Australian Boys Choir
The Australian Boys Choir is an all male children's choir based in Melbourne, Australia. Its artistic director is Noel Ancell OAM, M.A., B.Mus. (Hons), B.Ed, F.T.C.L. The Choir was formed in 1939 by Vincent J Kelly who was Musical Director until his death in 1972. Subsequent Musical/Artistic Directors were Geoffrey Jones (1972-1978), Ian Harrison (1979-1983) and Noel Ancell (1983- ). The Australian Boys Choir will celebrate its 75th Anniversary in 2014.
Based in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, the Choir presents an annual subscription series of formal concerts, as well as other engagements (television, radio and film). Films that the Choir have provided soundtracks for include the Oscar-nominated 'Elizabeth', and the Australian box office hit 'The Dish' .
Known for its high standards of excellence and extremely broad repertoire of music, the Choir has performs pieces by many composers, including Bach, Benjamin Britten, John Rutter, Noel Ancell, Mahler, Tchaikovsky and Jim Steinman. The choir has a strong commitment to Australian choral music and regularly commissions and performs new or recent works.
Boys' choir
A boys' choir is a choir primarily made up of choirboys who have yet to begin puberty or are in the early to middle stages of puberty and so retain their more highly pitched childhood voice type. Members of a boys' choir are technically known as trebles and often termed boy sopranos," although occasionally some boys sing in the alto range. Some boys' choirs of churches or cathedrals are further supported by older male voices singing tenor and bass; these singers are sometimes former choirboys.
Middle ages & early development
Boys' choirs, as a Euro-American cultural tradition, developed in the Middle Ages. Boys were then responsible for contributing a treble sound to church music, since women were typically barred from the performance of sacred music in a public (gender mixed) context. Some of the oldest existing boys' choirs—such as the Vienna Boys' Choir—trace their roots back to this time.
In 1498, more than half a millennium ago, Emperor Maximilian I moved his court and his court musicians from Innsbruck to Vienna. He gave specific instructions that there were to be six boys among his musicians. For want of a foundation charter, historians have settled on 1498 as the official foundation date of the Vienna Hofmusikkapelle and—in consequence—the Vienna Boys' Choir. Until 1918, the choir sang exclusively for the court, at mass, at private concerts and functions and on state occasions.
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