Figure 1.--The French choirs in addition to their musical training are well-schooled in stge craft. We have some accounts from former choristers describing their experiences. |
|
French choristers have provded us some information about their experienes with choirs and choral singing. These accounts provide some fascinating insights into Frech choirs and what it was like to be a chorister. It required an amazing commitment on the part of very young boys, especially with the more established choir. The boys gained an amazing music education, but gave up some of the joys and feeedoms of childhood. Much of the available information on boy choirs is understadbly related to the musicality of the choir--the music produced by each choir. Less well covered is the experience of being a choir boy. Some readers have provided us some wonderful insights about their choirs and chorister experiences.
A French reader who was a boy chorister in the 1950s has provided us an excerpt of his singing as a choir boy in the mid-1950s. He tell us, "Here are some extracts I sang in solo. In the chant " Pueri Concinite " the Ambitus rised till the contre-La , and in this time 1950s I was able to rise much more , till the contre-Ut. The music was my voice in 1957-58 after I came back from Austria. I studied the chant and music at a very young age. It seems I had a good voice and could reach the contre-Ut, which is usefull for certain parts! One can hear my voice amoung the PCCB choir on two or three EP records. I was a solist in the Mozart and Haendel works." Our reader has provided a MPEG-4 Movie file. Or try MPEG-4 Movie file. I have never worked with these files before and am not quite sure how they work. Apparently I have not done something correctly. If anyone knows how these files work, please let me know. I cannot get them to work. A reader suggests using the Window media format. This seems to work better. Let me know if it works for you.
I was a member of the Manécanterie des Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois. It is the more prestigious French Choir.
Known abroad as The Little Singers of Paris. I was PCCB chorister during the late-1940s and earlt 50s. In my time this Institution was installed in Paris 17 Rue E. Flachat. (from 1943-63). Then there were a few years in Meudon (South Paris). There was a long stay in Château de Glaignes. There was a short stay back in Paris (2007-10), Finlly we settled in the Château Saint Loup 89210 Brienon sur Armançon. It was a wonderful experience, but very demanding. I loved the singing. I have continued to support the choir as an adult.
I was in a choir school for a few years during the early-2000s. My parents felt it was a good education, better than available in an ordinary state school.. Ihad heard choirs perform a few times and was interested. I have mixed feelings about the experience. I enjoyed the experience. I liked the singing and traveling, but it was tiring sometimes. The education focused on choir training, and the training was strict. The overall quality was good. We had the educational qualifucations to go to many other schools after leaving the choir school. I do not sing often now, so choir training was not beneficial in a vocational sense. In school, we listened to classical music and pop music. After leaving the choir, I listen mostly to pop music. Not a lot of people seem tp like choral music nowadays. As choristers we boarded. We had friends, but I missed home a lot. It was difficult because we have less freedom and more rules in boarding school. I was still young and a little home sick. I was 10 years old when I began with the choir. I left when I was 14 years old and my voice changed. We only went home during vacations. While at the school we didn't need to wear a uniform, except on certain special occasions. When we sang or when we went on tours, we had to wear our uniforms. We had a religious costume and a secular uniform. The religious uniform was a white robe, like many other choirs. Usually we wore the white robes over our secular uniform. The secular uniform was made up of a shirt, sweater, short pants, kneesocks, and black leather shoes. Most of the time we wore the secular uniform. The standard of dress for our performances was very strict. The Choir wanted us to look smart. People notice us when we visited places on tours. In the past, this uniform style was used by fee-paying/private schools, but today most schools do not have a uniform. We prefered to wear our own clothes, but we were required to wear uniforms in the choir. We were proud of our uniforms, but it is strange to walk in public places because the style is from many years ago. Other boys our age could wear normal, trendy clothing, like t-shirt and jeans. Sometimes it could also be cold in our short pants. The rules for the uniform are very strict, so we don't have a lot of freedom to choose. We stayed in the boarding school most of the time so we do not meet a lot of other boys often, although some boys we meet thought wearing a uniform was not 'cool'. Sometimes when we go on tours to small towns, we stayed with other families, and we have to remain in uniform at their homes. They said we looked smart. But the boys in the home sometimes ask why we dressed like that. Short pants and knee socks were no longer worn by boys our age when dressing up, especially teenagers.
Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web choir costume pages:
[Return to the Main French choir page]
[Australia]
[Austria]
[Belgium]
[Bulgaria]
[Canada]
[Denmark]
[England]
[Finland]
[Germany]
[Japan]
[Netherlands]
[Poland]
[South Africa]
[United States]
Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web style pages:
[Short pants suits]
[Blazers]
[Collars]
[Lace collars]
[Ruffled collars]
[Eton collar]
[Fauntleroy suits]
[Sailor suits]
[Ring bearer/page costumes]
[First Communion suits]