Cathedral Choirs in the United Kingdom: the professional boy chorister

Jenevora Williams (Institute of Education, University of London)

Introduction

This chapter reports on a study into the vocal behaviours of male choristers in the United Kingdom. It reflects on the challenge these boys face in giving performances of a professional standard on a daily basis, whilst also following a full school curriculum. Issues to be considered include the younger age of the onset of adolescent male voice mutation, the performance-related stress associated with participation in ‘high profile’ events, (such as live television broadcasts) and the academic pressure placed on boys in their school settings.  In particular, this study enabled a comparative assessment of the influence of environment (boarding school) and activity (chorister training). The chapter explores how the intensive timetable of singing activity results in the boys performing at the peak of their vocal ability.

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Conclusion

This study set out to investigate the vocal health and development of intensively trained boy choristers. This was in the context of a relative paucity of scientific research on the singing voices of healthy or ‘normal’ children and no published research, at the time, in the field of acoustics and psychoacoustics relating to the vocal health or behaviour of children trained in choral singing to a professional level.

Some of the outcomes from the study are:

• Intensively trained boy choristers, despite high levels of vocal loading, have healthier voices than their non-chorister counterparts. Choristers have a higher incidence of low-level vocal dysfunction, suggesting that their voices are slightly fatigued most of the time. They rarely exceed these levels to exhibit higher levels of vocal dysfunction. Choristers probably employ self-regulatory caution with their voice use at all times in order to ensure that they do not exceed certain levels of vocal fatigue. They may also athletically condition their voices to cope with the high vocal loading.
• When measuring detailed voice use of the individual, the Voice Profile Assessment form is the most appropriate; a revised version of this has been suggested in the light of statistical analysis of the data.
• When measuring broad comparisons between groups of this sort, a single-score evaluation of vocal health is most appropriate as the resulting data has sufficient specificity for analysis using SPSS.
• When entering voice change, trained boy singers do not use falsetto phonation in the upper pitch ranges; they use a form of phonation more commonly observed in adult male countertenor and adult female singers – this has implications for voice training during this period of development. When they are actually capable of singing both parts, should they sing soprano or baritone?
• When entering voice change, boys may exhibit attributes of less healthy phonation as a consequence of the rapid growth of the larynx, and not as a result of unhealthy voice use. This has implications for voice assessment practices of voice health professionals and singing teachers.