This school, whose chief end was to furnish good soprano voices for the
singing in the holy cathedral church of Manila, was founded in 1742
by the right reverend Señor Rodriguez, archbishop of these islands,
and it has subsisted and still subsists with the same property from
the pious bequest of its foundation.
It consists of a director and a teacher of primary instruction,
both priests; one teacher of singing, chanting, and vocalization;
another of the piano, organ, and composition; and another of stringed
instruments. The children sopranos number eighteen, though at times
there have been more, and all have been supported, clothed, and,
as well, frequently assisted in the career which they have desired
to adopt.
The musical instruction given to those boys is according to the methods
pursued in the conservatory of Madrid; for singing and harmony,
Eslava; for the piano, Aranguren; for the organ, Gimeno; for the
violin, its method and studies, Alard; and for vocalization, Romero.
Because of the tender age of these boys, since they enter at the age
of six or eight years, and remain until that of fourteen, they are not
permitted, except in rare exceptions, to play wind instruments. The
gain due to this institution is public and well known to all who
have heard the harmony produced by those sopranos in the churches of
Manila, and the skill demonstrated by the same in instrumental music
for almost three centuries past. Not few of them have been justly
praised and rewarded in musical contests where they were presented,
for example, in the Liceo Artístico [i.e., Artistic Lyceum] later the
Sociedad Musical Filipina de Santa Cecilia [i.e., Filipino musical
society of St. Cecilia]. [119] This institution has contributed not
a little to the propagation of musical art and good taste.