Boyes are apt to change their voices at about fourteene yeerse of age: The Wulstan-Atkins Memorial Lecture

Records as far back as the third century BC indicate that the age of 14 has remained the predominat time when boys' voices "break". Directors of music in English cathedrals have reported with increasing frequency that boys are leaving choirs early because of an advance in the timing of puberty. This hypothesis is not confirmed by medical evidence. Testing of boys' voices in five English cathedrals, the National Boys Choir of Scotland and a random control group of 305 non-singing boys, however, suggests that the timing of voice break has indeed advanced. No longer do the majority change at 14. The age of 13 is now more common with significant consequences for choral singing. The end of Y7 in the English National Curriculum needs to be the normal expectation for a boy to leave a choir and not Y8 as previously.