New York Diary

boys will be boys, i suppose

I went last week to hear a concert given by the St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys (and several soloists, and of course the attendant musicians). The concert was, I think, of variable quality; the choir was unfailingly excellent, but the soloists had their better and worse moments, and the orchestra was not quite top notch.

St. Thomas Church has a choir school, the last church-affiliated school in the United States (or so they claim). It is strange to consider the boys who go there (and who thus sing in the choir of men and boys). They are small; the youngest are in the fourth grade (and a third grade will be opening next year). They are professionals, too: musicians of a high quality--indeed, some of the best in their field. Few people are more suited to singing the soprano lines in the Bach Cantatas than well-trained choirboys (since, after all, it is well-trained choirboys for whom those lines were written in the first place).

This is highly unusual. Many children work in this world of ours, but few are better at their jobs than an adult would be. As a general rule, this is all the more true when it comes to skilled labor. Yet choral works written for boys' voices are best sung by, well, boys. Most adult men cannot hit the notes; most adult women do so with a different vocal timbre. This is not necessarily bad, but it is importantly different. You can have a couple of oboes playing the Bach double, and it might be an excellent performance--but surely we recognize that this is not the same as having two violins playing instead. It is relevant that the piece was written for violins; it is also relevant that the soprano and alto parts of the cantatas were written for boys.

But this presents a problem. The boys of the St. Thomas Choir School are well-compensated for their time and effort. They recieve a first-class private education very cheaply; they recieve a near-unrivalled classical musical education; they get the run of a church and a professional resume before even reaching their teens. But they are still professionals, still obligated to work in a very real way, still living a serious lifestyle that today might make us uncomfortable when we consider that the youngest of them are nine years old and all are boarding away from home.

Still, I find that I cannot want the school to close. After all, if there really are only two English-language church-affiliated choir schools left in the world, we've got to encourage them to stick around. I find it sad to think that in 20 years, say, there won't be any boys left who can sing the Bach Cantatas. That would be a real loss.

Besides, these professional kids seem to be funloving enough. I managed accidentally to wander into the bowels of the church during intermission (oops--was looking for the public bathroom), and what did I see but a bunch of kids in full performance dress, kicking a soccer ball irreverently past cruxifixes, bumping into walls (and guest soloists), and just generally causing a ruckus. The soloists and conductor may have been annoyed (though maybe not, I don't know), but I thought it was great.

posted by Skay @ 5:12 PM