Boys' choir

What it means

Sängerknaben designates boys' choirs in which the upper voices are sung by boys before the change of voice; older adolescents and men take the lower voices. Many such choirs are attached to churches or institutions and combine musical training with schooling. The sound differs from that of mixed choirs: boys' voices are poorer in overtones, with less vibrato, which produces an even, clear colour.

Musical use

Historically, boys' choirs carried a large part of church music, because women's voices were in many places not provided for in liturgical use. A considerable part of sacred vocal music from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century is written accordingly for this scoring, and register as well as tonal conception are attuned to it. For performance practice this is important information, even though the same music is sung today equally by mixed choirs. Numerous works of later times explicitly call for boys' voices as a particular tonal layer within larger scorings.

Performance practice

Choose registers that lie comfortably, and avoid constant singing at the upper limit; volume is not a goal. Plan for the change of voice: adolescents should be allowed to keep singing, with an adjusted range and without pressure. Work in short, varied units and let much be sung from memory. Watch for even vowel colours and for a moderate, unforced vibrato. When performing older music, it is worthwhile to consider the original pitch standard, because it can differ from today's standard pitch.

Bear in mind that for music originally performed with boys' voices, the pitch standard of the period of origin matters: it often lay lower than today, and a performance at modern pitch can bring the upper voices to their limit. Check this and consider a transposition. Boys' choirs consist of boys' voices for soprano and alto, often supplemented by the men's voices of former members. Plan for the change of voice and adjust parts. Well-known choirs, alongside the Vienna Boys' Choir, are the Thomanerchor Leipzig and the Regensburger Domspatzen.

Clarify the question of pitch standard early with historical music, because it decides the feasibility of the upper voices.