ANNA RUSSELL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 821, 22 April 1955, Page 5

ANNA RUSSELL

Sir,-This evening (March 31) I have had the dubious pleasure of listening to a programme by a supposedly good comedienne, Imagine my surprise when I heard this lady make slighting and disparaging remarks, when speaking of English music, on "small boys in surplices." The use of the word surplice implies that the boys in question were church choristers, I should like to register a vehement protest against this jisparaging and obviously uninformed comment. The church service is a divine service of worship, and as such any music included in it is part of that worship. Slighting references to the ability of the singers are in the worst taste under any circumstances. The traditional English heritage of music is a sacred trust preserved in the great cathedrals and churches of the Anglican world, The lady in question is obviously ignorant of such tradition and possibly also of the rules of good taste. It is also probable that she has little knowledge of the differences in quality and tone between women’s and boys’ voices, I suggest that a closer study of the history of the English Church music and especially relating to the training of boys’ voices will cause her to realise (and here I should like to quote from

the Rey. E. H. Fellowes, author of English Cathedral Music, and formerly director of St. George’s Chapel Choir, Windsor), that "the quality and tone of the voices of English choristers .. . cannot be matched anywhere else in the world." I trust that in future similar remarks will not be permitted over the air.

ANGLICAN

(Wellington).