The Child-Voice in Singing Part 6

The boy's voice may change from the soprano to a light ba.s.s of eight or twelve tones in compa.s.s in a few months, or the change may extend over two or three years; that is, two or three years may elapse after the first distinct break before there is any certainty of vocal action in the newly-acquired compa.s.s. When the voice changes rapidly, all singing should be stopped. Really, in such cases, boys cannot sing even if they attempt to do so.

They are so hoa.r.s.e, and the pitch alternates so unexpectedly between an "unearthly treble and a preternatural ba.s.s" that a boy can usually sing only in monotone, if, with courage proof against the ridicule occasioned by his uncontrollable vocal antics, he tries to join in. In those cases, where the larynx undergoes a slow change in growth, it is often possible for the boy to sing all through the period of change. The upper tones may be lost, while there is a corresponding gain of lower tones. This process, in many cases, goes on slowly and with so little active congestion of the larynx that the voice changes from soprano to alto, and thence to tenor almost imperceptibly. Voices which change in this way often become tenor, but not invariably.

The question now arises, Should those boys who can sing while the voice is breaking be required to take part in school singing exercises?

In Browne and Behnke's work, "The Child Voice," to which allusion has been made, there is given a resume of 152 replies to the question: Have you ever known of boys being made to sing through the period of p.u.b.erty, and, if so, with what result?

The answers were:

Forty correspondents have no knowledge.

Five think the voice is improved by the experiment.

Ten quote _solitary instances_ where no harm has arisen.

Ten know of the experiment having been made, and consider it has caused no harm to the voice.

Eight mention results so variable as to admit of no conclusion.

Seventy-nine say the experiment causes _certain injury_, deterioration or ruin to the after voice, and of this number ten observe that they have suffered disastrous effects _in their own person_.

These answers were from English choirmasters, organists, music teachers, singers, etc. It will be noticed that only fifteen of those who give a positive opinion upon the subject think that boys can sing through the period of break safely; while seventy-nine are positive that the result is unsafe. The other replies are vague.

It must be remembered that many of the opinions are those of instructors in cathedral schools, where one or two rehearsals and a daily church service means a great deal of singing; while other answers come from choirmasters who require of their boys equally hard work, though less in quant.i.ty.

Every individual voice must be judged by itself, if such demands as choir-singing are made upon it; and, while there are some cases, as every choirmaster will probably agree, where no perceptible injury results from singing during the change, the rule is that even when possible, it is very unsafe.

But the daily time given to singing in schools is very short; the work bears no comparison with choir-singing. It might almost be thought as necessary to forbid reading and talking during the break of voice as to forbid its use in a daily drill of fifteen or twenty minutes in singing.

Certainly it is absurd to advocate entire non-use of the voice at this period in either speech or song. It is rather correct to guard against its misuse. If boys have up to this time used only the thick register, they will in singing through the break intensify their bad habits; throatiness, harshness, nasality will become chronic. This would be bad enough, but each bad vocal habit results from the abnormal use of the vocal organs, and occasions hoa.r.s.eness, chronic sore throat, catarrh, etc.

It is quite customary in school music to a.s.sign the boys to the lower part, in part music. This practice continued from the time part-singing begins in the music course, compels the boys to use the thick register.

As the larynx gains in firmness from year to year, they experience more and more difficulty with their upper tones-- those lying from F to C.

Having used only the thick voice in all their school singing, they know of no other, and very likely consider the thin voice which they are now obliged to use in singing the higher tones as altogether too girlish for the prospective heirs of manly ba.s.s tones.

The reluctance of boys to sing the soprano would be amusing were it not, in the light of utterly false training, so pitiful.

School music is educational; its scope is controlled by those in charge.

The public expects good educational, rather than show work, and employs those to supervise and teach who are supposed to know what good educational work is in vocal music.

The supposition that children's voices can, owing to individual differences a.n.a.logous to those existing among adults, be divided into alto and soprano voices, is erroneous; children can most a.s.suredly sing in parts, but the quality of tone which in the woman's voice is called alto or contralto cannot be secured for certain physical reasons previously explained; and the use of the chest-tone, which resembles the adult woman's chest-voice as a clarinet resembles a viola, is wholly objectionable.

If, however, the voices have been trained in the use of the thin register only, the management of the boy's voice during the change is simplified; the influence of good vocal habits will be felt; the vocal bands which have never been strained will respond when their condition admits of tone-production. The boy who has been accustomed to sing with an easy action of the vocal ligaments and with open throat will at once become conscious of any unusual strain or wrong adjustment in the vocal organs. If he has learned to sing well, he has also learned not to sing badly.

The test to apply to the subject of boys' singing in school during the break may be: Can they sing without strain or push? Can they sing easily, or does it hurt? There is a certain amount of humbug in boys that must be allowed for, but it does not affect calculations as to their singing-powers more than upon their other abilities, if singing is well taught.

The speaking-voice also indicates the state of the vocal organs, and shows the effect of the break sooner than does the singing-voice. If the tones in speech are steady in pitch, singing is possible in all probability. If, on the contrary, the speaking-voice is croaky and wavering, singing is difficult, if not impossible. As the object of the study of vocal music in the public schools, in so far as it relates to the treatment of the voice, is to develop good vocal habits, not bad ones, it follows that if boys sing during the break it must be only upon those tones which lie within their compa.s.s at any time, and that the vocal organs must be used lightly, and without strain.

In nearly every upper grade room there will be a percentage of boys whose voices are in a transition stage, some of whom can sing and others of whom cannot. It requires judgment and tact to handle these voices, but if boys have sung as they should up to this period, and have taken pleasure in it, the mutual good understanding between them and their teacher need not be disturbed. They are likely to do their best.

In this connection it should be said, that really it may be doubted if the common practice of a.s.signing all boys, whose voices show signs of breaking, to the ba.s.s part, is right.

If boys have been kept upon the lower part, in all part singing and have never used other than the thick chest voice, then, when the voice begins to break up, it may be that they must sing ba.s.s or not sing at all. Boys trained in this way have never used the soprano head register and so if they sing alto, it will be with the thick chest voice of boyhood, which will now be the upper tones of the developing man's voice.

Singing alto at the mutation period in _this_ manner, strains the vocal bands beyond reason, and should not under any circ.u.mstances be allowed.

It must be understood then in what follows, that singing alto in this, the chest voice, either before or during the break, is unqualifiedly condemned.

But we will suppose now that boys have been permitted to sing only in the head register, that they have been a.s.signed to the upper part in part singing, for notwithstanding that usage is to the contrary, this is what should be done. As has already been suggested the voices of girls change less, and at a younger age than do boys, and they begin to show weight of tone and increased volume, at an age when boys are at their best as sopranos. Girls at this period should sing the middle and lower parts, but it must be said in pa.s.sing that much of the music contained in our text-books ranges too low in pitch for them, or any voice except a low contralto or a tenor. They must not be permitted to use their voices at full strength, and special care should be taken of those who at this age show hoa.r.s.eness. With girls as with boys, the change is accompanied with periods of great relaxation of the vocal bands, and during these periods the singing tone is either very light, or very loud.

Returning to the subject of treatment of boys' voices during mutation, and premising that they have sung only in the head voice during childhood, the question arises whether they are not in many cases set to singing ba.s.s prematurely. It is obvious that during this period the voice is actually _broken_, divided in two. The lower notes are produced in the chest or man's register, while more or less of the boy's voice remains as upper tones. These tones, by the way, never are lost, they remain as the falsetto or head voice of the man.

Now the vibratory action of the vocal ligaments is much larger for the chest voice than for the head, or as we ordinarily call it, the falsetto. There is then no question that during mutation a boy can confine himself to the use of his old voice, or so much of it as is available at any time with very little strain. The tone will be light, in fact, during the active periods of laryngeal growth which characterize mutation, there will perhaps be no voice at all, owing to the congestion of the parts, but in the periods of rest separating the periods of growth, the vocal bands will respond. The compa.s.s of the head voice at this time varies largely, but it corresponds pretty closely to that of the second soprano, in three part exercises, or from C to C. If it is attempted to carry the voice down it changes to the chest register unless used very lightly.

Without attempting then to lay down positive rules for treating a voice which consists of fragments of voices, the above suggestions are made in the hope that they may receive the consideration of teachers and musicians.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ALTO VOICE IN MALE CHOIRS.

The suggestions of the preceding chapters are addressed directly to those who teach vocal music in public or private schools, but the general principles and rules are equally applicable to the training of soprano choir boys.

The results in beauty and power of tone which may be obtained from carefully selected choir boys can seldom be equalled in the school-room, first, because training is required to develop voices in strength and purity of tone, and the time devoted generally to school singing, one hour a week possibly, is no more than that given to a single rehearsal of choristers.

Again school singing includes all members of the cla.s.s, and while it is true that there may be but few pupils in each room who cannot sing, yet there are likely to be some.

These voices, which we call monotones disappear almost entirely when pupils are trained to use the head voice. Still, there is a percentage in every cla.s.s in school, whose inherited musical perceptions are very feeble, and their slowness cannot but r.e.t.a.r.d the general progress.

Many of the difficulties that beset the teacher of music in schools, then, are eliminated at the start by the choir trainer, when he selects boys with good voices, who sing in tune naturally.

The increase in the number of vested choirs in this country has been very rapid during the past few years, and fortunately, the ideas which have prevailed among the majority of choir-masters on the subject of the boy voice, have been just. This is easily understood when we reflect that we have made the best English standards our ideal.

The leaven of sound doctrine on the boy voice is working rapidly, and there are many choirs both in our large and small cities that are excellent examples of well-trained soprano boys.

There is, however, one problem of male choir training which is not yet satisfactorily solved, at least it is troublesome to those choirs which have a small or moderate appropriation for music.

Boy sopranos are plentiful, ba.s.ses and tenors are easily obtained, but good male altos, men, not boys, are almost unknown outside of a few large cities. This state of affair has led, in many cases, to the employment of boys as altos, and they have of course sung with the thick or chest voice. It is an unmanageable and unmusical voice, it is harsh, unsympathetic, hard to keep in tune, its presence in a choir is a constant menace to the soprano tone, and were it not for the idea that there is no recourse from this voice, save in the employment of woman altos, it would not be tolerated by musicians.

There is a recourse, however, and it is at the command of every choir trainer whose sopranos have been taught to sing with the head voice alone. It is to select certain sopranos, and when the voice breaks, let them pa.s.s to the alto part, and _continue to use the head voice_.

The objection which will naturally occur, is, that no singing should be permitted during the break. Well, let us consider. The period during which the voice, in common parlance, is breaking, is a period of laryngeal growth, just as inevitable and natural, as is the growth of the body generally. The voice may be fractured, but the larynx is not.

Every choir trainer must have observed the preliminaries to this period.

A boy for instance, shows all at once a sudden increase of volume and finds it difficult to sing unless quite loudly or softly.