Short-lived range
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 ]
