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I can’t remember when my voice broke since the event occurred so long ago. But I do recall that one week I was singing in the front row of the church choir and the next I was singing from the back. I had no cause to complain for I was instantly released from the hated and uncomfortable starched collar that I wore and which one very hot summer Sunday made me faint.
In those days, choirboys whose voices broke at the onset of puberty just carried on singing in a different range. Nowadays, they are advised to take a break from singing so as to let their voices settle. I had no such holiday nor sought one as I much enjoyed singing.
The memory of that hated collar returned to me as I read the paper yesterday morning and learned that a growing number of boys’ voices are breaking earlier than in the past, a trend that a Danish study suggests is linked to changes in modern diets. Curiously, this doesn’t imply an increased diet of hamburgers and chips but rather a better diet, with more protein, with the result that puberty arrives a little earlier than in the past.
It is interesting that so widespread is this phenomenon, that many cathedral, church and other choirs are having to limit their repertoires because of the lack of boys that can sing the higher notes. What a shame.
There is something quite special about the rich sound of a boy treble, but I expect that some will still be found to perform in works such as Allegri’s Miserere like that recorded by the choir of King’s College in 1963, featuring the then treble, Roy Goodwin, and to which I am listening with much pleasure as I type these words.
I wonder if he had to wear one of those horrid starched collars?
.
I can’t remember when my voice broke since the event occurred so long ago. But I do recall that one week I was singing in the front row of the church choir and the next I was singing from the back. I had no cause to complain for I was instantly released from the hated and uncomfortable starched collar that I wore and which one very hot summer Sunday made me faint.
In those days, choirboys whose voices broke at the onset of puberty just carried on singing in a different range. Nowadays, they are advised to take a break from singing so as to let their voices settle. I had no such holiday nor sought one as I much enjoyed singing.
The memory of that hated collar returned to me as I read the paper yesterday morning and learned that a growing number of boys’ voices are breaking earlier than in the past, a trend that a Danish study suggests is linked to changes in modern diets. Curiously, this doesn’t imply an increased diet of hamburgers and chips but rather a better diet, with more protein, with the result that puberty arrives a little earlier than in the past.
It is interesting that so widespread is this phenomenon, that many cathedral, church and other choirs are having to limit their repertoires because of the lack of boys that can sing the higher notes. What a shame.
There is something quite special about the rich sound of a boy treble, but I expect that some will still be found to perform in works such as Allegri’s Miserere like that recorded by the choir of King’s College in 1963, featuring the then treble, Roy Goodwin, and to which I am listening with much pleasure as I type these words.
I wonder if he had to wear one of those horrid starched collars?
.
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