What Voices Have Emerged? Lessons on Boys' Vocal Dispositions and Choral Tone from a New Choral Leaflet Series

"Emerging Voices" is a choral series published by Oxford University Press. The aim is to cater for adolescent male voices at various stages of change. Part ranges conform to the 'cambiata' system developed by Irvin Cooper. The paper asks whether a unique, characteristic timbral quality exists in voices at the mid-point of change and can be heard as distinctively different from unchanged 'treble' and newly emerged baritone timbre. The first 12 pieces in the series have been recorded by choirs ranging from beginner school groups to a prestigious national youth choir. During the recording process, samples of individual parts were taken to analyse and evaluate the vocal timbres that 'emerged'. A distinct midvoice timbre was only found in choirs where boys possessed significant choral experience gained as trebles. Such voices were more adaptable to different choir dispositions, able to manoeuver between a low alto part and a high tenor part. The paper concludes that Cooper's ideal of 'fitting the song to the voice, not the voice to the song' is only fully realised in solo singing instruction but where boys lacked significant choral experience, placement in cambiata parts that matched speaking voice pitches could result in pleasing choral tone through skilled blending of midvoice stages.