I have the start of an idea for the May Summer Romance Story Contest, but the inciting incident involves a 14-year-old boy filling in for his mom (who has laryngitis) in the local church choir. I was wondering, is it too far of a stretch for a boy that age being able to sing in the same range as an adult woman?
Choir Question
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Entirely possible.
It's not much of a stretch. It would depend upon how high the mother's range is and how much puberty has lowered the boy's range. I transitioned in my 60's, and I could probably sing most of what my mother could sing, even though I haven't had much voice training.
Although it's more likely for a woman to have a soprano or alto range, and a man to have a tenor or bass range, people's ranges vary a lot; there are male sopranos and female basses, and the choruses I was in always had a fair number of female tenors. And a 14-year-old is likely to not have had his voice lowered all the way to his adult range (if at all.)
Absolutely
At 14? Yes, absolutely. Probably not even that rare. I'd say it would be more unusual for a 14-year-old to have the same power and depth as an adult woman. Not impossible, though.
— Emma
It's possible
However, I started junior high school at 13 and my voice had already started cracking. By 14 I was firmly in the baritone range *sigh*.
Personally I find it a borderline situation. Maybe a bit of drama can be had as he, just before performing, is starting to have cracking problems.
choir
at 14 i was l singing alto my voice didnt drop until 16 and didnt drop below tenor
I'm no expert
My wife and both my daughters are very good singers. My wife and second daughter can both sing in either Alto or Soprano depending on the song. My oldest girl had a three octave rang until she started smoking and is now in the alto or on a good day mezzo soprano.
A little online research netted this website:
https://becomesingers.com/vocal-range/vocal-range-chart
To my untrained eye, it looks like male and female voices overlap some good bit. Just remember that this is fiction, you're talking about, any your character can easily stretch the limits and be an exception.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann
Depends
This depends also on where you are placing the woman's voice? Contra-Alto? Definitely doable (I can make those notes as an adult) Alto? Also pretty doable. I could sing in my chest voice up to the lower end of soprano until about that age until my voice changed. In my early 20's I could sing up to 'countertenor' parts fairly well.
Kids voices are so varied, 14 is quite plausible for singing high still. The character would likely be a bit off still though. Go see if you can find some boy choir recordings on youtube and you can probably see examples of kids still singing that high at that age.
Prepuberty voice range
Remember the castrati
BAK 0.25tspgirl
Can I become a soprano?
A countertenor can reach many of the notes of a mezzo soprano and maybe even a soprano.
Have a look at this https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7pblr3
Maryanne
My personal experience growing up
My personal experience growing up in a “christian religious cult” community, where the “church” dominated and/or influenced virtually all aspects of the day-to-day life, together with the doctrine “male and female He made them, and never the two shall mix” makes it virtually impossible that a boy over the age of four would be allowed even near, much less in, the female section of the church choir! But that is just my personal experience growing up.
A secular singing club setting would be much more plausible, and much easier to explain. Even more so when there is some kind of contest or competition involved.
As others have stated in their comments, the human genome is full of variations. Some boys have their voice fully broken by the time they reach their 13th birthday, while at the other extreme, a very few boys will only start to break their voice after passing their 16th birthday.
Just as there is also a big variation in the development of the girls. Growing up, I remember that there was one girl in our school who had significant breast development when she was just eight years old. While the vast majority of the girls would start budding between their 13th and 14th birthday. It is a little difficult to tell for me, since the age group of thirteen and fourteen year olds was strictly separated for most social activities along sex lines. (In our case that was grades 7 and 8, since a child had to turn 7 in the first semester in order to be allowed to enter first grade.)
Since this will be YOUR story, and there is enough suspension of disbelief going on in the stories posted here, AND your premise is plausible enough, I say: Just go for it!
Depends on the chuch in question
If the church is part of a major denomination that can be the case. However there is a proliferation of what are known as "Word Churches" These churches independent of denominations. They adhere to mainstream doctrine without the politics found in denominations, As a result, they can be pretty lax in just what actually goes and who does what on in the service.
Often, in these churches, there is no real division between the male and female parts of the choir. In fact there often is no real choir, but a worship team. All of that would do away with the need for the young man to appear female at all.
In such a church the trope would work better it there was some sort of dramatic presentation wherein the mother had a singing part as a female character.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann
Re: Depends on the chuch in question
You are right in that. The cult I was born into and in which I grew up in has just observed its 500-year anniversary.
The Mennonites trace their roots back to the first adult [re]baptism that happened in January 1525. Though the name was given by the secular and catholic authorities in the low countries to these heretics that got “organized” by a former catholic priest named Menno Simons (1496-1561), naming the “followers of Menno” as “Mennonisten” in Dutch.
The Mennonites are a very distinct group from the Amish. Though in the USA the general population often confuses the two and lumps them together under the label Mennonite. This is likely because the more conservative Mennonites share a lot of external characteristics with the less conservative Amish.
The Amish remained in the Swiss-French border region of Alsace. The name Amish, was derived from their leader Jakob Ammann(1644-1712/1730) around 1710 as a denigrating designation by opponents. Soon after they were expelled from that region and many migrated to Pennsylvania. Their language, Pennsylvania Dutch (a corruption from Deitsch), is based on a German dialect common in the region of Alsace.
The “ethnic” Mennonites migrated from the Netherlands to Prussia by the mid to late 1500s. Around 1789 they started migrating to southern Ukraine (a.k.a. Southern Russia). From there they migrated to Canada, later others fled the communists to South America (among them my grandparents). Our language, Plautdietsch (Low German), is based partly on Dutch but mostly the Prussian Low German, though we picked up many elements of the languages and culture of the countries we migrated through.
Even among the Mennonites there is the full spectrum from the ultra conservative orthodox who reject any and all technology to the rare liberal congregation who welcomes same sex couples. My community is economically rather liberal, but religious/doctrinal more towards the conservative side.
Not to throw a wrench...
Something you might want to consider is if the 14 y/o in question can even be in the choir. The few churches I went to we had to be 18 and done with high school to be in the adult choir. Otherwise, we had to be in the children's or youth choir.
Is there a reason the boy absolutely has to fill in?
Is it a solo situation?
Is there a reason they wouldn't ask another woman to fill in?
Could your story be about a youth choir instead and he fills in for a girl in the choir?
Sorry... those were just questions in my head. It's completely plausible for a teenage boy to sing alto though. I was in the alto range all through high school, and struggled with being forced into tenor.
~Taylor Ryan
My muse suffers from insomnia, and it keeps me up at night.
I have a lot of experience as a choir singer
While at that age a boy may or may not have had a lowered voice due to testosterone, as mentioned before the power / projection capability of such a young voice will be distinctly lacking.
Young voices are more fragile where as adult voices are more robust.
Anne Margarete