Magdalen College Choir is holding an open day to encourage boys to join its famous choir, reports GILES WOODFORDE

As debate ebbs to and fro about the need to close Magdalen Bridge on May Morning, and how much policing is required to stop sozzled students jumping into the water below, one thing never changes. Above the crowds, at 6am, Magdalen College Choir climbs 172 steps to sing the 17th-century Hymnus Eucharisticus from the top of the Great Tower.

Magdalen choir was founded in 1480, and is one of three Oxford college choirs retaining the traditional mix of boy trebles and male altos, plus the usual tenors and basses - the other two are New College, and Christ Church. Director of Music at Magdalen is former King's Singer Bill Ives, who started his career by joining the choir of Ely Cathedral at the age of eight, when he turned up for inspection by the grandly titled Organist and Master of the Choristers.

"Michael Howard was his name. He was an up-and-coming star of the cathedral circuit. He was quite fierce, and demanding. He used to take his dog into choir practice. But I can remember him coming in one summer afternoon and saying: No practice today, boys, have an ice cream and go away.' He had brought a full box of ice creams with him. So there was another side to him. I can't remember too much about the audition - I must have had to read from a Psalm, a test which I still give to the boys here. And I sang Rejoice, the Lord is King, to a tune by Handel. Because I had an elder brother in the choir, I suppose they thought: He'll probably be all right.'"

Now that Bill Ives is a choir director of music himself, I wondered how he would describe his own 'management style', compared with that of Michael Howard.

"It depends on the day, the music, and how I'm feeling," Bill laughed. "Going back to the tyrannical choirmasters of old, who ruled with a rod of iron, this approach wouldn't work nowadays. You're working with boys and young adults, who have varying degrees of experience. Everyone wants the music to be good, and the way not to be good is to be yelling at people all the time. They just switch off - I know that from my own time as a singer. Why should you want to sing for a conductor who rants and raves? You can almost unwittingly pick somebody out, and have a pretty devastating effect on that person. So it's a matter of carrot and stick - but much more carrot than stick. I'm quite relaxed, and I talk about the music - which I've found to be the best way, rather than saying: Oh, you've got that wrong'. We all make mistakes, you're allowed to make mistakes."

First choir practice of the day is at 7.50am. How is your voice, I asked chorister Jamie McIntyre, aged 11, at that time in the morning?

"It's not always in the greatest form. This morning, because it was the first day after the holidays, I felt I couldn't really sing properly. But it's a lot easier after a week or so."

Jamie went on to tell me how he came to join Magdalen choir. "My mum was tempted to get me to join the choir by a school friend of hers. She thought it would be rather cool, and a good idea. So I went along and had a sing. At that point, I didn't really have a clue how much of a commitment it would be, although I had enjoyed singing since I was about three - I was in this little choir, which now my younger brother and sister go to."

That level of keenness and commitment, you soon discover on talking to boy choristers, is at least as high as it is for professional singers three times their age. I wondered what Sebastian (known as Bas) Carter, aged 13, thought was the greatest attraction of belonging to the choir.

"Teamwork. You have to get along with people - if you're spending 26 hours a week with them, you have to learn to like people, which isn't always easy. The choir itself is hard work, but it is rewarding - when you make CDs, and hear the playbacks, it's wild: you can switch to your best baritone voice, and sing along. It's good fun."

Bas Carter is in his last year with the choir, and shortly moves on to his next school. And therein lies a problem. Every year there needs to be a new intake of choristers - with the three Oxford choirs all "fishing in the same fairly small local pond" as Bill Ives puts it - although Christ Church can cast its net further afield as its choir school has boarding accommodation. So Magdalen is mounting an open day on May 10, to show prospective parents and choristers what's on offer, and to give a taste of life in the choir. Meanwhile, the present choir sings on. I asked Bas Carter and Jamie McIntyre which music they most enjoy singing.

"The pace of people in the 16th and 17th centuries was different from people today," Bas answered. "So I find that Byrd and Tallis sometimes make me go to sleep a bit, whereas 20th century composers like Duruflé keep you awake."

Both Bas and Jamie cited Benjamin Britten as their favourite classical composer, and both also like pop music.

"There are a couple of people in the choir who don't listen to anything except classical music in their spare time," Bas revealed, adding: "It's a bit weird to spend 26 hours a week singing it, then listen to it for the rest of your time. So if you look through my iPod, you won't find any classical music."

"I think I've got three classical songs on my iPod," Jamie added. "And maybe 12,000 songs that are not classical stuff."

Details of Magdalen College Choir's open day are available from Elizabeth Martin: 01865 276060 (e-mail elizabeth.martin@magd.ox.ac.uk). Magdalen Choir has recently released a CD of Byrd's Second Service and Consort Anthems (Harmonia Mundi HMU 907440), and a new recording of Duruflé's Requiem follows shortly.