The Boy Voice

THE BOY VOICE By Charles Kent When directed by a competent voice trainer the effect of a large group of children singing together is most striking, and their pure, fresh, flute-like tone, combined with the appearance of purity and innocence which they present to the eye, bring many a thrill to the heart and, not infrequently, a tear to the eye of the worshiper. In directing a boy choir, the sopranos must be taught not only the actual music to be sung at the Church service, but, what is much more difficult, they must be trained in the essentials of correct breathing, tone placement, etc., from the ground up. Hence the absolute necessity of the choir- master being a voice specialist, he need not have a fine solo voice but he must know the essentials of good singing, and must be able to demonstrate with his own voice what he means by purity of vowel, clearness of enunciation, etc. These things are probably always best taught by imitation even in the case of adults; but when dealing with a crowd of lively American boys, imitation is practically the only method that can be used successfully. At the age of six, the voices of boys and girls are essentially alike in timbre; but as the boy indulges in more vigorous play and work, and his muscles grow firmer and his whole body sturdier, the voice-producing mechanism, too, takes on these characteristics, and a group of thirty boys, ten or twelve years old, will actually produce tones considerably more brilliant than those made by a group of thirty girls, of similar age. In many places, school children are at the present time singing very well indeed, and the present growing tendency to encourage public performance by large groups of them makes available a new color to the composer of choral and orchestral music, and promises many a thrill to the concert- goer of the future. The public schools are doing very much more in the way of teaching music than formerly, and in many places, con- sistent work is being carried on, as a result of which the children now in schools, our task of organizing and directing volunteer church choruses use their voices correctly, and are cultivating as well a certain amount of taste in music. Because of this musical activity in the public schools our task of organizing and directing volunteer church choruses should be very much simplified in the near future. Community singing will help at this point, also, and the very much larger numbers of boys and girls who are receiving training as the result of the development of high school music, ought to make it considerably easier to secure the right type of choir director in the future than has been the case in the past. As a result of the present wide spread interest in music and music study, it should be possible also to get very much better congregational singing. All in all, the outlook is extremely promising, and we venture to predict a great improvement in all that pertains to church music in the near future. Rock Springs, Wyoming Public Schools