Steve Schwartz <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>This is the goal of the so-called "British Cathedral" sound of choral
>singing.  Not surprsingly, Australia and New Zealand share it.  If someone
>didn't tell me, I wouldn't have been able to distinguish between women (or
>adult male trebles) singing in this style and children.  So it's not
>"unique" to me.  Mostly, one has to go to obscure British labels like
>Priory.  I haven't seen a Priory CD in the US, except at Berkshire Record
>Outlet.

Are there any particular choirs you have in mind who sing like this? All
the Priory recordings I've heard have been of all-male choirs.  I listen to
the weekly evensong broadcast on BBC Radio 3, which is usually an all-male
cathedral or collegiate choir, but sometimes a mixed choir.  I find it easy
to distinguish the mixed voice ensembles.  For example, when Christ Church
Cathedral, Dublin, broadcast I could tell that they had women on the top
line even though I did not already know that they were a mixed choir and
had good reason to assume otherwise.  Similarly when I once turned to a
broadcast of Manchester Cathedral after the opening announcement it was
obvious that the usual boys (and girls) who sing there had been replaced
by adult sopranos for that particular broadcast.

Maybe it is because I am within the British choral tradition myself
that I can pick up on the difference in tone.  This is not to say that
I necessarily like the mixed-voice choirs, even though I can for obvious
reasons identify more with the sound.  (For example, I find the choir of
Trinity College, Cambridge very boring to listen to because of the same
bland, unchanging tone which they have made as long as I can remember).

Virginia Knight
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http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/~ggvhk/virginia.html