The boy chorister sound has evolved over hundreds of years, undergoing numerous changes in taste and fortune. Indeed, according to Mould's definitive history, the tradition goes back to the first millenium BCE:
" ...the Jews had maintained a song school in which not only men but also Levite boys were trained to sing the psalms, their unbroken voices adding sweetness to the deeper adult sound" (Mould, 2007).
Sweetness! The same source records how in the early centuries of the Christian church, boys had become irreplaceable as their pure voices were deemed to resemble the sound of angels.
Angels! Twelve year old boys are not always angels! The remarkable thing about boy choristers is their ability to be angelic one minute and at the bottom of a rough and tumble heap the next! That's one reason why they can be good role models to encourage other boys to sing.
It helps though, if you invite choristers to your school, to understand a little bit more about the way they sing.
