Boy Choir History: The 19th Century


Figure 1.--This is a painting by William Holman Hunt (1827-1910), an English Pre-Raphaelite artist. He entiteled it 'May Morning on Magdalen Tower' (1890). Hunt first attended the traditional May Morning ceremony and made initial observations (1888). The Walker Art Gallery has a watercolor study of the details of the tower, which Hunt apparently studied for several weeks before commencing with his work. The figures are studies of actual individuals. These include individuals from Saint Magdalen College, but the boys are choristers from Westminster Abbey. The youth of the boys accents the seaonal fertility and blossoming of nature during May. One of the choristers looks directly out holding a lily which is the symbol for Saint Mary the Virgin and Saint Mary Magdalen to whom the College was dedicated. This is not by any measure an attempt to provide a detailed depiction of the ceremony. We do not see the people attending or any real attempt to depict the view from the tower. Hunt explained to the 'Pall Mall Gazette' that he wianted the work, "... to represent the spirit of a beautiful, primitive and in a large sense eternal service, which has only been in part restored on the tower, even to the floral fullness of three centuries since, but which still carries evidence in it of the origin of our race and thoughts in the same cradle with the early Persians. This was the kernel of the scene which I had to extract." Notice the full white robes the boys wear.

Cathedral boy choir sreached a low-point during the 19th century. The French Revolution abolished the cathedral choirs during its anti-clerical phase. Napolon's subsequent rampage through Europe and more than a decade of warfare further irreparable damage to church institutions, both Catholic and Protestant. Many of his battles were fought in Germany. Both the German Reformed (Lutheran) and Roman Catholic churches allowed their boy choirs to dissolve. Only a few of these choirs survive today. The Augsburg Cathedral Choir (Augsburger Domsingknaben) was disolved (1865) and not reinstated for more than a century (1976). The Riga Dom Choir in Latvia was founded (1240). They were not refounded until the Soviet Union had begun to disolve (1990). The decline of boy choirs on the Continent was mached by a similar declibe in Britain, although Britain did not experience the French Revolutuion and was not invaded by Napolelon. Britain was, however strongly affected by the Enligtenment and changing tastes in music. The impact on the country's manificent choral tradition was tragic. Many ministers showed little interest in choral music. One author reports, "With ministers seriously derelict in their duties, it was no wonder that there was little life in the choirs. Only a tiny repertoire of simple music was in use." At mid-century there were some important steps initiated to revive the decimated boy choir tradition. Sebastian Wesley described the sad situation, “No cathedral in this country possesses, at this day, a musical force competent to embody and give effect to the evident intentions of the Church with regard to music.” (1849) [Marr] Wesley lunched a personal crusade, dedicating his life to reviving the boy choir tradition in England. He set out to improve the salaries and working conditions of organists and choirmasters. Maria Hackett launched a five decade effort inspect and reinvigorate the choir schools. One source suggests that the choir schools had not only declined, but were suffering neglect and abuse. She took on bishops and deans about these conditions and their eclesistical responsibilities. She continued with her efforts until needed improvements were made. And it was no one stop effort. She visited the schools again and again to make sure improved standards were not meerly adopted, but energetically maintained. Her efforts were aided by a kind of renewed energy within the Churchas well as an Anglo-Catholic. The impact was to increase public interest in high-quality church choirs. None other than Prince Albert followed the revival of choir church music in England and began to take an interest in the English cathedral choirs. English emigrants to America helped to revitalize the Episcopal (Anglican) Church. This included the establishment of several boy choirs, a new tradition in America. John Stainer was appointed choirmaster at St. Paul’s in London (1872). He energetically took up his duties. He enlarged and improved the choir and set a new standard for choir schools with the organization and discipline of his school. John Stainer while a gifted choir master, was not as talented as composer that he fancied himself to be. One author writes, "... he is mostly remembered for almost drowning the nascent choral revival in the molasses of the music he and other contemporaries composed." [Marr] Other composers (Charles Stanford and Charles Wood) rote some beautiful pieces for Anglican services. Their compositions as well as their students (Herbert Howells) created a rich library of new cretions to go along with imptoved musical standards at these schools.

The 1800s

Cathedral boy choir sreached a low-point during the 19th century. The French Revolution abolished the cathedral choirs during its anti-clerical phase. Napolon's subsequent rampage through Europe and more than a decade of warfare further irreparable damage to church institutions, both Catholic and Protestant. Many of his battles were fought in Germany. Both the German Reformed (Lutheran) and Roman Catholic churches allowed their boy choirs to dissolve. Only a few of these choirs survive today. The Riga Dom Choir in Latvia was founded (1240). They were not refounded until after World War II (1950). The decline of boy choirs on the Continent was mached by a similar declibe in Britain, although Britain did not experience the French Revolutuion and was not invaded by Napolelon. Britain was, however strongly affected by the Enligtenment and changing tastes in music. The impact on the country's manificent choral tradition was tragic. Many ministers showed little interest in choral music. One author reports, "With ministers seriously derelict in their duties, it was no wonder that there was little life in the choirs. Only a tiny repertoire of simple music was in use."

The 1840s

At mid-century there were some important steps initiated to revive the decimated boy choir tradition. Sebastian Wesley described the sad situation, “No cathedral in this country possesses, at this day, a musical force competent to embody and give effect to the evident intentions of the Church with regard to music.” (1849) [Marr]

The 1850s

Wesley lunched a personal crusade in Britain, dedicating his life to reviving the boy choir tradition in England. He set out to improve the salaries and working conditions of organists and choirmasters. Maria Hackett launched a five decade effort inspect and reinvigorate the choir schools. One source suggests that the choir schools had not only declined, but were suffering neglect and abuse. She took on bishops and deans about these conditions and their eclesistical responsibilities. She continued with her efforts until needed improvements were made. And it was no one stop effort. She visited the schools again and again to make sure improved standards were not meerly adopted, but energetically maintained. Her efforts were aided by a kind of renewed energy within the Churchas well as an Anglo-Catholic. The impact was to increase public interest in high-quality church choirs. None other than Prince Albert followed the revival of choir church music in England, Their was a boy choir at the St. George Chapel at Windsor. He began to take an interest in the English cathedral choirs. English emigrants to America helped to revitalize the Episcopal (Anglican) Church. This included the establishment of several boy choirs, a new tradition in America.

The 1860s

The Augsburg Cathedral Choir (Augsburger Domsingknaben) was disolved (1865) and not reinstated for more than a century (1976).

The 1870s

John Stainer was appointed choirmaster at St. Paul’s in London (1872). He energetically took up his duties. He enlarged and improved the choir and set a new standard for choir schools with the organization and discipline of his school. John Stainer while a gifted choir master, was not as talented as composer that he fancied himself to be. One author writes, "... he is mostly remembered for almost drowning the nascent choral revival in the molasses of the music he and other contemporaries composed." [Marr] Other composers (Charles Stanford and Charles Wood) rote some beautiful pieces for Anglican services. Their compositions as well as their students (Herbert Howells) created a rich library of new cretions to go along with imptoved musical standards at these schools.

The 1890s

Most of the boy choirs we see in the 1890s are English, we believe all Anglican choirs from the great cathedrals. One of the best known images of English cathedral choirs was painted by William Holman Hunt (1827-1910). He was a an English Pre-Raphaelite artist. He entiteled it 'May Morning on Magdalen Tower' (1890). Magdalen Tower is a bell tower that forms part of Magdalen College, Oxford. It is one of thev oldest parts of the College and situated directly in the High Street. Construction took nearly 20 years and was completd (1509). It is the central focus for the religiou celebrations in Oxford on May Morning which is the subject of the painting. Hunt first attended the traditional May Morning ceremony and made initial observations (1888). The Walker Art Gallery has a watercolor study of the details of the tower, which Hunt apparently studied for several weeks before commencing with his work. The figures are studies of actual individuals. These include individuals from Saint Magdalen College, but the boys are choristers from Westminster Abbey (figure 1). We still do not see any French boy choirs. We suspect that some cathedrals and churches had chours, but to what extent boys were involved we do not know. We know of no residential French boy choirs. We know that there were German boy choirs, but we do not yet know much about them. We do not yet have information on residential choirs in Germany. What was to become the Vienna Choir Boys still in the Emperor's Chapel and were outfitted in military uniforms. And there were some American boy choirs. We think they were again all Anglican non-residentil choirs., the product of Anglican missionaries who brought the choral tradition to American beginning in the mid-19th century. All of these choirs were church choirs singing music to enrich religious services. We still do not see any examples of the modern concet choir.

Sources

Marr, Andrew. "Boys singing togther: A brief history," Boychoir: Past Present and Future (2005).







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Created: 11:18 AM 12/8/2012
Last updated: 6:38 PM 12/17/2012