(The schools of Rome obliged their pupils to devote an hour of each day to singing difficult and awkward pieces for the sake of acquiring experience. Another hour to practising the trill (18). Another to practising passaggi. Another to literary study and another to training and exercises in song, in the hearing of the Maestro and in front of a mirror so as to develop the habit of making no unsuitable movement, whether of waist or brow or eyelashes or mouth. And all these were the activities for the morning. After midday, half an hour would be devoted to theoretical instruction, another half-hour to counterpoint over a cantus firmus, one hour to receiving the parts for the counterpoint and putting them up on the 'cartella' (a small enamelled board on which the musical exercises were written and then erased (Ed.)); another hour to literary study; and the remainder of the day to practice in playing the clavicembalo, and to the composition of a psalm or a motet, or a canzonetta or other type of cantilena, depending on the inclination of the individual. These were the regular exercises of the days when the pupils stayed in their school. And when they went out, the exercises included going frequently to sing and listen to the resulting echo at a place outside the Porta Angelica, towards Monte Mario, so as to evaluate for themselves their own singing; going to sing in virtually all of the musical events held in the churches of Rome; and to observe the manners of singing of many distinguished singers who flourished during the pontificate of Urban VIII, to do exercises based on these, and to give account of all this, on their return, to the Maestro, who would then add the necessary commentary and give suitable pieces of advice, so as to increase the impression made on the minds of the pupils.)

The use of castrati in the liturgy - a delicate issue which the church handled with discretion - was formally in accordance with the ecclesiastical norm which had did that the rank of 'lettore', to which the singers belonged, was to be filled by men. Having taken minor orders, the singer enjoyed clerical status and participated actively in the rites of the liturgy, like the priests or the deacons; it was thus indispensable that the singer be of the male sex, at least nominally. The growing success achieved by these artists produced in composers a fascination with the new possibilities of virtuosity and expressiveness, and intrigued the public, whose morbid curiosity it also aroused.

One of the most celebrated exponents of the art of the 'castrato' singer was Pier Francesco Tosi, a famous soprano, teacher and author of Opinioni de' Cantori Antichi e Moderni (19), the first systematic exposition of the singer's technique. Published in 1723, the Opinioni constitute an exceptionally valuable source regarding the teaching practices of the second half of the 17th century; Tosi was born, in fact, in 1653, and was seventy when he published his guide. The voice-production described by him differs from modern practice above all in respect of the combined use of chest and head registers and the pronunciation of vowels (20).

Un diligente Istruttore sapendo, che un soprano senza falsetto bisogna che canti fra l'angustia di poche corde non solamente procura di acquistarglilo, ma non lascia modo intentato acciò lo unisca alla voce di petto in forma che non si distingua l'uno dall'altra, che se l'unione non è perfetta, la voce sarà di più registri e conseguentemente perderà la sua bellezza [...] Se tutti quegli che insegnano i princìpi sapessero prevalersi di questa regola, e far unire il falsetto alla voce di petto de' loro Allievi, non vi sarebbe in oggi tanta scarsezza di soprani. [...] quanto più le note son' alte, tanto più bisogna toccarle con dolcezza, per evitare gli strilli [...] Nelle femmine che cantano il soprano sentesi qualche volta una voce tutta di petto, ne' maschi sarebbe però una rarità, se la conservassero, passata che abbiano l'età puerile.

(A diligent instructor, being aware that a soprano without a falsetto voice has to sing within the narrow range of a few notes, not only seeks to provide him with one but tries by every means possible to unite it with the chest voice in such a way that there is no contrast between the one and the other, since if the union is not perfect the voice will have more than one register and will consequently lose its beauty (21) [...] If every teacher of the basic elements took up this precept, and united the pupil's falsetto with the chest voice, there would not be such a scarcity of sopranos today. [...] the higher the notes are, the greater the need to sound them gently, so as to avoid shrieking (22) [...] Among females who sing soprano one sometimes hears a chest voice over the entire range, but among males it would be unusual if they were to keep it once the boyhood years were past). (23) (>>>Next) (<<<Previous)

(23) P. F. TOSI, op. cit., p. 42.