A sour note
Nov. 15th, 2006 09:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaunthieThere's a fascinating article this morning on the BBC News site about the advent of girl's choirs in English cathedrals. Traditionally, these choirs have been all male, but in recent years separate girls' choirs as well as mixed-voice choirs have been added. Having had a chance to hear some of those choirs (all male and mixed-voice) sing Compline and Evensong in Cambridge, I can honestly say that the English have a fantastic choral tradition that I envy. (I can also say after having heard my friend humilitas sing in the Ely Cathedral's chapterhouse that the fantastic acoustics of such spaces shouldn't be underestimated in helping encourage the tradition, but that's another story.) However, not everyone is pleased that girls and women are singing, and wringing their hands at the "political correctness" police:
"Not everyone appreciates that fuller sound however. The choirboys, for a start, seem to have reservations. Alan Thurlow, the director of music at Chichester Cathedral, says he introduced girls into the all-boys parish choir.
"The end result of that was I lost the boys," he told BBC Radio 3's In Tune.
The same thing has happened in many churches and cathedrals that have tried mixed choirs. Apparently the hormones that have not yet broken the boys' voices have also not made hanging around with girls an attractive option.
This is another reason why Ely have decided to avoid an overlap of boys and girls - not to scare off the boys.
Dr Peter Giles, of the Campaign for the Defence of the Traditional Cathedral Choir (CTCC), takes a different - but equally strong - stance against girl choristers.
"We are sacrificing a wonderful, ancient tradition of men and boys' choirs for political correctness," he says. "In 1963, there were 180,000 boys singing every Sunday in parish churches. Today there's hardly a boy singing.""
So let me get this straight. There's nothing stopping boys and men from continuing to sing in choirs. There's a thousand years of tradition to back up their participation. There's thousands more all-male choirs than mixed or all-female ones. But somehow the mere presence of girls and/or women in some churches has stopped males from participating in droves - and that's the fault of the females???
Uh-huh. Suuuuuure it is. <start sarcasm> Obviously we females are far too powerful if our mere existence can drive 180,000 boys away from participating. Fear us, ye lowly males! </end sarcasm>
No, Dr. Giles. Political correctness has little to nothing to do with this. Try Nintendo, the general fall-off of church attendance in Anglican churches, and cooties - which you also appear to be suffering from. Get over them, and then help the boys do the same. At least they have their youth for an excuse.
(N.B.: Apologies for the cranky tone; I'm probably too tired. I really need to get more than four hours of sleep at night.)
"Not everyone appreciates that fuller sound however. The choirboys, for a start, seem to have reservations. Alan Thurlow, the director of music at Chichester Cathedral, says he introduced girls into the all-boys parish choir.
"The end result of that was I lost the boys," he told BBC Radio 3's In Tune.
The same thing has happened in many churches and cathedrals that have tried mixed choirs. Apparently the hormones that have not yet broken the boys' voices have also not made hanging around with girls an attractive option.
This is another reason why Ely have decided to avoid an overlap of boys and girls - not to scare off the boys.
Dr Peter Giles, of the Campaign for the Defence of the Traditional Cathedral Choir (CTCC), takes a different - but equally strong - stance against girl choristers.
"We are sacrificing a wonderful, ancient tradition of men and boys' choirs for political correctness," he says. "In 1963, there were 180,000 boys singing every Sunday in parish churches. Today there's hardly a boy singing.""
So let me get this straight. There's nothing stopping boys and men from continuing to sing in choirs. There's a thousand years of tradition to back up their participation. There's thousands more all-male choirs than mixed or all-female ones. But somehow the mere presence of girls and/or women in some churches has stopped males from participating in droves - and that's the fault of the females???
Uh-huh. Suuuuuure it is. <start sarcasm> Obviously we females are far too powerful if our mere existence can drive 180,000 boys away from participating. Fear us, ye lowly males! </end sarcasm>
No, Dr. Giles. Political correctness has little to nothing to do with this. Try Nintendo, the general fall-off of church attendance in Anglican churches, and cooties - which you also appear to be suffering from. Get over them, and then help the boys do the same. At least they have their youth for an excuse.
(N.B.: Apologies for the cranky tone; I'm probably too tired. I really need to get more than four hours of sleep at night.)
