STANDARDS of singing across the nation’s cathedral and collegiate choirs are generally as high as they’ve ever been, with girl choristers now offering a welcome dimension. Yet these establishments no longer take for granted that queues of prospective choristers will snake back from their doors. In terms of raw numbers, the presence of girls has boosted total chorister numbers to perhaps record levels, but this hides a concerning trend in recruitment. The word from one cathedral is that recently only two boys applied to be auditioned for six places on offer and a mere eight girls for five places.
‘It’s a real issue generally,’ says Clive Marriott, chairman of the Choir Schools Association (CSA) and headmaster of Salisbury Cathedral School. ‘Choir schools are having to be more agile. The CSA is currently keen to work on a national campaign to promote choristerships.’
King’s College, Cambridge hasn’t been immune from the challenges, admits Yvette Day, head of King’s College School. ‘One factor for many establishments is the decline of parish church choirs across the country. They used to play a vital role. When it was clear a child was talented, somebody would likely have said: “Why don’t you try for a choristership at a cathedral?” Things have moved on.’
Adrian Partington, director of music at Gloucester Cathedral, also suggests the situation has deteriorated, ‘because in many schools not enough emphasis is placed on the benefits of music. Fewer children are learning an instrument. Parents tend to be always in a rush—and, unless the child is boarding at a choir school, the demands of ferrying him or her to practices and services are very real’.
Denne historien er fra February 22, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra February 22, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
