Boy soprano solo

AndrewSincerely

Hey everyone, I'm just looking for suggestions for pieces of music for a boy soprano to whom I give lessons. He is an eighth grader and his parents would like him to learn liturgical music specifically. So far he has learned and sang the entrance antiphon for the first Sunday of Advent (and sang it at all of our parish masses that Sunday), the Communio for Holy Thursday (OF), "Hoc Corpus...," as well as the Pentecost Sequence, which he sang last year. I can continue to teach him antiphons and sequences but am looking specifically for a piece of music he can sing as a communion reflection. Any recommendations?

Thanks so much,

Andrew

JL

Franck's "Panis angelicus" is always a good choice. It is, in fact, the first piece I learned when I started voice lessons back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and people did unspeakable things to their hair.

That said, perhaps liturgy is not the best place for him to showcase his talents as a soloist. Has he got other young friends who could form a youth schola? And if you have other students, might you arrange a studio recital (perhaps in the church hall) in which each of them could present one or two pieces?

AndrewSincerely

Thanks JL. Perhaps you're right. Currently, he is head and tails above any other students in or around his class in school, so I can imagine a Schola of children his age might be slightly frustrating, but let me think on it and see if I could figure out how I could accommodate him.

StimsonInRehab

Franck's "Panis angelicus" is always a good choice. It is, in fact, the first piece I learned

Me, too. Sang it in a Methodist church of all places.

Ken of Sarum

Eighth grader and his voice hasn't changed yet? I am certain it will very soon. Perhaps song(s) in alto range is what should be considered in light of his up coming voice change. Maybe "He was despised" or some of the other alto solos from Handel's MESSIAH or "O rest in the Lord" from Mendelssohn's ELIJAH or the tenor solo, once his voice changes, "If With All Your Heart" also by Mendelssohn. Maybe some of the following?

All Thing Bright and Beautiful – Rutter
Alleluia (from Exsultate Jubilate) – Mozart
Asperges mea – Plainsong chant
Ave Maria (from Cavalleria Rusticana) - Mascagni
Ave Maria – Schubert
Ave Verum Corpus - Mozart, Saints-Saens, Guilmant, Perosi, Deschermeier, Elgar
Behold the Lamb of God – Bouman
Christ Is the World True Light – Stanton
Comfort, Comfort Ye My People - Goudimel
Ego Sum Panis Vivus – Bottigliero
Flocks In Pastures Green Abiding – Bach
Give Ear Unto Me – Marcello
Give To Jehovah - Schutz
God Is My Shepherd - Dvorak
God of Mercy, God of Grace – J. Stanley Sheppherd
He Is Risen – C. Cope
He That Keepeth Israel – Adolphe Schlosser
How Long Wilt Thou Forget Me – J. Clarke
In Paradisum – Plainsong chant, Faure
I Will Magnify Thee, O Lord – Corfe
Jubilate Deo – Gruber, Michael Bedford
Laudate Dominum – Mozart
Lead Me, Lord – Wesley
Let The Bright Seraphim – Handel
Litany to the Holy Spirit – P. Hurford
May The Grace of Christ – Ivor Davies
Missa de Angelis – Plainsong chant
Missa Cum Jubilo – Plainsong chant
Missa de Sancte Maria Magdalena – Willan
My Song Is Love Unknown – M. Archer
My Voice Shalt Thou Hear – Corfe
Nigra sum – Pablo Casals
O Esca Viatorum – Singenberger, Deschermeier
O Panis Angelorum - Koenen
O Quam Suavis Est – Bottazzo, Goller
O Sacrum Convivium – Remondi, Ravanello
O Sweet And Blessed Country – Holst
Pange lingua – Plainsong chant
Panis Angelicus – Franck, Meurers
Pater Nostra – Plainsong chant
Pie Jesu – Faure, Durufle
Pie Pellicane – Mitterer
Prepare Thyself, Zion - Bach
Quando Corpus (from The Stabat Mater) – Pergolesi
Rorate Caeli – Plainsong chant
Salve Mater Misericordiae – Plainsong chant
Salve Regina – Plainsong chant
Shepherd’s Pipe Carol - Rutter
Teach Us Good Lord to Serve thee – Sir S. Nicholson
The Lord Bless You and Keep You - Rutter
The Father’s Love – Lole
Vexilla Regis – Plainsong chant
Vocalize - Rachmaninov
We Hasten, O Jesu – Bach
We Praise Thee, O God (Te Deum) – Willan
When I Survey The Wondrous Cross – M. Archer
Whither’s Rocking Hymn - Vaughan

Sing Joyfull - Book I
Sing Joyfully - Book II

Chris Garton-Zavesky

Boy sopranos are properly called Trebles. I'm quite sure that Jackson will back me up on this one.

What is your Mass context?

Ken of Sarum

Chris, you are absolutely correct!

CHGiffen

From the wickedpedia:

A treble voice is a voice which takes the treble part. In the absence of a separate descant part, this is normally the highest-pitched part, and otherwise the second highest. The term is most often used today within the context of choral music in reference to youthful singers. The American Choral Directors Association defines a treble as "a singer, both male and female, ages eight to sixteen".

While the term treble is gender neutral, the term is widely used in place of the term boy soprano within the United Kingdom.

Chris Garton-Zavesky

Charles,

Was your purpose to illustrate the unreliability of Wikipedia?

Richard Mix

Harvard Concise: "synonymous with soprano"
New Grove: "A high voice, especially of a boy or (less commonly) girl"

A couple of decades ago an astounding number of Choir & Organ letter-writers claimed to be able to distinguish the sex of child singers by ear, which came off as a bit disingenuous in light of their fierce opposition to blind auditions. They might have done better to stick with the tenor/bass pipeline argument.

M. Jackson Osborn

I have always taken 'treble' and 'soprano' to be synonyms for the highest vocal register in choral writing. We do associate 'treble' with boys because that's what they are called in Britain. But, I don't think that that term is necessarily a denominator only of the pre-pubescent male voice. As a musical term, it defines the high register.

Too, 'soprano' is commonly used in reference to the mature female voice, though boy trebles do in fact sing soprano, and female sopranos do sing treble.

This is not to get into the fact that there is all the difference in timbre betwixt a boy treble and a mature female soprano or treble. The difference is as that betwixt night and day. It is always astonishing to me that even the most august 'early music' groups who have such a fetish (not that I am in disagreement with them) for 'authentic instruments' look the other way when it comes to the substitution of mature females for the 'authentic' sound of boys for the soprano or treble line of historical choral and solo music.

During Lent I listened to a German knabenchor singing Bach's Mathaus Passion. Even the solos, which are normally given over to women, were sung by boys. This is as it should be.

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