This month I’m making something of an apology for being too Anglo-American! It was a great privilege to meet again my colleagues from the Choir in Focus Research network, and to have the meeting as part of the Dortmund Chor.Com was inspirational. Some wonderful performances attended from Ernst Pepping’s Matthew Passion performed by Rundfunkchor Berlin to a midnight concert of Gregorian chant. But a particular highlight for me was the concert by the Dortmunder Knabenchor. I was also able to attend a rehearsal and speak to the director and some of the boys. Apart from the excellence of their performance (I have never seen boys follow a conductor so closely) the most striking feature for me was the power and presence of their lower register, something which my research is tending to suggest is lacking in many English choristers. We tend, in the English speaking world, to refer constantly to John Cooksey. There has, however, been some very high quality research carried out in non-English speaking countries, particularly Germany. For example the work of Michael Fuchs and his colleagues who looked at the Tomanerchor (once directed by no less than J.S. Bach) is of considerable importance and a different perspective to Cooksey.
One of the most significant differences between Germanic and English traditions such as this of course is that in our English cathedrals we throw our boys out at age 13 whilst in Germany the norm is to keep them as young men singing the alto, tenor and bass parts. I must confess to some less than entirely complimentary references I’ve made in the past to “schoolboy basses”. Well, I’m now repentant for being too English! Have a listen here to the Dresdner Kreuzchor. In the USA, of course, there has been the stress on the cambiata voice about which I have written so much. Either way, the really important thing is the sound of young men singing. It’s not to be derided as “schoolboy bass” – it’s to be celebrated and encouraged which will be what we are doing as we launch the new changing voices choir in the North West of England over the next six months. Watch this space for future international comparative research on the control of range and register in young adolescent voices.
