CAN LISTENERS REALLY TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BOY AND GIRL SINGERS IN ENGLISH CATHEDRALS?
For centuries, boy choristers have been singing the uppermost (treble) registers in English cathedral music. Only in 1991 were girls first allowed to sing in these groups. Since then, a controversy has ensued over whether the inclusion of girls has altered the sound of English cathedral music. In a new series of experiments, David Howard of the University of York has explored whether listeners can actually tell the difference between girls and boys singing the top lines in these choirs. In a first experiment, Howard and his colleagues found that a group of 189 listeners could distinguish between boy and girl choristers, but attributed this ability to the fact that the two groups were singing different repertoires which highlighted their vocal dissimilarities. In a second experiment, when boys and girls sang the same repertoire, a group of 170 volunteer listeners correctly told the difference only 52% of the time, indicating that they were making guesses. Howard will also present his mo
