Figure 1.--Les Petits Chanteurs de Saint-Francois de Versailles wear the standard French choir uniform, bkue sweaters, white shirt worn without a tie, blue shorts, white kneesocks, and black leather shoes. This is the uniform worn at many private French and Belgian colleges.

Many countries of Western and Central Europe have a long tradition of church boys' choirs dating back to the medevil era. One of the longest traditions is that of the French boy choirs. The choirs were associated and continue to be associated with the the Catholic Church. After the French Revolution (1789) the tradition was lost for many years because of the secular, anti-clerical development of the Revolution. The tradition was revived in the early 20th century with creation of La Manécanterie des Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois. There are now quite a number of active boy choirs that perform at ahigh standard. I do not know of any secular boy choirs in France. The French tradition has influenced the development of boy choirs in several other countries, including Belgium, Canada, Haiti, and others.

Background

Medieval French choirs

I have no information on early French choirs. Presumably the choral tradition in France was similar to that of other European countries. Choral music like Gregorian chants play an important role in the life of the early Church. France, unlike Italy and some other Europan countries, never used castra. The soprani always involved boys from 9 to 14 years old. While most current French choirs are relatively new choirs, there are some with traditions spanning mpore than a millenium. One of the oldest boys choir in catholic church is the " Choeurs d'enfants de la Cathédrale de Paris " created in the 7th century. The choir still functions today. The history of early European choirs is a topic HBC hopes to persue in the future. Most of our current information comes from the 20th century after World War I.

French Revolution

The choral tradition was significantly affect in France as a result of French Revolution which began in 1789. The Church was a sdtrong supporter of the ancien regime. As a result, the Revolution developed as a secular, anti-clerical movement. The strong anti-clerical thrust of the Revolution weakened and changed the character of the French Church. The Cathedrals and the institutions surromding them were greatly weakened. The boy choir traition was weakened along with the Church's control over education. The boy choirs were 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. As a result, none of the French choirs can trace their roots back to early church choir schools like several British and German choirs are able to do.

Figure 2.--Many French choirs were founded at Catholic French colleges (schools) in the years after World War II. Notice the one boy wearing strap shoes.

20th century

The boy choir tradition was not revived until the 20th century. The first activity HBC has noted occured during the summer of 1906, two young students, on holiday at the Abbey of Tamie, in Savoy, form a project which seemed at the time to be a dream: to form a group of children which would go from church in church in various cities to carry the living testimony living of the authentic sacred music. This dream was actually realized in 1907. The result was La Manécanterie des Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois. Their activity helped reintroduce boy choir music to France, especially after World War I (1914-18) in the 1920s and 30s. This single choir had a profound impact on the French boy choir movement. The moveement was interupted by World War II (1939-45) and the German occupation. After the War, however, several boys choirs were inroduced throughout France. Most of the choirs were Catholic choirs, founded by private French colleges (schools). The uniforms thus became the uniforms worn by the boys at the schools. The revival of the boy choir movement has been very successful in France. There appear to be more boy choirs in France today then in any other European country--at least on the continent as there are also large numbers of English choirs. Almost all the French choirs are associated with churches or French Catholic schools. The French appear to take a very conservative approch to church music. Unlike the situation in English cathedrals, HBC knows of no French girl choirs that have been formed. Neither does HBC know of any secular choirs, however, our information is very limited.

21st century

No information currently available.

Figure 3.--Here we see the First French Boy Choir Congress in 1947. The boys are in a procession through the streets of Paris. Here they are in front of the Eustache Church. The boys are all wearing white albs.

French Law

French law was changed in 1901 to make it easier to organize choirs and other such associations. Choirs are organized pursuant to article 5 of the law of July 1, 1901. It deals with non-profit, cultural and educational goals. I'm not sure what the difficulties were previously, perhaps there were restrictions placed on the Catholic church. This requires further investigation.

Terminology

A french reader who was a choir boy tells us that he now sees the treble boys' voice as a treasure of nature. Hesays that there are two types of boys' voices. First is "le soprano" (the best). The plural is "soprani". Second is "l'alto". He reports, "All boys less 12 years old have a soprani voice, some keep it even longer. Many Aria are written for the soprani. My voice broke when I was 14 years old and at 15 it was terrible. I was no longer able to sing the Aria. Later it was possible to sing in a haute-contre voice."

Choir Costumes

French boy choirs perform in a wide variety of costumes. Most French choirs are associated with churches or catholic schools. As a result, the often sing at religious services. One common costume is white monks' cassocks. Other choirs perform in ecleastical robes. The every day uniforms of French choirs have traditionally been blue sweaters, white shirts, blue short pants, and white knee socks. This was priobably adopted by many choirs because it was the everyday school uniform at French private Catholic colleges in the years after World War II. Most French boys at the time wore short pants. Thus the clothes worn by the choristers were not a special uniform. The white kneesocks were a distinctive feature of French and some other European choirs. The white kneesocks, however, were much more common with French choirs than those of other countries. This was quite different than English choirs where boys beyond about 8 years of age never wore white kneesocks. They were much more associated with schoolgirl uniforms in England. One choir performs in destinctive brown velvet knickers with white long sleaved shirts, string ties, and white stockings. In recent years it has become uncommon for French boys to wear short pants as part of a school uniform or for dress wear. Many of the French choirs thus now have long pants uniforms. A few choirs, however, continue to wear short pants--although they often are extremely long at knee length. Some boys even wear their short pants below the knee.

Individual Choirs

There are a large number of boy choirs in France. France appears to have more choirs than any other European country. All existing choirs appear to have been established in the 20th century--a relection of the ant-clericism of the French Revolution. HBC at this time has no information on earlier French choirs--surely some must have existed before the French Revolution (1789). Most of the choirs are associated with the Catholic church. Unlike England there appears to be less interest in organizing girl choirs, perhaps reflecting a more conservative outlook of the French Catholic church. HBC has collected some information on the individual French choirs, although little is known about many of them. The most famous are La Manécanterie des Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois, which played a major role in the development of modern French boy choirs, and the Paris Cathedral Choir. There are also quite a number of excellent choirs that are not as well known. These choirs differ greatly in their training and musical abilities. Some appear to have been only transitory and did not last very long. Others have continued to function over long periods and several changes in choir directors. They also have a variety of uniforms which have changed over time.

Village Choirs

There are also many small village choirs that provided musical accompaniment to Sunday services. These choirs did not persue choral music to the me extent as the more serious choirs nor did they usually have a choir master with musical training. A HBC reader writes, "Your site is incredibly informative and I'm hoping you can help clarify something for me. I'm working on a film that has a scene set on Christmas eve in 1967 in a small village in the Loire Valley. The costume designer is wondering what might the choir boys be wearing here? I showed her pictures of the white cassocks, the ecclesiastical robes and the knickers and socks that choir boys in France wore. She liked the ecclesiastical robes best, but was concerned they might not be common in a small villages. Another concern was whether these would be used on Christmas eve. Could you confirm if these robes would have be used in a small village on Christmas eve 1967? And could you make any suggestions for alternatives to these robes?" HBC was not sure just what these small village church choirs were like. HBC readers have provided some information. Essentially it seems that these choirs are not boy choirs which require a larger pool of boys to draw on and resources to maintain beyond the capabilities of a village church. Rather such choirs would more likely consist of interested adults, although a few boys may might participate as well.

Figure 4.--Perhaps the most famous French movie about French choirs is "La cage aux rossignols" by Jean Dréville. It was made in 1945 with the choristers of the La Manécanterie des Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois (PCCB). Here the boys are seen in a rehersal for the film. The film and rehersal shots provide an intersting look at French boys' clothes at the end of World War II.

French Choir Movies

Some interesting movies have been made in France about boys choirs. The movies have been of uneven quality, but do show some details about the cotumes worn by choirs in France. Unlike neighboring Germany, the sailor suit was not commonly worn for French boy choirs. The best known French movie dealing with boy choirs is La cage aux rossignols ("The cage with the nightingales") used choristers from the French boys choir Les petits chanteurs a la croix de bois, the Little Singers of the Wooden Cross, a choir which has played a major role in French boy choir movement. HBC knows of few other French films dealing with boy choirs.

French Chorister

A French reader who was a boy chorister in the 1950s has provided us an excerpt of his singing as a choir boy in the mid-1950s. He tell us, "Here are some extracts I sang in solo. In the chant " Pueri Concinite " the Ambitus rised till the contre-La , and in this time 1950s I was able to rise much more , till the contre-Ut. The music was my voice in 1957-58 after I came back from Austria. I studied the chant and music at a very young age. It seems I had a good voice and could reach the contre-Ut, which is usefull for certain parts! One can hear my voice amoung the PCCB choir on two or three EP records. I was a solist in the Mozart and Haendel works." Our reader has provided a MPEG-4 Movie file. Or try MPEG-4 Movie file. I have never worked with these files before and am not quite sure how they work. Apparently I have not done something correctly. If anyone knows how these files work, please let me know. I cannot get them to work. A reader suggests using the Window media format. This seems to work better. Let me know if it works for you.

Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web choir costume pages:
[Return to the Main choir page]
[Return to the Main national choir page]
[Australia] [Austria] [Belgium] [Bulgaria] [Canada] [Denmark] [England] [France] [Finland] [Germany] [Japan] [Netherlands] [Poland] [South Africa] [United States]

Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web style pages:
[Short pants suits] [Blazers] [Collars] [Lace collars]
[Ruffled collars] [Eton collar] [Fauntleroy suits]
[Sailor suits] [Ring bearer/page costumes] [First Communion suits]

Created: November 2, 1998
Last updated: 2:37 AM 7/30/2006