You are no longer allowed to say ‘boy soprano’
mainThese are the latest rules on musical terminology from the Music Library Association of America. We are now using George Orwell’s Newspeak:
The Vocabularies Subcommittee of MLA’s Cataloging and Metadata Committee would like to announce the approval of recent changes to the Library of Congress Medium of Performance Thesaurus (LCMPT) for voice and chorus terms. In discussions at the March 2020 MLA Conference, there was a broad consensus among members of the Cataloging and Metadata Committee that we should separate the issue of vocal range from that of gender of the singers, since the accuracy of these terms for contemporary and historical use is questionable. Although there are times when a gendered term may be more appropriate (scores calling for a “boy soprano”, for instance), there was agreement that we should have options for disassociating these concepts in the vocal and choral terms. A tenor, for instance, may be male, female, or non-binary, and the statement of range should not require limitation by gender.
The Vocabulary Maintenance Task Group moved forward with this project last spring, working with existing vocal/choral terms evidencing either implied or overtly stated gender that may be inappropriate or misleading, as well as proposing new medium of performance terms for ensembles or individual performers not currently represented in the thesaurus. In addition to scope note changes, these modifications required a restructuring of the hierarchy of terms. The Task Group intentionally placed two restrictions on its work: 1) The group did not address similar issues in the LCSH vocabulary, given the limited life span for LCSH medium terms, and 2) Guidance on when to employ the new and revised terms was left to the Vocabularies Subcommittee’s Best Practices for LCMPT Task Group. This will be provided in the next revision of MLA’s “Best Practices for Using LCMPT”.
The following are new terms, valid as of April 19, 2021:
transgender chorus; transgender voice; treble chorus; tenor bass chorus
The following are terms that were revised, either in scope or hierarchy, or both:
mixed chorus; men’s chorus, women’s chorus, girls’ chorus, children’s chorus, boys’ chorus, chorus changing voices, changing voice, soprano voice, mezzo-soprano voice, alto voice, tenor voice, baritone voice, bass-baritone voice, bass voice, basso profundo
For your convenience you can refer to this announcement on the CMC blog post, “Changes to the Library of Congress Medium of Performance Thesaurus (LCMPT) for voice and chorus terms” (May 19, 2021).
Anne Adams, Vocabulary Maintenance Task Group Coordinator
Beth Iseminger, SACO Music Funnel Coordinator
—
Anne Adams
she/her
Why do they think italians say “il soprano”?
Same in German: der Sopran
So many people in today’s world get all worked up when the gender of a noun doesn’t exactly correspond to the gender of the person which the noun refers to, instead of focussing on real day-to-day problems.
Indeed. Also the French are in trouble: ‘Mon oncle oubliait sa valise’. ‘La fille, dans son développement social…’ And how decadent they were in the past: ‘Sa Majesté le roi a dit…’
hey, german is about to get a lot easier! let’s cancel ‘die’ und ‘der’ and just ‘das’ everything!
Which of the 100+ new varieties of ‘das’ would that be?
[Indeed. Also the French are in trouble]
What’s the trouble? Of course sa and son don’t refer to the human subjects.
Of course not, they refer to the disembodied genitals, which are connected to words.
I use “Phallically Challenged” in observance of feminist/sjw/D
Reading this reminded me of a passage from the overture of the musical “My Fair Lady”: “…..there are places where English completely disappears: in America they haven’t spoken it for years!”
Language police. I’m always in for a good laugh, would do so if it weren’t so worrying…
It’s the Music Library Association (not the Modern Language Association as NL has it). Full post:
http://cmc.blog.musiclibraryassoc.org/2021/05/19/changes-to-the-library-of-congress-medium-of-performance-thesaurus-lcmpt-for-voice-and-chorus-terms/
Ooh, does that make it even worse?
i cannot believe people both get paid and spend time to come up with this shit. go plant a tree- and eat grass while you are at it.
In the corporate world it’s common-place now when a woman signs a letter to append the “Her/She” designation next to the name. It’s sexist, just for starters, making an ostentatious display of your gender.
It’s the corporate equivalent of the old Page 3 “centre-fold”. Progressives are generally too dumb to get that.
The proper term is ‘treble’ anyway.
yes, exactly!
what about a Boy Alto or Alt in german ? He is a treble too ?
for a boy Alt , what do we say ?
I’m hearing the word “allowed” far too often.
Go to hell.
Adrienne for PM/President, whatever. We need her.
I would love to know what non-binary means ( if anything)
But that is simple: it means that you have become disembodied and neutral. Since that is not possible, it merely means you hide behind a wall of impenetrable speak. This is supposed to bring people closer together.
It’s posh for “bi-sexual”.
I don’t think this decision should be made by a small anonymous committee. I would have thought a national or state referendum is more appropriate.
The people behind this are heavily theorized and intentional, very dictatorial, consciously intolerant, and cowardly to boot, all of which makes for a very dangerous combination. They have no interest in acknowledging what a broad and diverse range of people think. Ultimately, they rule by fear.
An insight as to how they think about their ideological opponents can be gleaned from perusing some of the foundational texts of hugely influential critical theorists such as Herbert Marcuse and his critique of tolerance several decades ago. They festered in the margins of academia for a long time, but fast-forwarding to the 21st Century, they are now in the position where they can dictate the most absurd editorial terms, and dictate they do. If you want to get published, you will comply.
Perhaps, the time has come for satire, Shostakovich-like. In essence, use Saul Alinsky’s tactic of ridicule (Rules for Radicals) right back at them.
Idiots. It‘s not only about tonal range. It‘s about timbre first of all.
How stupid can these US academics be?
Pretty stupid. Bureaucracy at its finest.
Q. “How stupid can these academics be?”
A: “Unbelievably.”
Well, let’s start…
at the other extreme, in France, the education minister has forbade the use of gender-inclusive spelling in schools on the grounds that it would confuse students with dyslexia.
yes, language police, of whatever political stripe, are a curious bunch
What about “Le Week-End”? Is it only men who are allowed to enjoy one?
That shows how idiotic all this claptrap is. In French, it’s ‘la fin de la semaine’.
OK, those must be for the ladies …
That is interesting: one social justice ruling biting another one.
My reading of this otherwise rather sad document is that it is excepting the term ‘Boy Soprano’.
Exactly – the document says ‘there are times when a gendered term may be more appropriate (scores calling for a “boy soprano”, for instance)’ – the opposite of the headline!
It reads like a Monty Python spoof.
If such nonsense would really spread through the whole of the educational system, including universities, that would mean that almost ALL texts from before newspeak would become unreadable and would have to be translated. Maybe that is behind such initiatives, to provide welcome work for the countless academics tired of the past, creating an entirely new field of action.
They invented a new term, “treble chorus”. So we should be grateful.
And here I thought “treble chorus” meant a group singing praises of football teams that win three trophies in a season.
“Trouble chorus” would be a fine definition of the wokes.
Yeah, except anyone would immediately be able to notice the SUPERIOR QUALITY of a choir made up EXCLUSIVELY of BOY TREBLES. Listen to Libera sometimes!
I furiously would like to leave a very vulgar comment!
The politically correct mafia are winning everywhere. I’m amazed they haven’t yet excised the idea of Hosenrollen (trouser roles). By definition that alerts the moderately well-informed to the notion of disguise and deception in opera. Oh, but we couldn’t allow that in our enlightened 21st century now, could we?
They’re winning because institutions everywhere are taking the knee in the face of this puerile drivel.
Amen! When is a group going to have the testosterone to stand up and say “Enough is enough! Take your garbage elsewhere!”?
On the subject of boys’ treble voices: Look how many of the once-great Cathedral Choirs of England took the knee to rabid feminists within the C.O.E. and adulterated these once-great all-male choirs with female voices!
Whenever they’re looking for cuts in arts and culture funding there always seems to be a bountiful supply of money around to pay for the professional offence-taker organisations that dream up this fashionable cobblers.
Gender neutrality is put into practice in Vienna’s public space, where traffic lights show same-sex couples and transgender crosswalks can be seen. I’m not making this up:
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20210524-how-vienna-built-a-gender-equal-city?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews
The Mayor of London, has also imposed this on Trafalgar Square. Sad by name, sad by nature.
Same in Geneva!
Does that apply to the pigeons as well ?
Pigeons are already gender neutral by nature as everybody can see. The way they form pairs and lay eggs right through all gender boundaries is still a great mystery to biologists.
My daughter recently informed me that I’m cis-gender. I had to look up the definition. It means that I identify with my birth gender. There’s a whole lexicon of useless terminology out there!
There’s already a term for “cis-gender.” It’s called “normal.”
Wow, five people have given you a thumbs-down so far. The freaks walk amongst us on Slipped Disc.
[The freaks walk amongst us on Slipped Disc.]
I wouldn’t be so dismissive of freaks. It’s what most of our favorite artists were, in one way or another.
You’re fast becoming one pof my favourite posters.
The word you are looking for is heteronormativity. One mustn’t use two syllables when eight would do just nicely.
Maybe we could call it ‘majority-backed heteronormativity’ to make sure people stop worrying about the future of the species.
With the invention of new names comes the labyrinth of identity puzzle, while very simple terms would suffice and everybody can go-on with their work.
could anyone explain to me why and how these champions of diversity and inclusivity are the most intolerant load of bullshitters since Mao’s Red Guard?
Diversity = Uniformly being what we find acceptable.
Inclusivity = Not questioning the above.
394 words
This isn’t a “rule” – except to those who professionally need to follow it. To the rest of us it’s not even guidance. You are still “allowed” to say “boy soprano” in almost all circumstances
It operates in a very specific domain – the cataloguing of music – where absolute consistency is important to enable researchers and performers to find the item they are looking for. It’s logical and sensible guidance that merely reflects the reality of the world – that vocal ranges do not map neatly onto biological sex or gender identity.
Just imagine if a music picture library was inconsistent in how it catalogued its photos. How would a journalist looking to illustrate an article on woodwind playing know where to find the perfect picture of someone playing the big brother of the oboe if some pictures were catalogued as “cor anglais” and some as “English horn”?
I am mezzo-soprano = twice masculine? Even worse when singing a Hosenrolle???
Check your pronouns.
You people must be really desperate for your daily dose of culture-war red meat. The whole point of “separating the issue of vocal range from that of gender” is to make describing a boy soprano specifically as a boy soprano (as opposed to a girl soprano, male soprano, female soprano, all of the above soprano) possible. As an experienced music cataloger, I can tell you that being able to make those distinctions is very welcome in my work, and long overdue. (I do object to the term “treble chorus” in this context–it implies that all the singers are children (see Dominic Stafford above); I would have suggested instead “soprano-alto chorus” to parallel “tenor-bass chorus”, but I wasn’t on the committee.)
But treble chorus can not actually be replaced with soprano-alto chorus, as the former, which has been around for donkey’s years, refers to unbroken boys’ voices.
“treble” does not imply children. Plenty of adults play treble recorders. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treble_voice
The Vocabularies Subcommittee of MLA’s Cataloging and Metadata Committee, the Vocabulary Maintenance Task Group, Vocabularies Subcommittee’s Best Practices for LCMPT Task Group and the SACO Music Funnel Coordinator. Products of useless bureaucratic minds that are bereft of any talent. Everyone gets a prize (fancy committee titles). This is what they do all day and this is what they produce. Who writes like this? Of no use to anyone. Who is paying for this crap? (Hopefully not taxpayers.)
And “castraltos”?
If teens, and even prepubescent children, are allowed to have gender reassignement surgery,, because they identify with a different gender, can prepubescent male singers who wish to remain male but maintain their high voice, ask for a voluntary castration just for the sake of art and career?
(Anyway, modern medical technology must have figured out a way to stop the change of voice, without having to go all the way to “castration” or loss of natural erectile function. But I digress.)
Surgeons carrying out gender reassignement surgery on prepubescent children should face criminal prosecution for maiming wards of court. (Wait for thumbs downs)
It has, basically, been declared illegal in Britain. Even if no-one is facing prosecution for those that have already occured.
‘Boy soprano’. There, I’ve said it.
I know a tenor with tits.
She was my teacher.
They should be banned full stop regardless of what you call them.
We all knew this would get a lot of comments. That was the purpose. All of you fell(actually jumped) into this trap.
OK. Out go the words ‘soprano’, ‘tenor’ etc. Vienna Boys’ Choir won’t give up that brand without a fight, I can tell you.
Social engineers would have been right at home with Dr. Goebbels. And they’ve got the matching jack-boots now, too.
Congratulations. You’ve continued your long-running streak of not having the slightest clue about the subject at hand. The Wiener Sängerknaben are not affected in the slightest by this.
Clickbait, disingenously presented. At no point does the preented article say you cannot use the term boy soprano – it says quite the opposite, that there are times when it IS more appropriate:
“Although there are times when a gendered term may be more appropriate (scores calling for a “boy soprano”, for instance), there was agreement that we should have options for disassociating these concepts in the vocal and choral terms.”
How much money is to be made stirring up animus for nothing?
Your headline “You are no longer allowed to say boy soprano” is a flat out lie, judging from the text contained within your own article, which states, <>. Use of such headlines is the kind of sensationalist, cynical nonsense we would expect from Fox News, not a classical music publication. Please stop using cheap shot tactics like this.
what NL was intending to convey: “boy soprano” is clearly not acceptable to the WOKE.
It’s worth pointing out that it is only Norman Lebrecht who is claiming that you are no longer allowed to say ‘Boy Soprano’. The article quoted from the Music Library Association of America says nothing of the kind.
I know I won’t please all of the literalists all of the time. What this headline does is poke gentle fun at those idle librarians whi have nothing better to do than reoragnise our language on gender neutral lines.
These librarians are not reorganising our language: they are simply reorganising the categories in their catalogues. This is something they need to do from time to time in order to react to changes in society. It’s no different from adding a category for a new instrument.
But they create new categories for OLD instruments. That’s a difference.
But this reflection of changes in society is the point: out there, mindsets are changing towards the idiotic.
In Germany, girls are now officially “banned” from boy choirs – for artistic and cultural reasons of course.
If singing in boy choirs were the only possibility for a girl to receive a musical and social education the judges would have decided in favour of that girl who wanted to join a boy choir.
Girls haven’t been “banned” from boy choirs. What has happened is that the choir can decide to exclude girls and have an all-boy choir as long as there is some alternative for girls. But they can also accept girls if they want to.
Has the “Vocabulary Maintenance Task Group Coordinator” discussed the position of the sopranino recorder?
On a related note: is tinnitus masculine or feminine?
It’s piercing sound turns the listener into the opposite / composite gender.
The snowflakes are out in force today!
So if I am an alto, can I also say I am a countertenor?
Stop trying to make “fetch” happen, it’s not going to happen. How’s about genderf***k tenor?
The MLA is perhaps the least-respected of professional associations.
More PC bullsh*t! A boy treble is just that and I will NEVER alter my vocabulary to mollycoddle gender dysphoric libtards who knowingly turn their backs on biological facts that have been in force since God created Adam then Eve.
nonsense there are boys, girls men and woman male and female He created them
I will never comply with newspeak. Ever. The words you use influence your thoughts. If they can change your language, they can change your thoughts, that’s the plan. F them.
I know the world has gone mad, I’ve not heard anything so ridiculous in my long life as to the rubbish that is spoken in all seriousness from the so called academics, there’s nothing quite like the purity of an excellent boy soprano/treble that can be totally relaxing, just listen to the amazing Norwegian Aksel Rykkvin when he was young he is still very good now, definitely a boy soprano of the first order. So forget all this modern rubbish that has no real meaning, it’s so easy when you read on an advert what you are actually going to hear see whatever, not it could be a male female or whatever they are today, I’m so glad I’m old and was a boy soprano unfortunately not quite of the standard of some of today’s boys