It’s always rewarding when what you do “clicks” with an audience who “get it” straight away. An invitation to speak to as discerning an audience as boys and parents from Manchester’s celebrated Halle choir might seem daunting. It wasn’t, though, because what I had to say made perfect sense once the boys demonstrated it. I covered ground I’ve covered many times before – including the means of separating a mixed bunch of assorted changing voices out into treble, cambiata and baritone parts. But what a result! The boys amazed themselves and their parents at the quality of tone they produced once they’d been given something to sing within their cambiata range. Most of the boys (aged roughly 11 – 14) were at the Cambiata I stage, just below treble but not seriously venturing into the bass cleff. There were boys who’d been told at school they were tenors but couldn’t reach tenor C (or even D in some cases). There were boys who thought they might be alto but found themselves with a disruptive passagio or missing notes right in the middle of the alto tessitura. All their problems disappeared once they were put into cambiata and the sound was entirely convincing. A uniquely young male sound to be proud of and one which could never be mistaken for girls!
I’m delighted to say that the Halle is a choir which takes the boys keep singing mission seriously. I’m really looking forwards to hearing what these boys can do as a cambiata group. The longer term rewards will come when the Halle finds itself with as many boys as girls wanting to get into its training choir. Why is this still so rare? Why are cambiata voices still so seldom appreciated in the UK? This is a question I explore in a forthcoming new article in the British Journal of Music Education. It makes some quite sobering reading. You can read the abstract here.
.jpg)