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Music
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Vienna Choir Boys
Boy Choir and Boy
Singer CDs
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by Robert Rockwood
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THE TRADITION
of boy choirs reflects a time when boys were regarded as no less
capable than men, just smaller of stature and more beautiful. Like the
boys who performed the roles of women in Elizabethan stage productions
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including all of Shakespeare's plays -- the choirboys who sang the
soprano and alto parts in the music of the Church were regarded as
artistically equal to the men who sang tenor and bass.
For this reason, the choirboy -- like the boy actor -- still evokes a
strong subliminal association with man/boy love, particularly when man
and boy join together in song. Patrick Anthony, in a December, 1990
Bulletin article on the choir school of the St. Thomas Episcopal Church
in New York City, writes that "boy-lovers can find safe, sane but still
exquisite pleasures" from listening to boy choirs. Bill Andriette once
observed that boy choirs are "pornography for the ear." Beyond the
undeniable erotic appeal of a boy's voice, there is also something that
speaks directly of heaven and stirs up powerful religious feelings.
The Christmas season, celebrating the birth of the divine boy Jesus and
emphasizing boys and boy choirs, is the closest our society comes to a
religiously sanctioned festival of boy-love. For boy-lovers, however,
every day is Christmas, for boy-love can be celebrated legally in all
seasons through erotic literature and drawings, photos such as those
published in the Bulletin, and voice recordings. This month's Boy-Love
Bookshelf presents Part 1 of a series on CDs likely to appeal to
boy-lovers. The following CDs, listed in the latest Schwann Opus
catalog (Volume 2, Number 4), can be ordered through any record store.
"Christmas with The Vienna Choir Boys, Hermann Prey & Placido
Domingo" [RCA (Gold Seal) 7930-2-RG]. Providing a generous 73:25
minutes of playing time, this superb collection includes 23 selections
sung in Latin, German, or English. Five selections are with tenor
Placido Domingo and eight with baritone Hermann Prey. The remaining ten
selections feature the Vienna Choir Boys alone, sometimes with boy
soloists. In the final selection, listed as the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria,
but actually the Schubert Ave Maria, Domingo shares the stage with a
boy soprano whose solo begins and ends the piece, creating a charming
effect. Unlike some collections, in which the boys serve as mere
decoration- such as Pavarotti's extremely one-sided dalliance with the
Wandsworth Boy Choir in his O Holy Night album [London 414044-2]- the
boys and men in this fine album function as equal musical partners.
Gian Carol Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors" [RCA (Gold Seal)
6485-2-RG]. Recorded in January 1952 under the personal direction of
Menotti himself, and with the original cast of the NBC telecast on
Christmas Eve 1951, this album features boy soprano Chet Allen's
thrilling performance as 12-year-old Amahl. The man/boy and boy-love
relationships beneath the surface of the Christmas story are
beautifully visible in this fine musical parable of three kings who
make a crippled, fatherless boy (Amahl) whole again by taking him with
them on their quest for the divine boy (the infant Jesus).
Johann Sebastian Bach's "Christmas Oratorio, BWV.248" [Editio Classica
77046-2-RG]. This stupendous performance, under the direction of
Gerhard Schmidt-Gaden, featuring the Tolz Boys' Choir, faithfully
recreates the musical partnership that existed between men and boys in
the 18th century. To ensure historical accuracy, the Collegium Aureum
orchestra uses only original instruments, and the pitch is set as in
Bach's time (half a tone below the modern standard). The boy soloists
on this album, soprano Hans Buchhierl and alto Andreas Stein, are
granted equal billing with the men, tenor Theo Altmeyer and baritone
Barry McDaniel. The musical intergen- erational male bonding expressed
throughout the Christmas Oratorio is especially evident in the frequent
vocal dialogues between boy and man soloists. In each of the six
cantatas that comprise the oratorio the rapid coloratura choral
passages involving double choirs of men and boys are enough to make
one's hair stand on end. Those who have seen and heard the telecast of
the Christmas Oratorio with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Tolz Boys'
Choir in December 1985, in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of
the birth of Bach, are already aware of the extraordinary prowess of
the Tolz Boys' Choir. For the boy-lover, no recording presently
available can measure up to this 3-disk Editio Classica ( Deutsche
Harmonia Mundi) masterpiece. A complete German text is supplied with a
parallel English translation.
Bejun Mehta's "Songs & Arias by Handel, Schubert, Brahms, and
Britten" [Delos D/CD 3019]. Except for sloppy enunciation, the boy
Bejun Mehta, a cousin of conductor Zubin Mehta, was a world class
singer (as opposed to just a boy soprano). Mehta possessed a seamless
mezza-voce vocal instrument without audible register breaks, supported
by stunning musicianship and technique. As recorded in 1983 at age
fourteen, about six months before voice break, his singing was
characterized by strength, brilliance, and an uncanny ability to float
pianissimos even on the highest notes. This album contains 12
selections, all sung in English. Mehta's performance of Schubert's "The
Shepherd on the Rock," with David Shifrin, clarinet, and Carol
Rosenberger, piano, sets a standard that will challenge even the finest
adult singers.
Preben Torntoft's "Danish Songs 1951-1953" [Danacord DACOCD 347]. This
monophonic recording was remastered in 1990 from 78s recorded from 1951
through 1953. A monument to Denmark's most brilliant boy singer, this
exquisite collection includes songs recorded in the years when
Torntoft's singing was at its peak. This boy's voice is so beautiful,
and his enunciation so perfect, that after about two bands one no
longer notices the surface noise. Seventeen of 20 selections are sung
in Danish, including the recitative and aria from Handel's Xerxes.
Preben Torntoft's poignant rendition of Giordano's "Caro mio ben" is an
antidote to dry eyes. The last two songs, sung in perfect English,
sparkle with boyish sweetness and charm.
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From
the NAMBLA Bulletin, Vol. 13, No. 1, Pgs. 20 - 24,
Jan/Feb. 1992
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Copyright © NAMBLA, 2007
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