Boy and Girl Choristers R4 Today

[Old Grumpy]

And - if we want to return to Trebles - Single Malt Whiskies!

Indeed!

[Keraulophone]

And - if we want to return to Trebles - Single Malt Whiskies!

Trebles of this triple distilled delight would go down nicely between 'Nine Lessons' and Midnight Mass. Any solos at the latter would probably need to be accompanied colla voce... (yes, it has happened before - very embarrassing!).

[ardcarp]

...and definitely don't try that with genuine Norwegian Aquavit. After distilling (from potatoes?) it's put in oak casks, loaded on board a ship and has to cross the equator...and back...before being considered drinkable. During a trad Norwegian Christmas dinner (around 4pm on Christmas Eve) each course is accompanied by beer and a tot of Aquavit. Not sure midnight mass is even considered.

[vinteuil]

.

... and (tho' i felt this might be a spoof) - wiki agrees :

"Peculiar to the Norwegian tradition are Linje Aquavits (such as "Løiten Linje" and "Lysholm Linje"). Linje Aquavit is named after the tradition of sending oak barrels of aquavit with ships from Norway to Australia and back again, thereby passing the equator ("linje") twice before being bottled. The constant movement, high humidity and fluctuating temperature cause the spirit to extract more flavour and contributes to accelerated maturation. Norwegian aquavit distillers Arcus has carried out a test where they tried to emulate the rocking of the casks aboard the "Linje" ships while the oak barrels were subjected to the weather elements as they would aboard a ship. The finished product was, according to Arcus, far from the taste that a proper linje aquavit should have. Therefore, to this very day boats loaded with "Line Aquavit" set sail from Norway to Australia and back again before they are tapped on bottle and sold as part of the Norwegian Christmas traditions."

[ardcarp]

tho' i felt this might be a spoof

Spoof? Moi?

[ardcarp]

Trying to wrest the thread back on topic, I'd mention the Silver Boys' Choir of Oslo. (Strange how it's the north-European countries that keep the tradition.) We hear them occasionally when visiting Norsk relatives, though not this year). They sing very beautifully with head-voices. Alas their Christmas repertory tends to be a bit 'samey', e.g Lutheran chorale type carols with endless verses. They obviously rehearse a lot, but don't have the scope of an English Cathedral Choir.

Trondeim Cathedral (Nidarosdomens) OTOH has a jentekor and a guttekor (girls and boys respectively) which are run separately and generally do more enterprising stuff, e.g. https://www.nidarosdomen.no/musikik-...omens-jentekor and https://guttekoret.no/

[DracoM]

Why do so many continental children's choirs dress in what I would call sailor gear?
I agree about lack of variety of repertoire - bit sad when you hear how very good these choirs are!