British and American Theories of the Changing Male Voice: An Historical Overview

Abstract

One of the most challenging aspects of directing adolescent choirs involves the voice change. While the female voice change offers some difficulties, the male voice mutation can prove especially demanding. Knowing how to train the male voice during this period remains a daunting task for even the most skilled music educator. Even today, there are many theories that tout the best method for training the maturing male, yet one theory has not prevailed in solving all of the problems of this dilemma. This is evident in the disparate instructional techniques employed by secondary choral directors to guide emerging adolescent males. The purposes of this study are to examine how British and American music educators have dealt with the complexities of the male voice change and how our current understanding of this phenomenon has come about. By reflecting on the past theories of the male voice change, greater perspective can be gained in order to develop new approaches or adjust current practices in order to more effectively guide the pubescent male through the voice change. Today, educators focus on properly guiding adolescent boys through the voice change. But centuries ago, methods were devised to prevent the voice change from even occurring. It was discovered that removing the testicles of boys around the age of eight or nine prevented them from entering puberty. This method, known as castration, enabled boys to retain their treble voices. According to Weiss, (1) evidence of castrati can be traced back to 2000 B.C. The castrato became especially popular in Italy during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. With the invention of the opera, castrati rose to celebrity status. But around the middle of the eighteenth century, admiration for the castrati voice began to wane. Though the secular popularity of the castrati had diminished, some monasteries and cathedrals still maintained the castrati voices even into the nineteenth century. (2) There is even evidence that the Sistine Chapel employed castrati until 1903. (3) Garcia vs. Mackenzie By the middle of the nineteenth century, a new theory concerning the male voice change emerged. Manuel Garcia II, a famous voice teacher and inventor of the laryngoscope, published a treatise on the art of singing in which he discussed the mutating voice. He wrote: During this time of crisis, it is necessary to let nature, the only dispenser of individual powers, act. In this age of regeneration, the individual could not be too economical of these powers, nor take much care of his constitution. If one impoverishes the vocal organ by the practice of singing, or by any excesses whatsoever, one exhausts the plant before it is fit to give fruit; one causes decay to succeed childhood. (4) He went on to write that individuals should not seriously study singing until after the voice mutation (5) or change had concluded. For males, they could continue study after their voice had dropped an octave. This stirred a great controversy between Garcia and Sir Morell Mackenzie over this subject. Mackenzie, a noted English laryngologist, contended that because the change was gradual, the voice should be exercised and developed under careful supervision. (6) Garcia, however, believed that singing during the fragile voice change period could seriously damage the vocal mechanism and, therefore, recommended the cessation of singing during adolescence. This controversy between Garcia and Mackenzie and their rival camps continued into the early twentieth century. It is widely believed that it was Garcia who instigated the voice-break theory that would be practiced by vocal educators throughout the next century. (7) Many voice teachers and choral directors throughout Europe adopted Garcia's practice of resting the voice during the mutation, as shown by the management of various boys' choirs throughout Europe. The Vienna Boys' Choir released members of the choir as their voices began to break. …