Castrato

I was recently listening to a piece of Classical music, actually it was a Baroque or maybe even Rococo piece with vocals and the male singer sang in such a high register that I thought it sounded a lot like a castrato.

For those of you not familiar with the term, a castrato is a male soprano, mezzo-soprano, or alto voice produced either by castration of the singer before puberty or one who, because of an endocrinological, never reaches sexual maturity.

The Catholic Church and most civilized governments frowned upon this act making it unlawful in the late 1800s. In 1878, Pope Leo XIII prohibited the hiring of new castrati by the church. The official end to the castrati came on St. Cecilia's Day, 22 November 1903, when the new pope, Pius X, issued his motu proprio, Tra le Sollecitudini ('Amongst the Cares'), which contained this instruction: "Whenever . . . it is desirable to employ the high voices of sopranos and contraltos, these parts must be taken by boys.

Castration before puberty (or in its early stages) prevents a boy's larynx from being transformed by the normal physiological events of puberty. As a result, the vocal range of prepubescence (shared by both sexes) is largely retained, and the voice develops into adulthood in a unique way. As the castrato's body grew, his lack of testosterone meant that his epiphyses (bone-joints) did not harden in the normal manner. Thus the limbs of the castrati often grew unusually long, as did the bones of their ribs. This, combined with intensive training, gave them unrivalled lung-power and breath capacity.

If you would like to hear the voice of a castrato singing, visit this link and click on player button where it says 1. AlessandroMoreschi-AveMaria
http://www.archive.org/details/AlessandroMoreschi