I write this month’s news update during the annual debate over whether record A and A* grades in public examinations are the result of harder work and rising standards or easier exams. This debate is more predictable than the phases of the Moon. As an education professor, I suppose I should have a view. I do, but it’s not one informed by defensible research, so I’ll keep it to myself. However, I do have a view on the singing of boy choristers, and I expressed it at the outset of my recent lecture at the Three Choirs Festival. It is that musical standards in our cathedrals are the probably the highest they’ve ever been and they are being achieved by younger boys singing harder and more complex music than was the case, say fifty years ago. I expressed the view that, after a week of rioting that once again besmirched the reputation of our young men, our boy choristers are a shining example of the best of British youth and equal to anything in the world. That’s an opinion, but one that received nods of assent from the audience. What is not an opinion is the fact that the music is harder and more exacting – that can be demonstrated by an analysis of music lists and concert programmes. Neither is it an opinion that the burden is falling on younger boys. That’s the interim conclusion of my current research. Read more.
Onwards and upwards! A brief breathing space after Worcester, and then off to Dortmund for the Chorfest and Choir in Focus network meeting. I suspect that I will be expounding the praises there of another heroic group. Not the boys who sing this time, but the people who lead them. The theme of the meeting is choral leadership in Europe and it goes probably without saying that I shall be presenting on the leadership of boys in singing. Is it an opinion or a demonstrable fact that our nation is crying out for good leaders of boys? I often use the expression “canaries in the cage” when I talk about boys and singing. Where you have strong leadership, boys sing. Take away strong leadership, high expectations and pleasure in working with boys and they’ll soon stop singing. And can we be confident that the alternatives with which they will occupy their time will all be equally meritorious?
This site has had a fairly big overhaul this month, so worth a browse if you have time!
