Castrato In The Baroque Period

Introduction

There was marked the rise of some virtuoso male singer in the baroque period which has a specific name: castrato. It was common of a male had been castrated before puberty for being a singer in Italy from 1600 to 1800. Some of them were famous and favored by many nobleman and received the highest fees of any musicians (Kamien, 2016), but they need to bear a pain surgery, incomplete body, arduous school life for music training. Therefore, the questions arise here and hope to find out the answers. Why they chose to be a castrato? How they became a castrato? What was their appearance after castration? How about their music?

The reasons of castration

As the historical perspective, the church need high range voice for the musical

With some ideas of the castration here are three methods for physical castration nowadays which are 1surgical castration, 2Burdizzo castration and 3banding and Cutting. Surgical castration need to remove the vas deferens. Burdizzo castration named from a surgeon Napoleone Burdizzo, using a clamp also carries his name in the surgery procedure which is a pair of pincers with a strong compound leverage action. The surgery required this clamp to crush the spermatic cord (one side at a time) without cutting into the scrotum. The procedure results in testicular atrophy after about 40 days. Banding and Cutting which is a method by utilizing extremely tight elastic around the tip of the scrotum, the area under the band is cut off. Therefore, the area which is cut off includes the testis and the scrotum. (Alexis, 2012) Compared to the castrato period, the castration needed to perform during six to nine years old. The most common techniques in that period were to cut off the spermatic cords, after that the testis simply atrophied. It is a method likely surgical castration mentioned before. Another more painful method was to crush the testes with the fingers.One of the few descriptions to survive is that of Ancillon: “The boy, five to seven years of age, was placed in a hot bath, to soften and make supple the parts, making them more tractable. He was given a potent drink, the jugular veins were

Church needed higher voice firstly but with silence female, the needs of castrato appeared. As the reason of religion, huge profit and career path, parents were willing their children became castrato. There are three cruel methods to castrate nowadays and compared with the old method, it have some similar in it. After Castration, male still grew so tall and with lung-power, but will a special appearance and female voice range. Most of them are talent for composition and being a teacher for famous singer in that period. (1135