TOT - The younger generation

[Woodworm]

those interested, have a listen to 3 lads in their very early teens (14,

15, 14) singing a rather popular Italian song.

(Link lifted from another group)

[Moonraker]

Amazed by the first shot, how any hot blooded teenager can stop from looking to his right and down is beyond me!

[Terry Casey]

Amazing!

We used to do the Gilbert and Sullivan operas at school and I played the female lead in The Mikado two months before my 15th birthday. From memory, the other 'female' principals were in the same year.

I don't think you would be able to sing like that - assuming the ability - when your voice first broke[1], so all three must have been singing like this for some time.

Is this ascociated with puberty occurring earlier these days? What's the average age at which the male voice breaks?

[1] I can't comment from personal experience as, when my voice broke, it shattered! From playing the lead one year, I went the back row of the male chorus the following year and grunted a bit ...

[Andrew Gabriel]

principals

Thinking back (as I used to sing in a choir), I was a treble at 11½, and at 13 I tried alto but I had to very quickly transition through tenor to bass within a matter of a school term.

For the last 100+ years, male puberty has got one year earlier every 25 years, which is quite a frightening rate of change.

shattered! From

following year and

[PeterC]

principals

shattered! From

following year and

I remember the music master at my school getting notceably more stressed as the G&S approached. He needed at least 14-year-olds for the leads and occasionally the leading 'lady' would become a rough tenor or deeper. That was 50 years ago, so it must be far worse nowadays.

[Andy Champ]

_Our_ music master made a deal with the nearby Girls' school. About the only time we ever saw one...

Andy