Boy soprano

[8] The voice takes on a resonant masculine quality before its pitch drops, resulting in a liminal stage wherein the boy may sing in a high register with a unique timbre.

This brief period of high vocal range and unique color forms much of the ground for the use of the boy soprano in both liturgical and secular music in the Western world and elsewhere.

This stage ends as the boy's larynx continues to grow and, with the breaking of his voice, he becomes unable to sing the highest notes required by the pieces of music involved.

[14] For example, Franz Joseph Haydn was considered to be an excellent boy soprano well into his teens[15] and Ernest Lough was 15 when he first recorded his famous "Hear My Prayer" (on 5 April 1927), with his voice not getting deeper until sometime in 1929, when he was either 17 or 18 years old.

[21][22] A counterargument to this viewpoint is the paucity of bearded fourteen-year-olds from the historical record, the increased incidence of precocious puberty diagnoses, and availability of testosterone replacement therapy that many parents of boys experiencing delayed adolescence or intersex conditions opt to undergo.