Choirchild

A figure should be agreed upon, and there should be some definite payment for choirchildren (under sixteen), teenagers (sixteen–twenty-one), and adults.

They would walk to the tiny, crowded Church of myrrh and frankincense, of altars replete with white lillies^([sic]) and red carnations crowning a painting of the mother and child, of bearded priests with deepthroated voices booming resonant liturgies that mixed with the soprano chants of the choirchildren.

She had been to Evensong in the Chapel once or twice, as a child, with her grandfather, but since his death had forgotten about those services, with the vigorous resonance of Cranmer’s prose, and the almost uncanny, almost divine sound of sixteen choirboys, or choirchildren as they were now, their voices shimmering, almost effulgent, in that vast, ethereal building.

To replace it, L’Écho du Noël [The Echo of Christmas] was then launched in 1906 and accompanied by Le Sanctuaire [The Sanctuary], for choirchildren, in 1911, as well as Bernadette, which was first issued in 1914 and was meant for young girls in schools and youth fellowships.