tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post1425650087873241223..comments2024-03-28T00:17:55.823+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Allegri's Miserere - sung by TenebraeBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-18001544060489592412019-05-10T07:09:27.908+01:002019-05-10T07:09:27.908+01:00@aprobst - Well, the women choral singers of that ...@aprobst - Well, the women choral singers of that era deployed a wide vibrato (as it seems to us, now) - while the German culture apparently had a really good way of training boy trebles to sing with a fresh and open tone that is, to my ear, far superior to the 'constipated' sound of the English Choral tradition. Compare the 1950s/60s recordings of the Vienna Boys Choir with Kings College Cambridge. So, I would guess that Orff got a much more 'medieval' sound from boys voices. <br /><br />One factor of which I am aware is that there is a heavy price to pay for having very high standards of singing from boys - a high dgree of sustained coercion in the training, and the encouragement of the usual premature sexual perversities added to by residential schooling. <br /><br />It's a bit like castrati - I am prepared to believe that they were the very best singers of all, but the price was (much) too high. I feel the same about having pre-adolescent boys function as professional singers. <br /><br />So I am relieved that adult women now do an objectively better job at the top level, and I believe that boys choirs ought to have a more relaxed and amateur way of operating (without e.g. choral boarding schools and their intense daily training and performances). Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-65088592192819111302019-05-10T05:48:54.550+01:002019-05-10T05:48:54.550+01:00"... with adult women and adult male counter-..."... with adult women and adult male counter-tenors both having superseded boys..."<br /><br />Too bad that trend wasn't further advanced in Carl Orff's prime. He had nerve using a boys' choir in <i>Carmina Burana</i>.a_probsthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16197411067925016452noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-78051970977858836442019-05-09T14:56:33.809+01:002019-05-09T14:56:33.809+01:00@Francis - I'd have to say this is one of the ...@Francis - I'd have to say this is one of the most intense and musical choral performances of *anything* that I've ever heard! It has a touch of real magic about it. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-24977886496124806712019-05-09T14:40:50.557+01:002019-05-09T14:40:50.557+01:00This is a sublime performance! Thanks for sharing ...This is a sublime performance! Thanks for sharing it. Francis Bergerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11063224017320651978noreply@blogger.com