Why choirgirls are a bad idea

Boys, by Edward Bell

Boy or girl, it isn’t easy being a full-time chorister, but the rewards are vast. For me, it was a good two years before the homesickness fully dissipated, and I was a veteran nine-year-old before I started really having fun. A year later the school became co-ed and our elite band had to adjust to the sudden arrival of girls. For a brief moment I thought they were even going to infiltrate the ranks of the choir. I couldn’t articulate why, but I remember thinking that would have been a bad thing.

Very aware of the limitations of my own voice, I developed an obsession with the voices of others. Singing with the girls at school, I noticed that while their voices lacked the individuality of boys’ voices, they had a natural purity and sounded cleaner. There’s a lot to be said for that purity. I’d postulate that — for trained singers — girls’ voices blend more naturally than boys’. Beyond that there really isn’t much between the two. It’s like being asked to comment on the difference between two types of Rioja. Many can’t and, as per girls and boys voices, wouldn’t notice if you mixed the two together.

Chris Gray, director of music at Truro Cathedral, is in the process of setting up a girls’ choir and says the difference between voices reminds him of the Pepsi Challenge, but that despite the vocal similarities Truro’s choirs will sing separately. Truro’s girls’ choir will be drawn from 13- to 18-year-olds since, as Gray says, it makes sense to work with emotionally maturing young women, rather than girls. Voice breaks mean that boys, on the other hand, must be trained from a comparatively immature age. Given the vast difference in rehearsal needs between a seven-year-old boy and an 18-year-old woman, the decision to keep the choirs separate is understandable.