, and as far as possible in pieces of music,
he keeps the trebles above [Illustration: musical notation]. Below this
they get coarse. He never gives on the modulator an ascending passage
which begins below this G. One may leap up, and come down by step, but
not ascend by step. He uses Mr. Proudman's "Voice-training Exercises"
(J. Curwen & Sons) for first trebles, and his contralto exercises for
contraltos. Coarseness he checks at once, and he silences boys whose
voices are breaking.

[Illustration: Decoration]

CHAPTER XIII.

ALTO BOYS.

How is the alto part, in a church choir consisting of males, to be sung?
In our cathedrals this part has been given, ever since the Restoration,
to adult men, generally with bass voices singing in their "thin"
register. For this voice our composers of the English cathedral school
wrote, carrying the part much lower than they would have done if they
had been writing for women or boy-singers. For this voice, also, Handel
wrote, and the listener at the Handel Festival cannot but feel the
strength and resonance which the large number of men altos give to the
harmony when the range of the part is low. The voice of the man alto,
however, was never common, and is becoming less common than it was. It
occupies a curious position, never having been recognised as a solo
voice. I have heard of an exceptionally good man alto at Birmingham who
was accustomed to sing songs at concerts, but this is an isolated case.
The voice seems to have been generally confined to choral music.

This voice is entirely an English institution, unknown on the continent.
Historians say that after the Restoration, when it was very difficult to
obtain choir-boys, adult men learned to sing alto, and even low treble
parts, in falsetto, in order to make harmony possible.

Let us concede at once that for music of the old cathedral school this
voice is in place. The churches are, however, getting more and more
eclectic, and are singing music from oratorios, cantatas, and masses
that was composed for women altos, and is far too high in compass for
men. We may admit that because the alto part lies so much upon the break
into the thick or chest register of boys, it is very difficult to get
them to sing it well. The dilemma is that in parish churches, especially
in country places, the adult male alto is not to be had, and the choice
is between boy altos, and no altos at all.

There is no doubt, moreover, that the tr