Cheeky. #ChoristerResearch

I was going to exclude a 'How it Feels to Sing' chapter from my thesis, worried it may be seen as too esoteric / too far removed from 'big questions' of state, power, &c.

But that would mean leaving out 'Brains! Brains all over the place!' which seems a shame. #ChoristerResearch

I recounted this story orally at the Cathedral Organists Association, but here it is as written in my field notebook: an early indication of the simultaneous enormity and intimacy of the world—and the world of cathedral music—as choristers experience it. #ChoristerResearch

This #ChoristerResearch can’t pinpoint the ‘value added’ to a child’s exams per £ invested in their choristership, or how much more ‘economically productive’ they’ll be for having once been a chorister.

It can’t quantify a repertoire for wondering— and would resist if it could.

'Perfection' comes up routinely in interviews: sometimes, it's motivating, aspirational; often, it's closer to crippling.

Here, choristers discuss what to them is the moving imperfection of music made by humans, rather than just 'output' by 'perfect machines.' #ChoristerResearch

he got stuck in a tree and died!

then a horse

#ChoristerResearch Notes on Copies

Today's choristers are, among other things, stewards of our environment. #ChoristerResearch

It's not always easy to sing in front of everyone, so it's good to know that your friends (and THEIR friends) will have your back. #ChoristerResearch

Very probably an epigraph. #ChoristerResearch

Four junior choristers on being in communion with each other through song... and then on Communion itself, complete with a refrain: 'But why? But WHY?' #ChoristerResearch

Things I didn't expect to hear in an interview with a chorister: 'F—k The Sun.'

But what a thoughtful conversation it sparked. #ChoristerResearch

*chef's kiss*

Completely unintentional—this is just who came to me—but admittedly pleasing symmetry. #ChoristerResearch

Unwillingness or inability to believe that ‘serious’ arts/culture could value ‘DEI’ beyond bureaucratic box-ticking or ‘virtue signalling’ or political stunts is nothing new.

Here’s Sir Sydney Nicholson, founder of the Royal School of Church Music, in 1944. #ChoristerResearch

I've shared most of this excerpt before, but I just find it so delightful.

Near the end of interviews, I ask children what people need to know if they're to really understand what choristers do. 'Sam' had some suggestions... and then his mind wandered. 🎶🍌🐉 #ChoristerResearch

SERIOUSNESS—and attendants RESPONSIBILITY, PROFESSIONALISM & HABITUS—is one of the big themes emerging in #ChoristerResearch .

When it does, I think of Larkin in the empty church, wondering who will be last to 'seek this place for what it was... a serious house on serious earth'.

In interviews, choristers speak often about Christmas but very seldom about Easter.

An exception: in this interview, from Lockdown #3, 'Owen' and I commiserate on the alienation that attends a rupture in ritual or cyclical time: when's Easter? Eh... who knows? #ChoristerResearch

I'm not sure if it was their experiences of Covid, the supersaturated public mourning after The Queen's death, personal loss, or what, but one of the most striking threads in interviews & fieldwork has been the pervasiveness of 'death-talk' amongst children. #ChoristerResearch

Protective of my young interlocutors, I hesitated to share this; but it’s too vital to carry quietly. Thanks, Katherine Dienes & COA, for encouragement.

A Black chorister discusses feeling ‘like [she] was dirtying the tradition because it’s meant to be white.’ #ChoristerResearch

'After final self-generated prayers... the congregation is folded up & put away for another time.'

There's a haunting, resonant dissonance to these choristers' imaginings—one from Peterborough Cathedral Choir in CHOIR SCHOOLS REVIEW '83; one in my notes—of cathedrals' futures. #ChoristerResearch

Another puzzle from the 1984 edition of the CHOIR SCHOOLS REVIEW, this one probably harder: according to 13-year-old Andrew Owens, then a chorister of Chichester Cathedral, this program will, if entered into a BBC computer, produce a hymn tune.

Name that hymn… #ChoristerResearch