('Now the day is over,'—A. & M.), and the delight has been intense when the pupils have thus discovered how clearly and sweetly they could sing. When this is done great possibilities seem to open, and the pupil is on the road to perfection. B♭ and E♭ I found most convenient for change. The Small Register must have been used, as my lads sang up to C2 with the greatest ease and finish, though one of our foremost teachers, in a conference I had with him on the subject, said he would stake his reputation that the small register was not employed by them. It received no name in our practices after that authoritative statement, and ever afterwards I was in dread of being called over the coals for allowing the Top register to get too high.
"Boy altos can be made to sing without flattening, though they invariably give more trouble than trebles on account of their willingness to let the lower register overlap the one above—to force upward. They should practise with the trebles such exercises as:—
so as to strengthen this part of the voice, which may be termed their flattening field."
CHAPTER IX.
ON THE TRAINING OF BOYS' VOICES.
By W. H. Richardson, Formerly Conductor of the Swanley Orphanage Choir.{*}
{*} Mr. Richardson has responded to my request for hints with such fulness and weight that I devote a separate chapter to his essay. In writing, he has specially had in view the difficulties of choir trainers in rural districts.