Psalms 121 and 122: Kampen Boys Choir

There is a certain quality we associate with the English choral tradition best embodied in the boys choir. Here the treble and bass voices are distributed amongst pre-pubescent and adolescent boys, giving the overall tone an ethereal lightness popularly ascribed to the angels in heaven. Choral evensong in the great cathedrals well exemplifies this tradition.

But to find this heritage carried on in the Netherlands is something of a surprise. One might expect the Kampen Boys Choir to be called Kampen Jongenskoor, but so committed is the ensemble to the English choral tradition that even its name is English. Dress the boys up in red cassocks and white surplices and parade them around the Bovenkerk, and you'd think you were in Oxford or Cambridge rather than in a city of 50,000 in the Dutch province of Overijssel.

Here is the Kampen Boys Choir singing Psalms 121 and 122, not from the Genevan Psalter, but from Miles Coverdale's prose psalter to Anglican chant: