Breaking the silence: getting and keeping boys singing

The absence of boys in choirs is a perennial problem. As far back as 1916, an article in the Musical Times (called ‘A Choir Problem for Today’) lamented the decline of boys singing as they reach puberty. Twenty years on, this was still a problem, with a 1936 article in the Music Educators' Journal further commenting on this worrying trend. Subsequently, researchers have tried to understand why choral singing is so gendered. In 1941 the Music Educators' Journal found that boys felt it was ‘sissy’ to sing in choirs, preferring to spend their time on pursuits that were viewed socially as more masculine, such as sports. In a recent lecture, Lea Wierod-Borcak suggested that the 17th- and 18th-century education of noble women contributed to fuelling these gendered stereotypes, with drawing-room musical activities such as singing seen as a mark of sophistication.