An extract from Music Teacher

Traditionalists dismayed as Winchester Cathedral
establishes its first girls' choir

by Clare Stevens

Winchester Cathedral has become the latest to establish a girls' choir in addition to its traditional choir of men and boy choristers.

The new choir, trained by Sarah Baldock, sang its first service of Evensong on 16 May 1999.

The move has been greeted with dismay by members of the Campaign for the Traditional Cathedral Choir, who believe that the advent of girls in cathedral choirstalls will ultimately threaten the existence of all-male choirs and discourage boys from singing at all. 'However satisfying or sweet, the young girl's voice cannot compare with the boy treble's voice, which is capable of achieving unmatchable heights of perfection,' says Bernard Haunch, secretary of the campaign.

He admits that the authorities at Winchester have evidently thought long and hard before introducing girls and welcomes their assurance that the girls will sing only one service a week. However, he points out that their successors may have different priorities, especially if they are under financial pressure, which could lead to the amalgamation of the two choirs in the future.

Boys and girls sing together in only two of Britain's cathedrals, Manchester and St Mary's Edinburgh, but nearly a third have introduced girls' choirs since Salisbury blazed the trail in 1990. Winchester is one of the most prestigious to follow suit.

The cathedral hit the headlines some years ago when Emily Edmonstone tried to join the boys' choir, threatening legal action against the dean and chapter of Winchester when she was refused. 'People assumed from that incident that we were against the whole idea of girl choristers, but in fact the issue was already under discussion,' says David Hill, master of the music at Winchester, whose own daughter was a chorister at Salisbury. 'Our priorities were to make sure that we could find the necessary funding and to offer an opportunity to girls from a relatively local area.'

Contrary to some press reports, the Winchester girl choristers attend local day schools, which means their regime is very different from that of their male counter-parts, all of whom board at the Pilgrims' School. They are also older than the boys, with an age range of 11-16. 'This makes our girls' choir very different from, say Salisbury or Wells, where the girls are aged 8-13 and are educated at a boarding prep school along with the boys,' says Hill.

He feels that removing the limiting factor of the boarding element has arguably produced an intake of greater quality. We had 70 applicants for 18 places and already we are seeing signs that our choir will be very special indeed. The girls receive free individual singing lessons and will eventually also receive bursaries for instrumental lessons. We feel we have come up with a package which is right for us and will be an enriching and worthwhile experience for them.'