Tradition is broken after 900 years

The Winchester Debut

"After 900 years, girls are allowed to sing at cathedral service" is how The Independent of 17 May headlined the news that Winchester's new girls' choir had just sung its first service. The article was accompanied by a large picture of the girls singing their hearts out. Obviously, this would be a day to remember, both for them and their parents. To wish them anything but well would appear churlish. So, if for no other reason, the Campaign has been anxious not to appear sour-faced or graceless. Neither have we wished to appear to over-react, for it is all too easy to be accused of scare-mongering. After all, Winchester can justifiably point out, the girls are only going to be singing one service a week

The Organist and Master of the Choristers, David Hill, is an obviously reasonable man, and it is important we treat what he has to say with respect. It is clear that both he and the Dean and Chapter have thought long and hard before establishing a girls' choir. Nevertheless, this is a development which CTCC views with concern.

Our position on girls singing in cathedrals was clear right from the start. In Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (November 1995), Bernard Haunch stressed that he fully and wholeheartedly approved of girls singing. "Who am I to object in any case?" he asked. It was only the nature of girls' participation in cathedral music that he questioned. From the very beginning, CTCC has advocated other and different opportunities for the girls - in fact, a truly radical and innovative approach. In the latest edition of Cathedral Music, Peter Giles has sketched out what we have in mind. He talks about "a positive but different role awaiting girl and women singers in cathedrals able to afford a second choir. It would involve genuinely exciting possibilities for experimental choral work with a new (serious) repertoire, and, of course, earlier sacred music custom-composed for female voices, like that written by Hildegard of Bingen, by Vivaldi and Porpora for the Ospedale; by Pergolesi, for example, and others since - not to mention the vast corpus of fine secular (but potentially cathedral-friendly) repertoire by female and male composers specifically for female choirs." These new choirs with their new roles would not sing the daily Office but, used imaginatively, they would offer fresh and exhilarating possibilities.

Such an enlightened and liberal stance, however, is not without its dangers to traditional choirs - especially now that the whole debate has been made to pivot round 'rights' and 'justice denied'. Just why this should be so is because of a phenomenon which we might call (rather infelicitously, it has to be admitted) 'creep'.

The new girls' choir at Winchester illustrates this very well. Both Dean Till and David Hill are adamant that their girls will normally sing only one Evensong a week. In fact, they say that, for logistical reasons, anything more would be out of the question. Since there is no reason to disbelieve them, protest is in danger of appearing ridiculous. But creep can quickly make its stealthy moves. Indeed, even before they sang their first service, it had already done so. Eighteen months ago, when the question of Salisbury girls forming an integral part of the Southern Cathedrals Festival arose, Winchester indicated it would not insist on a similar role for its girls.

However, in his interview on Radio 3's Music Matters, David Hill said that a new piece had been specially commissioned from the composer, Francis Grier, for the 1999 SCF. For this, the traditional choirs of the three cathedrals would occupy the choir-stalls. The Winchester and Salisbury girls would be positioned 'in the wings', as it were, their singing thereby producing a special effect. Since this would be but a single piece during the course of a Eucharist, we are talking of no large-scale intrusion into the Festival. Nevertheless, however modest and minor the girls' participation, it is participation and goes flatly against what was previously promised. Promises are as often forgotten as deliberately broken. If this is what happens only a few months after the formation of Winchester's girls' choir, and at the first opportunity, should we not be concerned about what may happen in a few years' time?

There are other aspects of creep. However sincere Deans and Chapters may be about keeping choirs separate - and the point is made in our Position Paper - neither they nor we can know how their successors will act. Even if they are of the same mind, the financial factor, so rightly dwelt on by our President, Dr John Sanders, in the Music Matters programme, may eventually force their hands. A Report recently published by the Church of England makes sombre reading. It states that: "In 1997, there were 1,171,600 Easter Day communicants. This compares with 1,236,100 in 1996, a fall of 5%, compared to a two-per-cent drop a year before. This represents a decline of 27 per cent from the 1,607,000 figure for Easter Day ten years ago in 1987." Between 1990 and 1997, baptisms fell by 17%, confirmations by 32% and Easter and Christmas communicants by 14 - 15%. And that was the Decade of Evangelism!

It seems fair to conclude that, with fewer active members, the Church is likely to face serious financial problems in future. Although Cathedrals like Winchester may currently be willing and able to stump up £30,000 a year for their new girls' choir, a not-too-distant tomorrow may force a re-think.

We have already pointed out that we are soon going to hear more insistent demands from women who wish to sing in cathedrals - many of these, no doubt, being former members of girls' cathedral choirs. Now, add to that the recent report of the Choir Schools Association which says that recruiting boys for cathedral choirs has become progressively harder over the past ten years, but that competition for places is sharper among girls. It is not panic-mongering to draw reasonable conclusions, and Winchester, like other cathedrals, will be affected by these trends.

Creep takes a number of forms. One such is not only the increasing use of (shall we say) more informal music, but even its espousal by significant people in church music - John Bell, for instance, in the current edition of the Church Music Quarterly and Noel Tredinnick in Cathedral Music. Indeed, we may go as far as Dr Carey, who thought a recessional based on Waltzing Matilda a suitable piece with which to end the Lambeth Conference. By dint of constantly asking 'Why not?', this kind of music threatens to replace what we know as 'cathedral music' with something quite other.

The quality of the boy's musical contribution is also being questioned. Peter Phillips, the distinguished Director of the Tallis Scholars, clearly does not think it anything special. He seems to attribute the lingering preference for boys' voices to mere sentiment - the little angels' syndrome. In his view, women sopranos do the job much better.

Then there is the new doctrine according to which nothing is better - only different. Both Richard Seal (formerly Organist and Master of the Choristers at Salisbury Cathedral, and founder of the Salisbury girls' choir) and David Hill make use of a particular analogy. Boy and girl singers, they say, are like different kinds of wine. It is wrong to talk about one being better than the other. They are not better but different. The analogy is unfortunate, since some wines are not simply different from others - they are incomparably better. To drink a glass of, say, Chateau Lafite, in one of its outstanding years, is to be as near heaven this side of death as it is possible to be. This is not to decry the qualities of lesser wines; it is to acknowledge reality. If Chateau Lafite were not something so utterly wonderful, it would not sell at such colossal prices. Instead, it might sell at the same price as other more modest wines.

As for the boy treble's voice, it is capable of achieving unmatchable heights of perfection. At its best, it is capable of stopping the heart. However satisfying or sweet, the young girl's voice cannot compare. This is the kind of statement many people find unacceptable, as though it were an attack on the intrinsic worth of girls. It may (though not necessarily) be particularly found unpalatable by the (still small) number of capable and ambitious female choir-trainers now active in our cathedrals. Whilst maintaining the superiority of the boy's voice for his specific repertoire, however, CTCC does not wish to devalue the contribution girls have to make. On the contrary, we would like to see them taking on a new and exciting role - one quite apart from the traditional cathedral choir, but one which they could truly call their own.

Despite the increasing squeals about equal opportunity in the choir-stalls, the fact is that the girls and ladies are not doing too badly. Prior to 1991, there were no major cathedrals with a girls' choir. Now they exist in more than 30 percent of cathedrals. That must rank as some feminist achievement! A similar success story can be seen in the rising numbers of female clergy. This was very evident in a recent broadcast service from Gloucester Cathedral, which was dominated by women. One way or another, then, the future for the girls' choirs begins to look quite rosy. It is for this very reason that we must be on our guard against feeling sorry for them! Although we need to maintain calm and reasoned debate, we would be wrong not to argue our case carefully and forcefully.

Returning to Winchester Cathedral and their assurance that the girls will only sing once a week, it is worthwhile considering how both girls and their parents will feel about it as time goes by. Imagine parents in the congregation listening to their little girls singing - and all the tugging at the heart strings that will occasion. Imagine, in particular, how they will feel when their own offspring is chosen to sing a solo. The little girls are bound to want to sing more often, and the parents will begin to wonder why they cannot. In the first few years of the Salisbury girls' choir, one of its members complained in print: "It's all a bit unfair. Last year we went to France while the boys' choir went to America." Well, in 1998, it was the girls who went to America!

To conclude, the tradition as handed down to us is menaced on every side: ill-thought-out change and a passion for novelty are in the driving seat - and they have the accelerator pressed firmly down. Yes, we wish the Winchester girls well - but CTCC cannot shirk responsibility for pointing out the dangers associated with yet another girls' cathedral choir. Ours is an unfashionable point of view. Perhaps, for that very reason, it deserves to be taken seriously.