h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For the non-purists who don't mind the use of amplification, or for recording purposes, one possibility might be to transpose the part down an octave, then pitch-shift that singer's microphone feed up an octave.

Oh, the horror!

Azara

I agree - that couldn't produce the right quality of sound, just the right pitch.

I watched Farinelli a long time ago - it seemed to focus a lot on his sex life as I remember - not as much on the music. When it did concentrate on the music, there was always the tragic subtext that this was achieved through brutally taking away his chance of a normal family life.

Or has the mists of time eroded my memory?

I have vague recollections of a documentary suggesting that Eastern Block scientists had developed a method of reversible, chemical castration in the 1970s; i.e. that if the right drugs were applied to a pre-pubescent boy, he would remain in that state until they were withdrawn, at which point he would (distressingly) go through puberty in a couple of months... I think it had something to do with longevity research...

I realise that a simple pitch-shift wouldn't exactly replicate the sound quality of a Castrato, but it would be an extremely cheap way of putting some of the pieces written for Castrati onto CD... Given a half-decent computer model of the acoustic resonances of a Castrato's chest cavity, and a bit of work, there's no reason why the sound couldn't be recreated today. After all, there's no shortage of scientists who will scan dinosaur fossils and tell you what their call would have sounded like with a high degree of "confidence"...

...would all that angst that goes with puberty be intensified during the couple of months? blechhhh!!!

That was why I just gave a footnote that it was 'controversial' - there was a huge amount of discussion when the film came out, that it had really sensationalised Farinelli's life. He was apparently actually a very dignified gentleman who spent years as a very influential adviser at the Spanish court.

I didn't see it at the time - I intend to get a copy on DVD for the soundtrack, which sounds interesting.
Azara

Peet -
Apparently, in the film Farinelli they tried to get the castrato vocal quality by mixing the sound of a soprano with some of the tones of a tenor voice. I haven't heard it (it's on my DVD to-buy list) but it sound like the same kind of idea. There's always the problem, though, that if you don't know what the original really sounded like, how do you know which of your approximations is going to work?

When the entry was in Peer Review, the subject came up of actual modern-day castrati: the Hijra I can't remember if this is the right spelling) caste of entertainers in India apparently still carry out this operation. I suppose some agent could scour India looking for a hijra singer with a good voice!

Azara

I cannot believe that this operation is still being performed - poor boys that have no chance to express whether or not they want (or can imagine the consequences of) an operation that essentially takes away their manhood!

...then again, I can't believe that the West still performs an accepted yet brutal operation called circumcision on boys - again diminshing sexual experience, when so-called health benefits have been refuted.

But I rant...

Not the West, but America! This operation (circumcision) is not accepted in Europe, except among communities which require it for religious reasons.

In the science fiction film "The Fifth Element", a blue alien woman sings an aria from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. Although the voice is that of a real human singer (Inva Mulla Tchako) it has been modified electronically in some way to give her a much greater range that a normal singer is capable of. Does anybody know anything about this?