Finding
Pope Sixtus V’s Bull, Cum pronostro pastorali munere (1589), reorganizing the body of clerics and singers of the Capella Giulia at St. Peter’s Basilica, said that the choir should contain “.
Paper
The sopranos: post‐op virtuosi
Citations: 4
Full text
Semantic ScholarAbstract
Like comets, the great castrati (surgical sopranos) emerged from the dark of the middle ages, enjoyed a relatively brief, glorious blaze in post-Renaissance Europe, then faded and disappeared. Their trajectory was influenced by economics, religious belief, and aesthetic fashion of the day. They may well have been the greatest singers ever known; we certainly will not hear their like again. The importance of the male genitals for both procreation and pleasure must have been recognized early in human prehistory. Certainly, by the time of early records, we find evidence for this in the Greek worship of Pan and in Indian reverence for the Lingam. Another measure of its perceived importance, deprivation through amputation, can be seen in an early Egyptian relief in which a scribe tallies the number of penises taken from enemy soldiers captured and/or killed in battle (1). Eunuchs also appear in the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. For example, “When Joseph was taken down to Egypt, he was bought by Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s eunuchs, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian.” (Genesis 39:1) Castration appears to have been done for a variety of reasons: to humiliate those captured in battle; to punish criminals; to avenge adultery or other crimes; to create guardians of the bedchamber or other loyal and helpful servants and staff, including high ministers of state; to treat medical conditions; or to consecrate oneself to God(s), pagan or Christian. Despite what must have been high morbidity and mortality, the procedure was widespread throughout the Byzantine world, the succeeding Ottoman Empire, and more recently at the Chinese Imperial Court in order to provide slaves who could guard harems without sexual struggle or seduction. At least some of these “keepers” also achieved considerable political power at both the Ottoman and Chinese courts. The emphasis on asceticism and sexual celibacy in early Christianity led some to castrate themselves, [e.g., the priest Origen (born 185 in Alexandria, deceased c254 in Tyre), an advocate of strenuous asceticism, who castrated himself so as to work freely teaching women without the possibility of creating scandal (2)]. It is not clear when it was recognized that one could maintain certain desirable traits of young animals by crushing the testicles, bilateral vasectomy and cutting of the blood vessels, or by removal of the testes prior to sexual maturation. However, geldings and oxen (castrated stallions and bulls, respectively) appear early in ancient iconography and literature. We can safely assume that, in the distributed rural population of the premodern world living close to their animals, the effects of castration were widely known. What is not known is when it was realized that destroying testicular function before puberty might preserve a child’s high pitched voice while permitting physical development that would give it body and strength. However, it is rumored to have been known in Imperial Rome, and likely to have been true in the Christian Byzantine Empire: by 1000 CE, castrati seem to have sung in the churches of most Eastern countries (3). According to Burney (4), Signor Santanelli, Maestro di Capella in the mid 1700s, said that “Father Girolamo Rossini of Perrugia, priest of the Congregation of the Oratory, flourished in the seventeenth century. He was an excellent singer, in soprano, and was the first Evirato employed in the Pontifical Chapel, in which, till then, the soprano, or treble part, was sung by Spaniards, in falset . . . (He) was admitted . . . in 1601, and died in 1644.” They are documented in Italy as early as 1550–1560, and their presence in papal choirs was later acknowledged in registers of the Papal Choir [e.g., “Petrus Paulus Folignatus Eunuchus” and “Rosinus Perusinus Eunuchus.” (5)]. This was despite the Church’s postOrigen outcry against mutilation, even in the service of reinforcing the wish for chastity and celibacy. Pope Sixtus V’s Bull, Cum pronostro pastorali munere (1589), reorganizing the body of clerics and singers of the Capella Giulia at St. Peter’s Basilica, said that the choir should contain “. . . for the voice which is called soprano, four eunuchs if skilled ones can be found; if not, six boys.” (6) This change was presumably approved by Palestrina who was then master of the Capella Giulia singers. His contemporary, Lassus, already had six castrati in the Ducal Chapel at Munich (6). It was also supported by succeeding Popes: as late as 1748, Pope Benedict XIV advised against bishops forbidding castration: “. . . the wise bishop will not remove the castratos but will rather take care that theatrical fashions are not adopted by church choirs . . .” (7). The Spanish falsettists, who had supplied the highest voices in the Vatican, were soon replaced by Italian castrati. The castrati quickly spread to other cathedral and church choirs, presumably stimulated by the desire for stronger and lasting soprano (and contralto) voices, and in obedience to the Pauline injunction against women singing in church: “Let women be silent in the assemblies, for it is not permitted to them to speak.” (1 Corinthians
Authors
W. Frosch
Journal
The FASEB Journal