CE Chester Cathedral Wed, 16th Dec 2015

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... I concur with all decantor wrote, and am sorry to say that it is your reaction I find provocative - well, it's provoked me anyway!

This is the point, isn't it? We may not post with the intention to provoke, but sometimes our comments do this anyway. And if other contributors post comments agreeing with what we've said, that in itself provokes those who disagree to make clear their disagreement.

To make statements that "boys" (all of 'em?) have a "mindset" (presumably different from that of girls [all of them, too]) that is geared towards relishing a "tribal mentality" and a fondness for "self-discipline" - and then to have others post comments agreeing with these statements - that can surely be seen to be "provocative", in that it positively demands at the very least questioning, if not downright challenging and contradicting?

[Keraulophone]

jean, the similarities and differences between boys' and girls' singing in a cathedral/church choir can more easily be heard than explained, but I can see that from past and current experience that gender, age range, intelligence, physiology, psychology ('mindset'), rehearsal scheduling (fitting in with the school day and other academic and sporting pressures), personality, rehearsal technique (including approach to discipline) and choir-training ability of the DoM and ADoM, parental/home/boarding background, and many other factors all impinge to a greater or lesser extent on what one hears them sing at a cathedral/church service. Perhapas I ought to wait until the girls have at least completed their first year before being more specific in a public forum, though I'd be happy to chat about it in the pub!

[Keraulophone]

We may not post with the intention to provoke, but sometimes our comments do this anyway. And if other contributors post comments agreeing with what we've said, that in itself provokes those who disagree to make clear their disagreement.

Quite so, it's how a forum like this works. Though, as has often been pointed out, it's not so easy to gauge the tone of someone's comment or reply in a forum such as this - far better discussing it over a pint after Evensong!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Quite so, it's how a forum like this works. Though, as has often been pointed out, it's not so easy to gauge the tone of someone's comment or reply in a forum such as this - far better discussing it over a pint after Evensong!

(I wonder idly how many pints it would take to start a pub discussion about dishwasher tablets! Definitely a case of leaving your car keys with the landlord and getting a taxi home.)

[Keraulophone]

"Es ist vollbracht"

[DracoM]

Quite so, it's how a forum like this works. Though, as has often been pointed out, it's not so easy to gauge the tone of someone's comment or reply in a forum such as this - far better discussing it over a pint after Evensong!

Excellently well put.

[Vox Humana]

I'm just interested in what it is about the extra-musical attributes of boys that is relevant to their music-making.

I doubt there's an adequately short answer to that one. However, in the parish choir in which I sang as a boy (more than half a century ago), I certainly felt part of a tribe or gang. We felt we had an identity, although I don't think we consciously thought about it. I see no reason to suppose that we were not typical of boys' top lines throughout the country, or that similar tribal identities persist among them today. I imagine that girls' top lines are equally capable of developing group identities, but I have no experience of them. Do mixed top lines gel to the same extent, I wonder? Typically, young boys don't much like mixing with girls. Whether such an identity has any resulting effect on the music-making I hesitate to say, but I imagine that it could shape a top line's general approach and attitude. It must encourage the feeling of being a unit - to a deeper extent, maybe, than adult professional singers whose vocal individuality has been personally honed and who float from gig to gig and choir to choir.