At 10:49 PM -0500 9/18/11, Noel Stoutenburg wrote:
>John Howell wrote:
>
>>  that's true up through Mozart
>>  as far as sacred music goes.
>
>but I would note that it's also true for a significant portion of
>English Cathedral Music up through the present time. While much of the
>music is quite lovely with a mixed choir, the choirs with whom the
>composers wrote the music were the Cathedral and College foundations,
>most of which maintain to this day a choir of men and boys.

Absolutely true!  And that DOES make it a 
different instrument from the mixed choir.

Another factor that skews our thinking is that 
much 19th century sacred music was written more 
for concert use than for liturgical use, often on 
sacred subjects but for choral festivals, and 
women DID participate in those, so composers 
wrote for their voices.

John


-- 
John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music
Virginia Tech Department of Music
School of Performing Arts & Cinema
College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences
290 College Ave., Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411  Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[email protected])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html

"Machen Sie es, wie Sie wollen, machen Sie es nur schön."
(Do it as you like, just make it beautiful!)  --Johannes Brahms

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