Figure 2.--France has one of Europe's longest traditions of boy choirs, but the disorders following the French Revolution closed most choirs. All of the current choirs were founded in the 20th century.

Boy singers have been involved with the Christian church from early in the church's history. They were an important pat of church services for centuries. New forms of music were developed as the choirs moved from Gregorian chant to polyphony. While the boy choir tradition was almost lost in the strife and warfare following the Reformation. The different Christian churches have viewd boy choir music differently. The tradition was further weakened by the anti-clerical direction of the French Revolution. Boy choirs survived in England and a few locations in Germany and Austria. The boy choir tradition has been revived in the 20th century, by both church and secular choirs.

Early History

Boy singers have been highly valued by the Christian Church in its liturgy from an early stage in its history. According to tradition, it was in the 6th century that Pope Gregory founded the Schola Puerorum at St. John Lateran and St. Peter's Basilica. Pope Gregory the Great initiated catholic ecclesiastical song. He acted during his pontificate to ensure the conformity of liturgical styles as was demanded by Rome. Song became the due expression of the church service succeeding the discipline of lector which young clerics were taught until the age of 20. Clerics in the early church passed music on by memory and the tune was the vehicle for the words. It was not until the 10th century that true progress was made in the notation of music.

Musical Accompanyment

The music of the early church was without instrmental accompaniment which was considered pagan even though the harp, in the Old Testament, is considered to be the "acting soul". In this respect, for a young girl's education, Saint Jerome recommends: "May she be deaf to the organ, to the lyre, to the zither. May she not know why these were invented!" But the teaching of song was promoted. "Let God's ministers bring together not only the young of modest means but others as well. Let there be reading schools for children; let psalms, notes, song, arithmetic and grammar be taught in all monasteries and bishopries". Never did an emperor have such regard for children. "Alas," the schoolboys will cry. These recommendations were to contribute to the unification of an empire and brought about the development of a musical culture throughout Europe. Numerous schools were thus founded. Charlemagne had his, the "Schola Palatina" in Aachen, whose choir he conducted himself.

Polyphony

In the 11th century Guido of Arezzo composed the Micrologus as a didactic aid in teaching chant to boy singers. The austere and monophonic Gregorian chant was followed by polyphony which was being developed at the start of notation. During the Middle Ages all cathedral and churches of any consequence possessed trained boy choristers. At the end of the Middle Ages choir schools were flourishing throughout Europe.

Castrati

HBC at this time has incomplete information on this phenomenon. It was, however, a way of preserving the beautiful voices of boy singers. At the very origin songs in the Catholic church were interpreted by the famous "castrati". I am not sure just when this practice began, but their music was an important element of baroque music. This appears to have primarily a phenomenon of the church in Italy. The role of women in the church, including song was restricted by the result of apostle Paul's epistle "Mulier taceat in ecclesia" (women silent in church). Then came the year 1498 story of Maximilien I replacing the castrati by singing boys.

Tradition Fades

The tradition of boy choirs faded in many countries during the 18th and 19th centuries. The disorders and wars associated with the Reformation, Counter-Reformation and French Revolutions took their toll on the Cathedrals, churches, and royal families that had supported boy choirs. In France, it was unable to survive the establishment of the Republic which was less tolerant of ecclesiastical etiquette than the Germanic countries where choir schools declined only temporarily. There too, however, intellectual and artistic currents weakened the institution, which was then under the responsibility of Lutheran town councils who, little by little, let it fall into decline. The relative stability of England has left that country with many of the few current choirs which can date their foundation back many centuries. Even in England, however, boys' song was also at risk in the industrial and capitalist England of the early 19th Century.

20th Century

There has been a movement in the 20th century to revive boy choirs. Pope Pius X in 1903 made a significant effort to return boys to their traditional place as singers, as part of his sweeping liturgical and musical reforms in the Catholic Church. Many countries took up this challenge and proceeded to re-found boys' choirs as part of their reform of church music. In France in 1907, Paul Berthier founded a group called Les Petits Chanteurs a la Croix de Bois, who, under their subsequent director L'Abbe Maillet, toured the towns and villages as a sort of missionary group for this type of liturgical singing involving boys. Their symbol was a wooden cross on a white alb, their liturgical dress. Other groups in Europe soon followed their example.