Girls’ choirs
"By their fruits ye shall know them!"
Photo by Peter Brown
Unfortunately, I am unable to travel the country in order to hear these girl choristers. Only two have I heard on BBC Radio 3, both choirs indistinguishable from their male counterparts. Both choirs were well trained and one of them was exciting.
These girls’ choirs differ from each other in their age groups, a few keeping them until eighteen years of age, but many following the boys’ years, between seven to eight and 13½.
A couple of foundations are mixing their top line but the majority are keeping their girls and boys separate. Some educate them at the same school as the boys, and others recruit them from differing schools.
It is questionable whether it is right to spend vast sums of money on funding the girls through appeals and donations, but of course it is right that girls should have equal opportunities with boys. And it is fair to say that a programme that eases the boys’ burden must be acceptable, although in the early days some boy choristers were known to oppose the new status quo. When Richard Seal spoke about the relative tone quality of boys’ and girls’ voices, he said there is a difference, which calls to mind what someone has said concerning the tone quality of a boy’s voice, being like brittle, fine china.
However, "By their fruits ye shall know them".