been
established, and frequently a temporary but almost total loss of
control of the vocal organs. These changes sometimes take place as
early as the thirteenth year, but on the other hand are frequently not
noticeable until the boy is fifteen or sixteen, and there are on
record instances of boys singing soprano in choirs until seventeen or
even eighteen. The loss of control that accompanies the change of
voice (with which we are all familiar because of having heard the
queer alternations of squeaking and grumbling in which the adolescent
boy so frequently indulges), is due to the fact that the larynx, vocal
cords, _et cetera_, increase in size more rapidly than the muscles
develop strength to manipulate them, and this rapid increase in the
size of the parts (in boys a practical doubling in the length of the
vocal cords) makes it incumbent upon the choir trainer to use extreme
caution in handling the voices at this time, just as the employer of
adolescent boys must use great care in setting them at any sort of a
task involving heavy lifting or other kinds of strain. In the public
schools, where no child is asked to sing more than ten or twelve
minutes a day, no harm is likely to result; but in a choir which
rehearses from one to two hours each day and frequently sings at a
public service besides, it seems to be the consensus of opinion that
the boy is taking a grave risk in continuing to sing while his voice
is changing.[34] He is usually able to sing the high tones for a
considerable period after the low ones begin to develop; but to
continue singing the high tones is always attended with considerable
danger, and many a voice has undoubtedly been ruined for after use by
singing at this time. The reason for encouraging the boy to keep on
singing is, of course, that the choirmaster, having trained a voice
for a number of years, dislikes losing it when it is at the very acme
of brilliancy. For this feeling he can hardly be blamed, for the most
important condition of successful work by a male choir is probably
permanency of membership; and the leader must exercise every wile to
keep the boys in, once they have become useful members of the
organization. But in justice to the boy's future, he ought probably in
most cases to be dismissed from the choir when his voice begins to
change.

[Footnote 34: Browne and Behnke, in _The Child's Voice_, p. 75, state
in reply to a questionnaire sent out to a large number of choir
train