Older bass singers in boys choir sound more ‘brilliant’ when girls are listening

8 November 2023, 12:51 | Updated: 8 November 2023, 13:27

In Bach’s old boys choir, teenage bass singers ‘boost their acoustical prominence’ when there are girls in the audience.

Music can fulfil many social functions. It helps us connect with those around us on a deeper emotional level, forge a sense of identity, and communicate without the barriers of language.

And according to this new study, the act of musical performance can have an even more… animal function.

Much like groups of males in the animal kingdom might perform a coordinated display to attract a female mate, an all-boys choir will boost their vocals when there are girls in the audience.

St Thomas Choir, once directed by Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig, Germany, teamed up with Denmark’s Centre for Music in the Brain at Aarhus University, for a study into shifts in vocal resonance.

The 16 to 19-year-old bass singers in the choir “boosted their acoustic prominence” when girls were in an otherwise male audience.

“The boys’ singing sounds more brilliant and has a more attractive, ringing quality when girls are in the audience, but it is subtle,” Peter Keller, a professor of neuroscience, told The Guardian.

Read more: Girls admitted to ancient monastery choir for first time in 700-year history

In two online studies, 2,247 male and female volunteers listened to recordings of the boys’ choir singing a Bach chorale and fugue – with and without girls in the audience.

For the recordings, the boys performed once for an all-male audience. When they performed for a second time, a group of teenage girls joined the front row of the audience under the guise of being on a school trip.

Among the volunteers, both men and women noticed a difference in the singers’ timbre. But only the female volunteers actively preferred the sound of the singing with girls in the audience.

The study found that the older basses sang with more energy and resonance in their lower register, making their voices easier to hear over accompaniment.

Researchers describe the audible shift as a “subtle vocal modulation”.

Read more: 10 of Bach’s all-time best pieces of music

In post-concert interviews, the boys said they sang better in front of the girls, but none felt they had been actively trying to attract their attention.

“Findings suggest that human chorusing is a flexible form of social communicative behaviour that allows simultaneous group cohesion and sexually motivated competition,” the study concluded.

Founded in 1212, the 90-strong choir was famously led by J.S. Bach, who served as director of the choir and church music in Leipzig from 1723 to 1750. For these recordings, the choir included four basses, four tenors aged 16 to 18, four altos aged 12 to 16 and four sopranos aged 12 to 13.