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The concert of the Taunton Madrigal Society in November 1926 was a triumph. The ballroom in south-west England was “packed to overcrowding”, wrote a local newspaper. Encores were plentiful. Yet the event ended in a minor key. The choir badly needed tenor singers, explained one of its members. Perhaps some in the audience might like to join?
“All my life tenors have been the smallest section,” says Will Todd, a British composer. But the shortage of tenor singers is worsening. The lack of high men’s voices, which add colour and harmony to many choral works, is a growing problem for amateur and church choirs. Given the enormous scale of choral singing, it is a problem for music in general.
Germany has at least 45,000 choirs, about 60% of them linked to churches. A poll for the German Music Council found that 8% of adults sing in a group or publicly—more than play in bands or orchestras. Women outnumber men two to one. Roughly the same sex ratio prevails in Europe, America and Nigeria.
When...