"Boy altos are a fraud and a deception, as a rule, though occasionally one meets with a natural contralto at an early age. Even then he can generally be worked up to treble by gentle treatment, developing the middle and falsetto registers."
In order to get to the bottom of this subject, I invited correspondence in the Musical Standard (until recently the organ of the College of Organists), and several interesting letters were the result. Mr. R. T. Gibbons, F.C.O., organist of the Grocers' Company's Schools, where excellent performances of operettas are given, wrote:—
"As soon as a boy's voice reaches only E♭ he is drafted into the altos, and that preserves his voice much longer."
To this statement Mr. Fred. Cambridge, organist of Croydon Parish Church, took exception. He said:—
"I do not wish to appear to dogmatise, but I should say 'as soon as a boy's voice reaches only E♭,' it is quite time he left off singing altogether, i.e., if his voice has previously been a treble. I know it is the custom in some choirs to make a boy sing alto as soon as his voice begins to break. In my opinion, such a course is utterly wrong. It is not only injurious to the boy's voice, but very unpleasant for those who have to listen to it.
"In a school of 500 boys, there ought to be no difficulty in finding sufficient natural altos, without having to rely on broken-voiced trebles.
"In my own choir I frequently admit altos at 10 or 11 years of age, with the result that I get five or six years' work out of them, and the latter part of their time they are available for alto solos.
"I think (and I speak from upwards of 30 years' experience) that if Mr. Gibbons will try this plan, he will find it much more satisfactory than drafting his trebles into the altos as soon as their voices begin to break.
"I do not enter into the question of men versus boy altos, because it is my experience that in a voluntary choir, especially in the country, a really good adult alto is such a rara avis, that one is obliged to rely on boys, and if they are carefully chosen and trained, they are, I think, quite satisfactory. The only place when one misses the man alto voice is in anthems with a verse for A.T.B., such as 'Rejoice in the Lord' (Purcell), 'The Wilderness' (Goss), &c."
Mr. C. E. Juleff, organist of Bodmin Parish Church, wrote:—