ANGLICAN CHURCH CHOIRS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21320, 13 November 1934, Page 11

ANGLICAN CHURCH CHOIRS

Dominance of Women Deprecated DR. SYDNEY NICHOLSON'S VIEWS [THE PKESS EpßclaJ SeiTiee.] AUCKLAND, November 12. One principal defect of Anglican Church choirs in New Zealand is the dominance of women, in the opin:on of Dr. Sydney H. Nicholson, formerly organist and master of choristers at Westminster Abbey. In an in;erview, Dr. Nicholson said he had aeard choirs in the cities and also n various small towns. He had Dvery reason to believe that these were fairly representative of New Zealand Anglican choirs in general. "I am sorry to find very few boy choristers," he continued. "Even male voices were often not as strong as they should be. There was no doubt about the enthusiasm of the women; but that is one of the chief troubles. All the best English church music is written for comparatively imall choirs of men and boys, and cannot be sung properly by choirs of men and women." Present Tendencies As an example of the present tendencies, Dr. Nicholson cited a Mew Zealand suburban church which, he said, had a choir consid?rably larger than that of Westminster Abbey. The women were so many and sang so loudly that the men and boys could hardly be heard it all.

"A great many of your choirs are too large," he continued. "Often there seems to be an endeavour to get everybody with a voice into the ihoir, with the result that the congregational singing is not nearly as good as it should be. Female altos ire valuable in a church choir, for nale altos are hard to come by; but in my view, with this exception, the women singers should be formed into a congregational choir sitting in the body of the church and leading the congregational singing. The two choirs might be amalgamated on special occasions when works suited to a mixed choir were performed."

Use of Mixed Choirs

. Dr. Nicholson said he was well aware that a local practice of using mixed choirs had grown up in Australia and New Zealand; but he was quite convinced that it could never produce results comparable with those of the traditional practice. He would strongly recommend that a fund be raised to send some promising New Zealander with suitable qualifications and personality to England for training and experience. This man should then be employed to travel about the Dominion to give instruction. Much good could be done if, for example, summer schools for choirmasters and choristers were held under his direction. It seemed a pity that wider use had not been made of Dr. J. C. Bradshaw, director of music at Christchurch Cathedral, who had done excellent work there for a number of years.