Dave Pitzer replies to me:

>I have casually asked five friends (four choir members and one choir
>director) whether they would include themselves in the "many, many others"
>above.  All immediately said yes.  (One considered the question a joke,
>that is she thought I was joking.) Their consensus: pre-pubescent male
>choirs have a distinctive, unique, sound not reproducible by adults
>regardless of training.  I'd like to hear other's opinion on this.

Well, in a class of fairly good musicians, none of us could tell the
difference between certain adult choirs and children's choirs.  In fact,
that was probably the point of the lesson.

However, the opinion that would mean the most to me is Virginia Knight's,
a British chorister of much experience and, I believe, a member of this
list.

Steve Schwartz