Boy soprano

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A male soprano (British [1] [2] and especially North American English) [3] or boy treble (only British English) [4] is a young male singer with a voice in the soprano range, a range that is often still called the treble voice range (in North America too) no matter how old.

Contents

Origins

In the Anglican and English Catholic liturgical traditions (in which girls and women did not sing in church choirs), young male choristers were normally referred to as "trebles" rather than as male sopranos, [5] but today the term "boy trebles" is increasingly common (girls with high voices are trebles too). The term "treble" derives from the Latin triplum, used in 13th and 14th century motets to indicate the third and highest range, which was sung above the tenor part (which carried the tune) and the alto part. Another term for that range is superius . The term "treble" itself was first used in the 15th century. [6] [7] Trebles have an average range of A3 to F5 (220–700 Hz). [8]

The term boy soprano originated with Dr Henry Stephen Cutler (1825–1902), choirmaster of the Cecilian Choir, New York, who used the term for both the choir members and soloists, who were church choristers, when giving concerts in public halls. The earliest use found can be traced to a choral festival at Irving Hall, New York, in May 1866. [9]

Short-lived range

The general vocal range of an adult female soprano is C4-C6 (highlighted), with notes unreachable by an average Treble marked in red (B5-C6). Range of soprano voice vs. boy soprano marked on keyboard.png
The general vocal range of an adult female soprano is C4–C6 (highlighted), with notes unreachable by an average Treble marked in red (B5–C6).

Most trebles have a comfortable range from the A below "middle C" (A3, 220 Hz) to the F one and a half octaves above "middle C" (F5, 698 Hz), [10] roughly corresponding to an adult male baritone range, up one octave. Some writing demands higher notes; the Anglican church repertory, which many trained trebles to sing, frequently demands G5 (784 Hz) and A5 (880 Hz). [11] Some trebles, however, can extend their voices higher in the modal register to "high C" (C6, 1046 Hz). The high C is considered the defining note of the soprano voice type. For high notes see, for example, the treble solo at the beginning of Stanford's Magnificat in G, David Willcocks' descant to Mendelssohn's tune for the carol Hark, the Herald Angels Sing, the even higher treble solo from Gregorio Allegri's Miserere, and the treble part in the Nunc Dimittis from Tippett's Evening Canticles written for St John's College, Cambridge. Many trebles are also able to reach higher notes by use of the whistle register but this practice is rarely called for [12] and writing above high C is very rare in choral music of any kind.

As a boy approaches and begins to undergo puberty, the quality of his voice increasingly distinguishes itself from that typical of girls. [8] The voice takes on a resonant masculine quality before its pitch drops, resulting in a liminal stage wherein the boy may sing in a high register with a unique timbre. This brief period of high vocal range and unique color forms much of the ground for the use of the boy soprano in both liturgical and secular music in the Western world and elsewhere. Occasionally boys whose voices have changed can continue to sing in the soprano range for a period of time. This stage ends as the boy's larynx continues to grow and, with the breaking of his voice, he becomes unable to sing the highest notes required by the pieces of music involved. [13]

It has been observed that boy sopranos in earlier times were, on average, somewhat older than in modern times. [14] For example, Franz Joseph Haydn was considered to be an excellent boy soprano well into his teens [15] and Ernest Lough was 15 when he first recorded his famous "Hear My Prayer" (on 5 April 1927), with his voice not getting deeper until sometime in 1929, when he was either 17 or 18 years old. [16] However, for a male to sing soprano with an unchanged voice in his mid-to-late teens is currently fairly uncommon. [17] In the developed world, puberty tends to begin at younger ages (most likely due to differences in diet, including greater availability of proteins and vitamins). [18] It is also becoming more widely known that the style of singing and voice training within cathedrals has changed significantly in the past century, making it more difficult for boys to continue singing soprano much beyond the age of 13 or 14, [19] with the raising of concert pitch being one factor.

Early breaking of boys' voices due to puberty becoming earlier in recent times is causing a serious problem for choirmasters. [20]

On the other hand, some musicologists dispute that earlier onset of puberty occurs. They contend that there is no reliable evidence of any significant change in the age of boys' maturity over the past 500 years or even beyond that. [21] [22] A counterargument to this viewpoint is the paucity of bearded fourteen-year-olds from the historical record, the increased incidence of precocious puberty diagnoses, and availability of testosterone replacement therapy that many parents of boys experiencing delayed adolescence or intersex conditions opt to undergo.[ citation needed ]

Notable boy sopranos

Related Research Articles

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A soprano (Italian pronunciation:[soˈpraːno]) is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880 Hz in choral music, or to "soprano C" (C6, two octaves above middle C) = 1046 Hz or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which often encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, soubrette, lyric, spinto, and dramatic soprano.

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References

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  4. ↑ Due to the tradition of not using girls in church choirs, boy sopranos are often still simply called "trebles" even when the gender of the singers is not mentioned, but girls with high voices are trebles too. Even the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music makes this mistake on p. 689 (A boy soprano is known as a treble.) though it points out on p. 746 that all children with high voices are known as trebles.
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