The Millennium Service at St. Paul's
Campaign for the Traditional Cathedral Choir
I Fear I Saw a New Jerusalem the Other Night
It was not Blake's, nor that of the writer of the famous Victorian song, The Holy City. It wasn't even religious, or indeed anything whatsoever to do with a particular middle-eastern city of the same name. Neither was it merely the other night - in fact, it was over a period of twelve days!
I had been involved, absolutely for financial reasons, as Shadow Tour Guide (and lecturer!) to two coach-loads of proud parents of youngsters taking part in the International Childrens' Choir Festival, held mainly in Canterbury and London. I was therefore rather pushed into attending some events which, normally, I would have avoided, yet which, in the event, have proved thought-provoking. Officially, the festival culminated in a massed-choir concert at that sensible, Methodist version of the venerable basilica of Santa Sophia, Constantinople: mighty Central Hall, Westminster.
In actuality, it ended with a two-choir concert in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford on Avon. Each of the eight choirs - all were American, and from different parts of that vast country - sang at least one concert alone or with one other choir, and all took part in three main events: a massed-voice evensong plus a separate concert in Canterbury Cathedral, and the final big concert, comprising the same programme, though with orchestra, in the Central Hall.
Also in London, two choirs gave a concert in St Martin's in the Fields. Some choirs sang in other parts of England. On the surface, the festival seemed to paint a fine and optimistic future for choral singing in the United States. All the choirs were able to divide into three vocal parts, a cappella, were generally well-trained, varied in size and (slightly) in style, and fortunately for my purposes, they wore different uniforms!
The music presented was well varied, and, besides the inevitable dross, included a reasonable amount of worthwhile, good quality choral literature, earlier and more recent. That these touring choirs were merely select groups from their individual ‘programs' was revealed by the accompanying leaflet notes appertaining to three of them, so it seems likely to have been true of the others. (Unfortunately, because at the time I had no intention of writing this detailed account, I failed to procure leaflets about all eight. My incomplete statistics will not therefore satisfy the pedantic, the statistician, or the hard-line musicologist. I can, nevertheless, claim a high degree of experienced insight - I could read what was going on!)
Be that as it may, the biggest choir, for example, was reported as being part of an eight-hundred-and-fifty-strong auditioned body of young voices at home, aged between nine and eighteen. I hoped to enjoy the performances, but as CTCC members would expect, my chief interest was:
(1) to note the number of boys in each choir, especially trebles.
(2) to judge their apparent effectiveness (or otherwise) in that choir, and in that of the massed voices
(3) to judge the tonal quality of each choir, and that of the massed voices
(4) to note the solo or semichorus allocation where appropriate, and
(5) to form an impression of the expectations and reactions of the parents' groups and general audiences, and
(6) to draw appropriate conclusions for the future.
I could not attend all the events, and most certainly avoided the jamboree evensong in Canterbury Cathedral, but heard several rehearsals and was in the audience for five different single or double-choir concerts, together with the big one in Central Hall Westminster. The massed-choir evensong and concerts were conducted by David Flood (Canterbury Cathedral) and A N Onymous (on paper, the most impressively experienced of the childrens' choir directors). A single choir rehearsal and concert in a York city church (by what we will call choir A) was directed, in part, by Philip Moore (York Minster).
All others were conducted by each choir's own director, and, of course, in most cases, by at least one other. During the following account, as defined in The Oxford English Dictionary, I employ the term ‘treble' to denote a boy singer of soprano range, while ‘soprano' denotes a girl or woman singer. My comments are based on hearing and seeing five of the childrens' choirs alone - here called A, B, C, D, and E - and the massed voices of the total eight, numbering nearly three hundred. There were difficulties in being accurate regarding the exact gender distribution of each choir - of my five, A was alone in providing a list of names, but even then, in American fashion, many of the girls must have had boys' forenames, although some were bordering on the incomprehensible!
I therefore judged the gender-balance purely visually for each concert I attended - which was particularly difficult when the massed choirs were seen from something of a distance, gathered on the tiered platform. I numbered, renumbered, and re-renumbered, and garnered slightly different gender-harvests each time! I even tried to count boys and girls on their way in and out, but began to nod off! In the end, I had to settle for what seemed to be the median! A few girls were taken ill on occasion, and doubtless a few other youngsters were indisposed and absent from every event anyway, but at those concerts I heard, the numbers, gender- and solo- distribution seemed to be as follows:
(Choir) A B C D E Girls 80 60 24 52 28 Boys* 20 11 4 12 10 Total: 100 71 28 64 38 Girl soloists 1 #? 3 (2 low alto) Boy soloists #? 1> (low alto) 'Semi-chorus' girls #? 3 3 'Semi-chorus' boys #? 1^ Size of 'program' at home 850 n/a 150 ? ? Age range 9-18 9-16 12-14 ? ? * These were not all trebles. Of the 20 A-‘boys', for example, 10 looked aged at least 17 and, judging by my stealthy stroll amongst the choir during a rehearsal, these 10 were adolescent ‘baritenors' who sang only when the music divided into three parts and the alto dropped low enough. Certainly, though present, they took no part in the choral ‘warm-up'. # I missed the very start of this concert, so it is possible though seemingly unlikely that I might have missed a solo/semichorus spot, but all other solo and semichorus details are correct! > This was an unbroken voice used crudely at low pitch. ^ This inaudible single treble joined three girl sopranos in a semichorus (and five when this choir sang with another).
General Notes :
(1) Amongst all the c300 voices, no genuine virtuoso or mature solo treble or trebles in the English or German mould were employed, or were in evidence - so these choirs could surely have contained none, given that any normal musical director able to train (and boast?) such boys would hardly have lost any opportunity to use them in high-profile manner!
(2) Few if any of the pre-pubertal boys looked older than about eleven, which suggests that the prevailing climate or ethos, and perhaps most of the directors, taught that boys can't/don't sing treble beyond this age.
(3) Other than the odd two or three light ‘baritenors' here and there, standing together sheepishly for reassurance (at the back), each of the few boys present stood crowded in by for the most part buxom young nubiles-a predicament which, in other, essentially unchoral circumstances, most older, normal adolescent males would relish! Most nominal ‘trebles' stood singly, so, revealing either a lack of basic psychological ‘nous', or rather perhaps because choir-directors were nervous of any accusation of ‘sexism', there could have been no attempt, even by the merely two male directors (of A and B), to dig with optimism archeological for any surviving boyish esprit de corps. Certainly, there was no trace of genuine, characteristic treble tone in the sound made by any of the choirs - which in each case was either that of a (in most cases) well-trained choir of girls (sweet and somewhat soft-grained in tone), or one of mature young women (D). The massed choir combined the two timbres attractively, though the c300 voices sounded more like 80! In fact...
(4) Only two choirs, A (100 voices) and C (28 voices), came close, alone, to matching the vocal tone of 18 English boy choristers trained in the full and forthright version of our style, though this is not, of course, to suggest that sheer volume is everything, for boys or girls! Nevertheless, in relation to their numerical strength, no choir except the said A (100), and C (28), sang louder at any point than something between mezzo-piano and mezzo-forte. In view of the fewer numbers, therefore, C, which, except for its token four small boys, looked to consist of mostly post-pubertal girls - ie, young women-must be singled out here. It occurred to me that, partly because of those smallish, ‘choirstall-friendly' numbers, C would have been most likely to persuade many a potentially receptive (undiscerning?) 1990's dean and chapter who possessed a high ‘want' factor, or other listeners with in-built ‘agendas', or, indeed, people, shall we say, ‘who ask few questions', into concluding, quickly and simplistically, that they were hearing a sound totally identical to that of a boys' choir! From this would come the erroneous claim that boys' and girls' voices are ipso facto indistinguishable! Because unwelcome, crucial contrasting tonal and stylistic niceties would either go subliminally unnoticed, or be passed over positively, and essential age-differences would be conveniently ignored or discounted.
(5) David Flood and Philip Moore were, of course, merely guest conductors. Though they worked with the choirs in rehearsal, voice-production and projection was not touched upon-at least during the sessions for which I was present-and, of course, neither man had taken any part in the choirs' essential training. Each was the product of its own director, and the massed voices represented an amalgam of their training methods.
(6) All the concerts I attended were sensitively and musically sung, and the few shortish rehearsals I witnessed seemed reasonably run. Here's a point not often made. Especially during the single- or double-choir concerts, in a number of these totally secular choirs-though not all, because the phenomenon was by no means absolute-there was a marked contrast between the platform attitude and approach of the girls as compared with the boys.
It could be argued that these differences represented something of the instinct or natural psyche of the young female and the young male of the species. At any rate, while it didn't quite reach an unacceptable level, many girls tended towards obvious, sometimes theatrical effort, with much face pulling and over-exaggerated mouth positions and too many overt lookings into the audience, as if to monitor and encourage positive reaction to themselves. Some people may explain this away by suggesting that most girls simply try harder in everything. Others, like my late mother, and especially my late mother-in-law, would have said, many girls simply ‘show off'! By contrast-when noticeable at all in their sporadic ‘guest' appearances amongst the girls-most boys, especially any surviving older lads, tended to maintain a dead-pan, dead-mouth, silent-screen stare worthy of Buster Keaton, with the accent on ‘silent'!
Some resembled mesmerized rabbits about to be run over. It may all have been linked with self-consciousness and a resultant determination to stay, and look-as today's term is-‘cool'. A few boys seemed to have achieved the very highest state, a veritable nirvana of cool mime! Others looked petrified, locked in surprise at finding themselves there at all! Certainly, many appeared to be totally unaware of the presence of any audience and, in some cases, of any interest the music may have had. ("Don't just stand there boy - SING for me!" as Allan Wicks would say!) Nevertheless, the over-all choral sound was pleasant. I only wish, therefore, that I had been able to enjoy these concerts freely, without constantly feeling that I was in the presence of yet another aspect of the threat to our own precious tradition-because surely there can be nobody by now who can deny an unfortunate fact, that, in most spheres in the late twentieth century, whatever America does today, Britain apes tomorrow. Hence, the large, voluntary ‘childrens' choir on the burgeoning American pattern, based predominantly on the voice of the post-pubertal girl, will, I fear, increasingly become part of the spiritual yearning of today's all-too-typical cathedral dean and chapter-led especially by some in west and northern England! Add to this, of course, the establishing of an adult chamber choir-counter-tenors need not re-apply, lady tenors and baritones welcome!
Again this will probably be a choir not only unpaid, but who subscribe yearly to belong at all! The traditional cathedral choir will become extinct.
Regarding the parents' and (often, largely the same corpus!) audiences' reactions to all concerts which I attended, there was, of course, justifiable pride, even an almost endearing smugness, in their collective offsprings' undoubtedly attractive singing! I quickly realised, of course, that there was also an almost complete ignorance, not only of the superlative standards of our own boys' and men's choral tradition, but those of their own few but often very good all-male choirs, like that of Washington National Cathedral, or St Thomas' Church, Fifth Avenue, New York.
Unfortunately, the festival took place in late July-early August, when all cathedral choristers had gone on holiday, though the twelve Canterbury lay-clerks had been heard alone, and been admired, at their two last services. Without the trebles, of course, they could hardly have made the full point, and indeed, despite those two excellently sung evensongs, I later encountered incredulity that the counter-tenors took the alto line in the four-part, men and boys' choir! I gently invited people to reflect on the obvious meaning of the word ‘alto', but this didn't sink in over-well! I resolved to try to help parents understand.
My groups amounted to nearly a hundred in all, and I gave several carefully-phrased and phased talks to each sub-group on coach journeys, distributing our Campaign for the Traditional Cathedral Choir flyers (shared!) for study and hoped-for subsequent publicity-even, perhaps, towards a few new members! (I even loaned a sublime Canterbury Cathedral Choir Tallis CD to some parents who happened to own a ‘CD walkman'. The recording was later returned by the mother with no comment but a distinctly thoughtful look on her face!). I asked for our flyers' return afterwards if not wanted: only a handful came back, so perhaps our message will spread in the United States, whose few ‘boy choirs' must surely be under similar pressures to ours! At present in America, these so-called ‘childrens' choirs seem to be, as the phrase is, ‘on a roll', and we should, of course, be genuinely delighted that large numbers of young people are now learning to sing and enjoy worthwhile music. Unfortunately, because so few are boys, and what boys there are are totally ineffective, there are obvious warnings not only for the future supply of American adult male singers (many American mixed choirs have more female than male tenors already!), but most assuredly also-yet again-for our own unique, but fast weakening, all-male tradition. Why? Because what America does today....However it may be denied, these choirs seem to reflect and gratify the late-twentieth-century urge to grow children up as soon as possible-in this case, especially the boys-almost, in horticultural terms, to ‘force them'! I'm no gardener, but, as I understand it, flowers thus forced last but briefly.
On the other hand, they are wonderfully effective during that brief existence-so the analogy breaks down here! Certainly, judging from the nearly three-hundred young voices and their eight choral directors, there was plenty of musical evidence that these mixed choirs' training systems and ethos cater well for the vocal and psychological needs of the girl. Unfortunately, there was a plethora of evidence, aural and visual, that they do not suit the rather different vocal development and psychological requirements of the boy. At any rate, whatever the theoretical intention, these children's choirs seem to end up as girls' choirs which boys may join (and appear largely to leave, though I'm not in possession of initial recruitment figures!). At its best, this system appears to try hard but is over-optimistic; at worst, it seems myopic and badly fails the needs of the boy.
These mixed-voice choral ensembles of singers aged up to about eighteen encounter several different sensitive and often fraught phases of intense young lives of both sexes. Given that the boy goes through a far more difficult time of it, vocally and in this context psychologically, the woeful gender imbalance in these ‘childrens' choirs is probably inevitable, as, in due course, will be the ever increasing paucity of men singers, over-all. Let's look at this in practical, choral terms, as suggested by the aural and visual evidence presented by these choirs over those twelve days. In this kind of children's choir - or indeed, any - girls will be totally free to choose to take whichever vocal part they may wish, but will most often opt for the higher ones (and therefore the highest profile position in any SSA system). Most boys, on the other hand, when (or if ever) they begin to ‘feel their vocal feet', whatever their vocal potential, will feel ‘expected' to want to take the lower one(s). Thus, they miss most opportunities for developing their potential as trebles, solo or otherwise-an opportunity merely loaned them by their Creator (though un-valued or unrecognised, it seems, by these choir directors, whose approach, one would imagine, is reasonably typical in the United States). Being on offer for all-too-brief a time, it hardly counts as ‘equal opportunity', does it? Children's choirs on this pattern certainly exist in Britain, but because we still possess our superlative cathedral choirs (just!), plus a number of excellent secular boys' choirs, and girls' choirs of high standard, children's choirs seldom achieve musical prominence or highest-profile status. On the other hand, though these eight American children's choirs were not, of course, strictly school-based ensembles, as the age-range and general musical character approximated to those of British secondary schools, some points of general comparison seem worth making:
(1) Because the boys in these American childrens' ensembles were totally ineffective-they might just as well not have been there at all-and the standard of girls' singing was generally high, a direct musical parallel can just as easily be drawn with our girls' school choirs, in which, quite obviously, there are no boys!
(2) This festival demonstrated how the vocal quality of the boys who sing in this American children's choir system-or to be more accurate, merely belong to it-and our children's choirs for that matter, cannot bear comparison with youngsters in our remaining boys' schools which have a tradition of supplying university choral scholars.
(3) When we come to compare these American children's choirs with our better co-educational school choirs, it underlines an unfortunate parallel-that most such mixed-voice choirs in Britain are usually light on, or are even totally without, boys' voices of any description and range! Judging by what I saw and heard during those twelve days, no real effort or expertise seemed to have been put into helping any trebles in these eight choirs gradually adjust themselves into strong, truly mature high-voice singers, as they moved towards, and potentially well into, teenhood. Whatever part they were supposed to be singing, the boys, especially the older lads, looked as if they'd passed into a sort of vocal limbo, and were present for display purposes only!
Given that many of the ‘boys' had been allocated to or chosen to occupy the alto part, it was disappointing that there seemed to be no exciting hint of fine counter-tenors to come; nor, indeed, did one feel the system likely to produce any obviously promising future tenors or basses of the immediately pre-choral-scholar standard familiar in the United Kingdom. I cannot believe that the traditional techniques practised over centuries in parts of Europe, especially in Britain, are unknown in the United States, with its still surviving, though presumably increasingly ‘politically-suspect', ‘boy-choirs'. To insert a personal note at this point, I was trained in a very good all-male parish church choir-alas, like most, now no longer existing. Because it was not subject to the diktats of the education system on age grounds, unlike the majority of cathedral choirs, there was no vocal ‘cut-off point'. In fact, it was a point of honour and intense competition amongst the senior boys to be the one who could continue singing treble-properly and musically-the longest. Many of us continued till the age of fifteen or sixteen.
Do not misunderstand me. Because we had been trained in a natural way to adjust our maturing voices-there was no ‘honking', or whispering, uncontrolled falsetto-damage was not done to the adult voice as it gradually developed into counter-tenor, tenor or bass. In 1955, having ‘won' the competition in my particular age group, I moved into the back row to sing alto at the age of sixteen-and-a-half, not because my voice had gone, but because it had grown too loud and plangent to blend with the trebles! The point is perhaps obvious. We transferred to the vocal part which seemed to beckon us when we felt ready vocally, in consultation, of course, with the choirmaster. This is what should happen. This is worlds away from a move made because a powerful peer-group pressure, a zeitgeist from both outside and inside the choir, dictates it, or because a choir director ‘with an agenda'; musical, sociological, or both, encourages boys to consider themselves finished as trebles well before they have reached their peak (or before they can ever know there's any peak to reach!). It must be underlined that singing on the top line in the choir did not, in any way, prevent us having girl friends (in the 1950's meaning of the term!), or create difficulties in obtaining them! We were a normal, macho lot, and certainly had no worries regarding malehood! Why? Because mature treble singing was the accepted thing for the team-just as it had been for our predecessors and would be for our successors, until the choir went mixed-voice, that is! The world may have changed in forty years (and ‘anything goes'!), but essential boy-psychology has not altered overmuch! This essential team spirit still exists in all-male choirs-where the choirs themselves still survive, that is!
It may be that the older boys in these American ‘childrens' choirs would retort that they have no trouble attracting girl friends - I'm sure they don't! - but the difference is that we were still singing in a high-profile way, to excellent effect. They are not, whether theoretically on the treble or alto line! Therefore, what could be called the Comprehensive Childrens' Choir Movement appears to be
(1) Promoting puberty and adulthood as the real goal, to be achieved as soon as possible, using singing as a main vehicle, by
(2) Putting pressure on the boy, by the age of ten already in a marked minority, and feeling seen to be, to anticipate his real pubertal voice-change by in most cases several years,
(3) Striving hard to seem to give equal opportunities for all youngsters of both sexes, but actually neutralizing the incredible potential of the boy's voice-what is perhaps better called the pre-adult male high voice, and is
(4) Unworried by the obvious evidence that not only is it doing little to arrest the decline towards extinction of the boy, and eventually the adult male, singer, but is actually hastening the process. So it could be said that the system's raison d'etre seems positively to encourage what could be called 'ghost' puberty, psychologically, and therefore physically, under the facile excuse of ‘preparing the boy for coping with vocal metamorphosis'-the big break-almost the sole proclamation of young manhood, for which 'all normal boys should be yearning'! That pressure from the prevailing Zeitgeist may in some choirs be more covert than overt, but is none-the-less real, for all that! Whereas the male choir encourages in boys the idea that anything is possible- 'feel free to find your vocal niche how and when you like' - the children's choir is surely seen by both boy and girl members as an unequivocal template, an ensign for the future, or a clear 'mirror' of adult society. It appears to teach that because women have high voices (unless, of course, they decide otherwise!), and-in ‘classical' music at least-men always have lower ones, no boy worth his masculine salinity remains as a treble, for example, a moment longer than he needs. A possible compromise is that, though standing amongst girl sopranos, the boy wishing to retain or gain ‘street-cred' makes quite certain he cannot be heard singing at the same pitch as them! In this way, he can usefully demonstrate to all that his treble voice has gone! The same ploy is possible when standing looking enormous but reluctant and producing no vocal tone amongst nubile ‘altos'! All a bit fanciful? Think it through. Certainly, it is unarguable that, whatever the reason, even if they don't actually leave the joint treble/soprano line immediately, most children's-choir trebles seem suddenly to take it upon themselves, for reasons apparently unconnected with the physiological state of their voices, to retreat prematurely in vocal terms. It means boys sing no worthwhile solos, and signals that, vocally, they are purely temporary, inaudible 'guests', second-class citizens, not to be taken seriously. Yet, thanks to the girls, because the musical results of this choral system sound attractive, particularly to an audience short on musical history and elementary foresight, and unburdened by any qualms or questions whatsoever, that system is judged to be successful. Presumably, the choir directors, too, must be satisfied with this state of affairs -in fact, judging by the choir ‘hand-out', one particular director is more than happy that everything in the choral garden is lovely! It's success-time! But in similar vein to the other seven in the festival, that director's choir had only one apologetic, negative-looking treble to every nine oh-so-positive sopranos, and certainly no treble soloists were in sound or sight....
Is this the aim? If so, yes, these are successful results indeed! We have noted that this kind of young people's choir already exists in most British co-educational schools which attempt good choral music. Something like it is happening, with and without the adult choir-members, in any remaining parish churches trying to avoid the All-Clap-Hands-For-The-Lord standard of choral offering! Encouraged by this festival, there are those here who will now redouble their efforts to further promote and champion the Comprehensive Childrens' Choir in Britain, be it secular or church-based. Though I had two intense conversations with an ultra-outspoken, feminist mother and a small group of other parents (during which I remained coolly reasonable!), I did not discuss the points made above, consult the choir directors or interview any youngsters. It was intentional. I wished to use my ears and eyes alone! In retrospect, however, I would now welcome the complete choir-lists, and, purely for the purposes of writing this paper, regret that I did not hear every individual concert by all eight choirs!
Nevertheless, though hearing only five of them plus the massed choirs, I am confident that it was accurately representative of the whole. Certainly, I was uninfluenced by any qualifying remarks or justifications from the choir directors. I had wanted to enjoy the last concert on its merits, which, in the main, proved considerable, but had reckoned without an unexpected and unfair kick by no less than Blake and Parry! Newly learned for the festival, Jerusalem was given a final, stirring performance with such clear delight by choirs D and E in the nave of Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon. The high-flying organ, and dreamy, English high-gothic east end was a heaven behind the singers as, wondrous, fresh and inspiring, Old Man Blake's incandescent vision, so often given such paltry lip-service in this frequently lukewarm country, or positively despised-because totally misunderstood-by many on political grounds, soared into the hammerbeams and back, high into the vault. We were not far from Will Shakespeare's shrine-for that is what the resting place of his bones has become, even in our irreligous age.
Location and ambience...the English ancestry of many of those youthful singers...some Henry Purcell in the programme...William Blake-set so stirringly by Sir Hubert Parry, that very English composer with a Welsh name-all combined to make the eye moisten and the heart quicken. I sat, genuinely moved by the young, transatlantic (mezzo-forte) fervour of nearly three-hundred pairs of eager lips as they promised: '...I will not cease from mental fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand...' Suddenly, a disturbing new, un-Blakean vision hit hard. In effect, these youthful choirs were musical and cultural missionaries. It happened that one of the two was from Mormon country, and I remembered the earnest and mostly attractive people we find difficult to dislodge from our doorsteps, leaflets and texts in hand! But the new vision these choirs generated was not primarily a religious one, and unlike most missionaries, the youngsters themselves must have been totally unaware of any mission whatsoever!
They nevertheless blazed Blake's prophetic averment at me: '...Till we have built Jerusalem In England's green and pleasant land'. The organ underlined it with a characteristic flourish of Parry's, and there was tumultuous parental applause, which the conductors received hungrily and their choirs delighted in-not quite clapping themselves in the American manner, though nearly! But behind and above them the firmament had changed, and I saw in it the kind of choral new 'Jerusalem' now even more likely to be built in England's still generally green and mostly pleasant land. I pondered the effect it must ultimately have on our already endangered treble and all-male choral tradition, that mystical vision, that miracle music from when the stars over Albion were slightly younger. Sadly, eyes newly moistened, and thinking on Will Shakespeare, Father Purcell, Old Man Blake, Patriot Parry, I walked away, leaving parents and 'children' to their ecstatic post-concert reunions and those peculiar, whooping, American celebrations.
(c) Peter Giles 1997