the definition.
(a strophe is a division of an ode)
'hot press briefly hammered' is the wordplay.
'briefly' means to remove the last letter.
'hammered' indicates anagramming the letters (slang term for drunk).
'hot'+'press'='hotpress'
'hotpress' with its last letter taken off is 'hotpres'.
'hotpres' with letters rearranged gives 'STROPHE'.
(Other definitions for strophe that I've seen before include "song for chorus" , "Section of lyric poem" , "stanza" , "part of ode" , "Division of choral ode" .)