INTRODUCTION

'A fragile musical miracle' is how the late composer Alan Ridout described the all-male English cathedral choir tradition. 'Austere but transcendent.... Singing of this quality has to be one of the proudest cultural claims this country can make. Go where you will – Vienna, Paris, Rome... you'll find nothing better. Nothing even comparable', writes Michael White, music critic of Independent on Sunday. 'The most beautiful sound in the world' is the opinion of The New York Times.

Choirs of men and boys have been singing in our cathedrals, almost without interruption, for around a thousand years. They are one of the brightest jewels in the Church's crown – a stupendous inheritance. No other living tradition of such antiquity can match their enchantment and splendour, nor equal their power to enrich our spiritual lives. Of the sonorities particularly associated with cathedral choirs, it is undoubtedly the alto and treble voices which are the most striking. The male alto or countertenor voice is an essential ingredient in the English choral tradition. It adds a palette of unique plangency, richness and mellifluousness to the timbre of the choir and the vast range of cathedral music. Without it, the music is impoverished. Yet it is the evanescent beauty and poignancy of the boy's voice, which is able to touch our minds, hearts and senses as perhaps nothing else can. Its loss would be unthinkable.

Choirs such as this once flourished throughout Christendom. Today, there are but remnants left. Political and religious change has swept them away. Except in Britain. Here, we are indeed blessed, for there still remain over 70 of these choirs in this country. Day in and day out, they provide a round of outstandingly beautiful and moving worship. In them, we possess a unique treasure.

At the risk of stating the obvious, we cannot get away from the fact that girls do not become countertenors, tenors and basses. The all-male choir and its repertoire constitute a unique, living art form. It is an entity. While new works continue to be written for it, as a fine instrument it is complete.

Our all-male choir and its rich musical repertory are distinctive to the cathedral, major church, and historic collegiate genres. Composers both major and minor have written specifically for these expert ensembles of trebles, altos, tenors and basses. Nor should we forget that many of our male singers, and professional musicians generally, began as choristers. For centuries, these choirs and former choristers have enriched the cultural life of this country. The cathedral-music tradition is woven into the fabric of our national life.

If you are beginning to feel that nothing can be done to combat the dilution and wilful transformation of our unique tradition, make sure you read Bernard Haunch's articles 'Where late the sweet birds sang' and 'Say not the struggle'; and the article 'Ichabod etc???' by the first President of CTCC, Dr Bernarr Rainbow, in the opening issue of Choir & Organ.

Today, there are clear threats to this wonderful inheritance. These include ecclesiastical and political shiftings, cultural change, worsening financial considerations, and the influence on cathedrals of what now goes on in most parish churches. Girls and girls' choirs deserve more than to set out to imitate a historic male art form. A new and distinctive tradition is needed which they can proudly call their own, with distinctive female sonorities and repertoire. There seems yet no sign of any such positive, creative development. Meanwhile, despite earnest claims to the contrary, most boys hate singing alongside girls. Most boys make their exit from mixed choirs as soon as possible – if they ever joined in the first place.

Some claim that the cathedral-choir scene is entirely different, and that the setting up of parallel girls' choirs cannot affect the existing male choir tradition. We would be foolish to assume that these 'permanently' parallel choirs will be the end of the story. Meanwhile, though the few cathedral choirs that have become mixed-voice seem to have retained some boys so far, it would be short-sighted to ignore the now predominantly female state of play in the remaining school and parish-church choirs across the country. Of course, a whole host of factors has contributed to the decline in the number of boys participating in these, but huge decline there has been.

Today then, outside cathedrals, hardly a boy is singing. It was to highlight these dangers to our unique choral tradition that CTCC came into existence. The singing boy must not be allowed to fall silent, nor our traditional cathedral choirs to fall prey to the multitude of problems which beset them. Campaign for the Traditional Cathedral Choir exists to highlight the dangers to a unique treasure.