‘You can’t get boys to sing these days,” is the complaint of choirmasters the length and breadth of Britain, and they don’t exaggerate. Gareth Malone may dedicate his life to selling the idea that choral singing can be cool and an appropriate activity for alpha males, but getting younger ones to take an interest in anything that looks remotely like a church choir is a struggle. Hence the rarity of a small problem bothering Charles Coles.
Coles directs the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory School: a boys’ choir that leads a double life, singing the daily services in the school chapel, tucked away in deepest Fulham, but also making a weekly trek up to Brompton Road to sing the Saturday Vigil Mass at the Oratory itself. And his problem? He has more boys in his choir than he can accommodate.
“I’ve got 55 right now,” he says, “all of them happy to turn up at 8am every weekday morning for practice, as well as Saturday afternoons, and I have trouble squeezing them into their allotted space in chapel – though of course it’s nice trouble to have.”
Beyond nice, it’s extraordinary: a word that fits the Oratory School in every aspect of its life. Touring the precincts, as I did last week, it’s far from obvious that you’re in a state-funded comprehensive with no fees, no boarding and no selective entry – because everything about it suggests otherwise. There’s an impressive sense of quiet civility and serious learning of a kind you don’t associate with comprehensive education – fixed, of course, by the prevailing Catholic culture of the Oratory Fathers who set up the school in 1863.
But it’s the choir, the Schola, that stands out for me – not least because it’s just released a CD. And while any choir can make a CD these days – the technology is easy – this one isn’t an own-label project engineered in someone’s bedroom. It’s on Sony Masterworks. It comes with a promotional film sumptuous enough to play in cinemas. And as I write these words, its sales rank No 6 in Billboard’s classical album charts, and No 3 in Amazon’s. Extraordinary or what?
Called Sacred Treasures of England, it’s the first in a planned series of CDs in which the Schola will explore the choral music of selected countries. And as Cole explains: “Most of the things on it are the repertoire we sing on a regular basis: Tallis, Byrd, Christopher Tye and other English Renaissance masters.”
That’s much as you’d expect to find at Westminster Cathedral, or the Abbey, or the larger Anglican establishments with dedicated choir schools. But the difference is that it comes from something that’s not a dedicated choir school. And what’s more, something that hasn’t been around for very long – since the Schola was only established in 1996, designed to tighten a potentially loosening bond between the daily business of the school and the liturgical and musical traditions of the Oratory.
“The Schola has achieved a lot in those two decades,” says Cole. “There have been major concerts and, in fact, several previous CDs – though not at the level of this one. When we got the letter from Sony offering us the deal, we had to read it several times because we didn’t quite believe it.
“I think part of the reason they wanted us is that we have a following in America, where we’re on the radar of people who like our liturgically based repertoire. They’ve heard us on tour out there. And the ability to do extended touring is one advantage we get from being part of a school rather than a cathedral foundation where we’d be more tied in to service schedules.”
Another advantage that the Schola has over most cathedral choirs is that, being a full, four-part ensemble with altos, tenors and basses, as well as trebles, it can find a vocal home for boys from eight to 18.
“They can join us in the school’s Junior House,” says Cole, “singing the top line; and then, when the voice breaks, carry on singing rather than be forced out. In fact, we sometimes take in boys who’ve had just that experience. Last year we acquired the ex-head chorister of Westminster Cathedral.”
As for what the boys go on to after the experience of being in the Schola, a good number pick up Oxbridge choral scholarships. “And I’d be worried if they didn’t,” says Cole, “given the amount of time they’ve invested in singing. It would be a waste.”
Eventually, some turn full circle and become lay clerks in the professional Oratory choir, where they then mentor their successors in the Schola at the Vigil Mass on Saturdays. As Coles says: “Simply standing next to an experienced professional, you learn a lot. So we make a point of mixing some of the Oratory’s adult voices in with the Schola boys, and this great culture of singing gets passed on.”
That it is indeed a great culture ought to be self-evident. But just in case it isn’t, Sony’s new release will spread the message. It’s an opportunity. And if the sales continue as they are, the first of plenty more.
Sacred Treasures of England is out now on Aim Higher Recordings/Sony Classical
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