This is not the official web site for this organization,
but I have given it some web space at the request
of my mother, who is an avid supporter of this cause.
The main Internet Site for CDTCC is
http://www.cdtcc.org.uk or click here .
E-Mail

November 1997


Campaign for the Defence of the
Traditional Cathedral Choir

'The most beautiful sound in the world'
The New York Times

'A fragile musical miracle'
the late composer, Alan Ridout

'Austere but transcendent ... Singing of this quality has to be one of the proudest cultural claims this country can make. Go where you will -- Vienna, Paris, Rome, New York -- you'll find nothing better. Nothing even comparable.'
Michael White, music critic, Independent on Sunday



A Goodly Inheritance

 Choirs of men and boys have been singing in our cathedrals, almost without interruption, for around a thousand years. They are one of the brightest jewels in the Church's crown -- a stupendous inheritance. No other living tradition of such antiquity can match their enchantment and spendour, nor equal their power to enrich our spiritual lives.

Of the sonorities particularly associated with cathedral choirs, it is undoubtedly the alto and the treble voices which are the most striking. The male alto or counter-tenor voice is an essential ingredient in the English choral tradition. It adds a particular richness and mellifluousness to the vast range of cathedral music. Without it, the music is impoverished.

However, it is the evanescent beauty of the boy's voice which is able to touch our minds and hearts as perhaps nothing else can. Its loss would be unthinkable.

Choirs such as these once flourished throughout Christendom. Today, there are but remnants left. The winds of political and religious change have swept them away. Except in Britain. Here, we are indeed blessed, for there still remain over 70 of these choirs in this country. Day in and day out, they provide a round of spectacularly beautiful and moving worship.

Our all-male choir and its rich musical repertory is distinctive to the cathedral style. Composers, both major and minor, have written specifically for these expert ensembles of trebles, altos, tenors and basses. Nor should we forget that most of our men singers began as choristers somewhere.

These traditional choirs of men and boys have been handed on by our forebears -- in trust. It is for us to cherish them, and to pass them on, a living and vibrant inheritance, to those who will come after us. They are a glorious patrimony, of which the rest of the world stands in envy.

The Lamps Are Going Out

 An event took place in 1991 which suddenly threatened to destroy a thousand years of choral history: Salisbury, one of our greatest medieval cathedrals, established a separate girls' choir. Others rushed to follow suit.

These moves appear to many both timely and just. How can we deny girls such a wonderful experience? After all, they argue, if women can now be admitted to the Anglican priesthood, it is wrong to expect girls to accept their lot in silence.

However laudible, in principle, a policy of 'equal opportunities' is likely to have a disastrous effect on our choral tradition. "Democracy," wrote C.S. Lewis, "is all very well as a political device. It must not intrude into the spiritual, or even the aesthetic, world." Let us also remember that nature knows nothing of equal opportunity. A few fleeting years as a treble are all a boy can hope for. By contrast, just when he is ready to leave the choir, the girl chorister is at last getting into her stride. Why should she not continue singing? Indeed, she may claim a right to do so.

Many cathedrals aim to share the sung services equally between the boys and the girls. Such a reduction in performance by the boys will inevitably lead to lowered standards. The all-male tradition is also likely to be challenged by women anxious to sing in cathedrals. When these things happen, pressures to merge the choirs will be irresistible -- the final inducement coming from the financial savings to be made. However, as past experience in parishes and mixed schools has shown, boys will soon make their exit: they dislike singing alongside girls. To sing freely, or at all, they need the right ethos: a masculine team in a masculine league! Today, outside cathedral choirs, scarcely a boy is singing. Indeed, the singing boy is now an endangered species. So, if the boys go, what about the future supply of men singers? It seems clear, mainly female choirs will be the outcome. Equal rights will have been won, but lost will be the magic, gone the glory.

Founder: Bernarr Rainbow, D Litt, Ph D, Hon FTCL
[ now 'Late' we are sorry to say ]

The current President is: John Sanders, OBE, MA, D Mus Lambeth, FRSCM, FRCO



An organization such as this is totally dependent on its membership. If you have ever heard and been awed and impressed by one of the great English cathedral choirs and wish to support this worthy cause, please subscribe to CDTCC by writing to:

Campaign for the Defence of the Traditional Cathedral Choir
21 Wigmore St.
London W1U 1PJ
England

You will receive the bulletin, Head Notes, twice a year and other occasional papers. The subscription is a suggested minimum of £10 (appx. $20), and is renewable on 1 January each year.

OBJECTS

A comprehensive link for those who love cathedral choir music:
English Cathedral Music
It lists all the cathedrals and other places that provide this kind of music, and also provides links to well-known organists/choirmasters who have web sites



"Campaign for Traditional Choirs" is a member of:
VoA: The Treble Voices Ring
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This page has been posted as a favor to my mother, who supports this cause (as do I, but not to the same extent -- modern economics dictate providing your church music where you can get it, even though it may result in a regrettable loss of quality). The issue of 'equal rights' regarding girls in the choir, however, strikes me as just plain silly if you are a true lover of this sort of music: it was composed for boys' and men's voices, and does not adapt well to the different timbre of a woman's voice (little girls can sound just as good as boys though). I think, too, that Dr Bernarr Rainbow (yes, that's his name) has a point based on immutable sexist attitudes inalterable by Political Correctness that in effect mean that a co-ed choir is de facto dominated by women -- males will flee, and the heritage will be lost. Although to be fair he does not come out and actually say this outright. Well, I do.
If you want to e-mail me, send correspondence to Grobius. I will update the link to the CDTCC site when it becomes available. Their e-mail address is "info@cdtcc.org.uk".

Personal note: I have to admit that I was a choirboy in the 1950s. In the all-male choir at St Mark's Episcopal church in Evanston, Illinois. It was actually a pretty good choir (although the rival one at St Luke's was better, being more 'high church'). We only had one treble of the top rank -- and it wasn't me. What the choir did leave me with was an abiding love for this sort of music, and in fact an improvement and refinement of my musical tastes in general. Being trained to sing a contrapuntal part gives one a good knowledge of how music can be structured and an appreciation of how it all interweaves, although WHY it does is a mystery that is the composer's art. The actual musical training was rudimentary compared with what one gets in a cathedral choir school. I learned to read music only to the extent that given the starting note, I could tell from the score whether the next note should be higher or lower, half a tone, full, or greater than that (by counting do, re, mi along the staff lines -- luckily my mind was faster than my voice, and when the voice did its thing it was on key, which has never been true after the 'change of voice' for some reason --- it just won't cooperate any more, even though I know exactly what the note should sound like: not its name, C sharp, G flat, because I could never master matching the word or placement on the staff to the sound, just as I know that mauve is a color and can distinguish it but couldn't name it if I saw it).

But much as I enjoyed SOME of the music (not hymns, and NONE of the extracurricular choir activities like picnics and baseball outings), even at 12 years old I had atheistic tendencies, and being behind the scenes, as it were, I soon lost most respect for the Church as an institution, although it was a few more years until I lost God entirely. Nowadays I won't set foot in a church except for architectural appreciation -- and of course for the chance to hear this divine music.


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