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Unchanged Trebles by Rebekah Peeples (Hardback)
£22.99
Available
Product Ref. (e.g. ISBN, SKU)
9781978844568
Published:
14 Oct 2025
Format:
Hardback
Number of pages:
270 pages
Dimensions:
229x152mm
Weight:
0.454kgs
Author:
When a sociologist finds herself the mother of a gifted but reluctant boy soprano, she plunges unexpectedly into the world of boys-only choirs, exploring the deeper meanings of a centuries-old tradition that celebrates the gender fluidity of boy's voices. Combining interviews with the first-person perspective of motherhood, she considers how this ancient tradition can help contemporary boys enter manhood more comfortable with emotional expression.
Boy choirs are one of the oldest musical traditions in the Western world. Known as "unchanged trebles" in the choral world, these groups have historically included biologically male singers who sing soprano notes until they go through puberty. But what does this mean in a culture that increasingly sees gender as an individual choice, rather than a fixed, biological category? And is this tradition, which is rooted in exclusion of girls and women, one that is even worth saving? In Unchanged Trebles, sociologist Rebekah Peeples charts an unexpected, thought-provoking, and deeply personal journey into the peculiar world of contemporary boy choirs, where boys learn to do something together that they're often embarrassed to do alone: sing in their soprano voices. Considering her experience as the unlikely mother of a boy soprano alongside dozens of interviews with current directors and former choristers, she argues that some of the tools for creating a more gender-inclusive future can be found in an ancient tradition that has long recognized gender fluidity within the pre-pubescent male body. With humor, insight, and the voice of a gifted storyteller, Unchanged Trebles explores a cultural tradition in which singing and expressing emotion are encouraged for boys, showing them a more expansive form of masculinity as they transition from boyhood to manhood.
About the Author: Rebekah Peeples is Associate Dean of the College for Curriculum and Assessment at Princeton University. She is the author of Walmart Wars: Moral Populism in the Twenty-first Century (NYU Press, 2013).
| Number of pages | 270 |
|---|
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