Misogyny or not, I think it worth reflecting on the fact that the tradition of boy choristers became established at a time when schools were for boys, and girls weren't educated. During the past millennium, it's been barely 150 years since education for girls has been promoted, starting with the movement for separate schools for girls in the 1870s. The best education has been in the single-sex schools.
If I speak as someone outside the tradition of cathedral choral music, how could it be otherwise when girls weren't given the opportunity to attend choir schools and be trained as choristers? The choir school here has only accepted girls in the past couple of decades, and there is now a girls' choir.
People talk about boys learning differently, behaving differently when girls are around: and how could that be any different when for centuries the girls weren't around?
The millennium of the tradition of boy choristers was founded on the exclusion of girls. Not separate choirs, or separate schools, but the total exclusion. Now that boys and girls are educated together and it's coming to be accepted that the particular sound of a choir depends more on the training than the sex of the chorister, perhaps it's time to end the segregation entirely?
If I speak as someone outside the tradition of cathedral choral music, how could it be otherwise when girls weren't given the opportunity to attend choir schools and be trained as choristers? The choir school here has only accepted girls in the past couple of decades, and there is now a girls' choir.
People talk about boys learning differently, behaving differently when girls are around: and how could that be any different when for centuries the girls weren't around?
The millennium of the tradition of boy choristers was founded on the exclusion of girls. Not separate choirs, or separate schools, but the total exclusion. Now that boys and girls are educated together and it's coming to be accepted that the particular sound of a choir depends more on the training than the sex of the chorister, perhaps it's time to end the segregation entirely?
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