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HBC has only limited information on this French choir. It was created during 1946 in a Paris suburb--Asnières. The choir was founded by Jean Amoureux who continues to direct it. The choir made some major appearances in the 1980s. The choir in the 1990s appaered on television programs such as Sacré Soirée, le Téléthon, with Jacques Martin. They choir sings with with well-known stars: Cabrel, Mireille Mathieu, François Felman, Balavoine, Celine Dion, Roch Neighbor, Enrico Macias, Pascal Obispo, Charles Aznavour, and much of others. One available image shows that the choir made a trip to perform in Germany. Some longer hair styles suggest that the trip was taken in the 1970s. We have no more current images and in fact are not sure if the choir still exists. The boys wore a simple uniform of white shirts, dark ties, probably blue short pants, white kneesocks, and black leather shoes. They also wear campaign, military style caps--unusual for a French choir. We do not know if they had jackets, but there does not appear to have been one for the choristers.
HBC has little information on the choir. It was created during 1946 in a Paris suburb--Asnières. The choir was founded by Jean Amoureux who continues to direct it. The choir made some major appearances in the 1980s, appearing in Olympia with Enrico Macias, Gilbert Bécaud and Charles Dumond and in Bobino with the Casino of Paris. They also help enliven the Christmas tree ceremony at the Elysium Palace at the request of the president, then of the townhall. The choir in the 1990s appaered on television programs such as Sacré Soirée, le Téléthon, with Jacques Martin. They choir sings with with well-known stars: Cabrel, Mireille Mathieu, François Felman, Balavoine, Celine Dion, Roch Neighbor, Enrico Macias, Pascal Obispo, Charles Aznavour, and much of others.
We believe that this is a boys' choir. There is a girl in one photograph. She appears to have been photographed in some kind of German folk costume. HBC is not sure just who the girl is. Perhaps she was the daughter of the restaurant owner and work there. One photograph of the choir shows choristers that look like they may be girls. Pribably this just is a reflection of the long hair styles that were popular for boys during the 1970s.
There were about 60 in 2000, but not all sing. Indeed, among them is too young or new children in the group. The choral society also has her own technicians and their own orchestra. In the early years, boys as young as 6 years entered the choir. I'm not sure whay the entry age is now.
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We do not know specifically when this choir was active. One photograph is dated to 1970. Some indication is possible from assessing the hair styles and uniform styles shown in the images. Some of the long hair styles suggest the 1970s. In other images the shorter hair and trim cut shorts look rather like the early 1980s, but this is only a guess at this time. We do not know if the choir is currently active. We have not yet noted any recent photographs of the boys.
One available image shows that the choir made a trip to perform in Germany. At least the appear to have been photographed outside some kind of German restaurant. Perhaps they were having a meal after performing on a trip to Germany. I'm not sure what the sign on the restaurant says.
The choir appears to have given some attention to their uniform as all of the boys appear to be smartly kitted out. The boys wore a uniform of white shirts, dark ties, probably blue short pants, white kneesocks, and black leather shoes. They also wear campaign, military style caps--unusual for a French choir. The uniform is similar to many French choirs where the boys wear often wear white or light blue shirts, blue shorts, and white kneesocks. Some boys may be wearing long pants, we are not sure what the rule was. We do not know if they had jackets. The uniform is similar to that worn at some French private schools. As the French choirs were mostly organized by French Catholic groups, this is primarily why so many of the uniforms are similar. The fact that they boys are so identically uniformed, however, suggest that considerable attention was given to their appearance.
While we have no information about this choir, some insights on their choir uniform can be gleaned by examining the available photographic images. We have no details on the uniform garments or the uniform rules.
The one rather unusual aspect of the boys clothing is the caps. HBC believes that the cap look rather like East German Young Pioneer caps. In fact at first glance we thought this might be a German Young Pioneer group. HBC has never noted a French choir wearing such caps. Notably not all of the boys wear the caps. HBC speculates that perhaps the boys may have been performing in East Germany, perhaps at a Young Pioneer event and were given the caps. Perhaps the Pioneers were sponsoring a choir competition of some kind. However, a 1970 portrait shows many boys wearing these caps so it must have been part of their uniform.
HBC notes that the boys are wearing ties. The are solid colored ties, presumably dark blue like the short pants. Some of the ties seem rather narrow as was the style in the 1960s.
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We do not know if the boys had uniform jackets. We note that some older boys appear to be wearing blue blazers. Almost all of the boy choristers, however, wear only white shirts without any jackets.
The boys have crests on their shirts. Often the crests are on sweaters rather than shirts. Presumably the photograph was taken in the summer when the boys weren't wearing sweaters or jackets. All the shirts are long sleeve shirts.
Many of the boys wear short pants. HBC believes that these were blue shorts as was common at some private Catholic schools and with other French choirs. Some of the boys seem to have short pants of a slightly different shade. Some of the boys may be wearing long pants, but it is difficult to tell from the photograph. At least one older boy in one photograph wears long pants, presumably blue pants matching the shorts of the other boys. Some of the shorts seem to be different shades, perhaps due to washing as presumably they were all purchases from a single outfitter.
All of the boys in short pants wear white kneesocks. Again this was was common at some private Catholic schools and with other French choirs. Some boys seem to have shorter socks, but most seem to wear kneesocks, smartly pulled up to the knee.
We do not know to what extent costumes were used in the choir's many performances. Many choirs have costumes used for skits or operetic pieces. We note what looks like a girl here in a scene outside what looks like a German restaurant (figure 1). We assumed at first that the child wearing what looks like a German girl's folk costume. A reader writes, "Could you have a look at the image on the Les Petits Chanteurs d'Asnières photograph. Is that a boy or a girl at the front. The costume certainly looks like that worn by a girl, but the person wearing it has what looks to me like the face of a boy." We had not given much attention to this. We had assumed that the child was a girl working at the German restaurant the boys presumably ate at. It is possible, however, that this may have been a costume used in one of the performances.
A photograph from the late 1960s show all the choristers with short, but not severe hair cuts. HBC is not sure if the choir had a policy on this. Some longer hair styles can be seen on another image of the chour on a trip, suggesting that the trip was taken in the 1970s. Not all the boys have long hair, but several do. While the hair styles changed, HBC notices no change in the uniform.
We are not sure if the choir had a seasonal uniform or not. We note that there were jackets for the older boys. We do not know if the younger boys had a uniform jacket or sweater for performances during the winter.
An HBC reader in South Africa reports that this French choir uniform is "simple, but effective."
There appears to be an association between the Choir and a smaller group of boys, perhaps choir members, called Poppys. They seem to sing popular music. We do not at this time understand the connection. Les Poppys is a destinctive French boy choir. Unlike most French boy choirs, it was not church related. It began as a church choir. The origins of the Choir go back to Les Petits Chanteurs d'Asnières founded by Jean Amoureux (1946). Francois Bernheim who a boy choriser at Les Roche-Martin and became the artistic director for the important record company Barclay. He discovered the singers in 1970 and came up with the idea of Les Poppys formed with boys from Les Petits Chanteurs d'Asnières. Les Poppys was influenced by the Hippie movement in America and made songs protesting the Vietnam War became an important part of their repertoiry which inckluded some of the traditional choral music the boys were trained to sing with Les Petits Chanteurs d'Asnières. Their new name was based on the word 'Pop Music'. Of course with their Hippy orientation, the name also was close to the word Poppie in English. Unlike their suposedly Hippie ideal, Les Popys was a huge commercial hit. Barclay earned a great deal of momey. Very little of this filtered down to the boys involved.
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