Portsmouth Cathedral’s revolutionary approach to music

Since the 1300’s Cathedrals across Britain have had choirs, but it wasn’t until 1991 that girls were introduced to choral singing. Salisbury led the way, becoming the first cathedral in Britain to have a girls choir. In 2006, Portsmouth Cathedral followed suit, and began their girls choir Cantate. So why did it take so long for these changes to happen? And is there more work to be done?

The cathedral choir at Portsmouth consists of 22 girls, and runs alongside the boys choir, with 24 boys. Both directed by Master of the Choristers, Dr David Price and sub-organist Sachin Gunga. When interviewed, Price revealed that it has taken him “over ten years to work out different strategies” in order to teach both choirs successfully. “ It’s partly an age group thing,” he said, “ the girls tend to need more rehearsal so they are more confident, but the boys, if they rehearse too much they get bored.” Despite the challenges, this has led to the development of “two sets of repertoire” and allows Portsmouth Cathedral to worship with music much more frequently than before. The importance of music in worship is very significant. For many Christians, it helps to unite people in faith, and brings together the community. The presence of a choir provides leadership for the congregation during hymns, and maintains the musical enrichment that being in a cathedral choir provides. 

However, in recent years, we have seen a dwindling number of choristers and choral musicians. Perhaps due to a lack of faith, or maybe as a result of the pandemic. This highlighted the fact that a girls choir is arguably more sustainable than a boys choir. They can begin at the same age, but girls can continue singing through and beyond puberty, whereas most boys are forced to retire from their duties aged 13-14 years and often find it difficult to settle their voices again until adolescence. When asked about this topic, Price said “ That’s very pertinent, you have to work very hard for a girls choir, and it’s true they can stay for longer, but it’s still important to get boys, because there aren’t many tenors and basses around” The lack of tenors and basses leads to a restricted repertoire, and takes away all the harmony and beauty of a four part choir. At Portsmouth Cathedral, choristers are recruited from nearby junior schools. Overall, the boys are younger than the girls, but recently there has been the addition of the junior choirs, training up much younger pupils to be more proficient choristers. At some cathedrals, they use a completely equal approach, where both choirs finish at the end of Year 8 regardless of gender. According to Price, Portsmouth cathedral chose not to take this approach,because the “girls' voices are starting to blossom” at this age, and it would be a shame to let them go at that stage. 

The junior choir has benefited the cathedral in many ways. For the girls, it provides more confidence. The older ones are able to coach the younger ones, and the junior choristers are able to learn from their peers. It also makes recruitment of the main choirs easier, as there are choristers trained and ready to join. 

So, why did it take so long for girls' choirs to become the norm, if there are so many benefits? Portsmouth cathedral was initially held back due to a lack of space, and funding. In 2005 there was only one rehearsal room, but after deciding to introduce Cantate they took over the song school, with room for both choirs. At the beginning, the girls were not treated in the same way. They began doing evensongs on Thursday only, but now have the opportunity to go on tours, do services at least twice a week, and participate in broadcasts for the BBC. 

Overall, Cantate has been a fantastic addition to the cathedral, for both the congregation and the members of the choir, and hopefully in the future, we will see equal treatment of boy and girl choristers all over the country.