A01=Rebekah Peeples
Author_Rebekah Peeples
autobiography
biography
book
boy sopranos
boyhood
castrato
Category=AVA
Category=JBSF
Category=JBSF1
Category=JBSF2
Category=JBSP1
Category=VFV
Category=VFX
childhood
childhood studies
choir
choir boys
choristers
contemporary history
contemporary music
culture
ebook
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eq_bestseller
eq_health-lifestyle
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_music
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_parenting
eq_society-politics
ethnomusicology
family
gender
gender fluid
gender studies
gendered
general interest
hardcover
male singers
manhood
masculine
masculinity
memoir
men's studies
modern history
motherhood
music
music history
non fiction
nonfiction
parenting
performance
performance studies
pop culture
popular culture
pre-pubescent
puberty
Rebekah Peeples
relationships
rutgers
rutgers university
rutgers university press
singing
social science
sociology
soprano
theater
theater studies
tradition
trebles
women's studies
Product details
- ISBN 9781978844568
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 14 Oct 2025
- Publisher: Rutgers University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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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.
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.
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).
