Wild rose (composed by Werner)

When it comes to the song "Wild Rose", whether it is Schubert's or Werner's, the Vienna Boys' Choir sings the best. I did some research around the choir.

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The Vienna Boys' Choir (Wiener Sängerknaben) was a boys' choir founded in 1498 by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I as the Court Chapel Boys' Choir. It is based on the Wilten Boys Choir of Innsbruck, whose members were brought to Vienna by Emperor Maximilian I when he founded the New Court Chapel Boys Choir in Vienna.

The number of members is about 100. The orchestra members were divided into four groups of about 25 people each named after the orchestra and composers associated with Vienna: "Mozart", "Schubert", "Haydn" and "Bruckner". goes on a concert tour for 11 weeks a year, and one group performs about 80 performances in various parts of the world. One of the groups always goes on a concert tour, so three groups remain at school and take classes. One of these three groups is supposed to sing at Mass every Sunday in the Royal Chapel. Three groups will sing in turn every week, so one group will sing in the Royal Chapel every three weeks.

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Excerpt from Wiki "Vienna Boys Choir"

It's a group with a long history. Founded in 1498, it was a little earlier than Luther's Reformation (1517). (It is said that even before the birth of Christianity, even under Judaism, boys were hunted out to sing hymns.) , there was something that could not be replaced, whether it was a countertenor or a sopranist. Here, in the case of the Vienna Boys Choir, the voice quality is called boy soprano and boy alto.

"Therefore, a forbidden move was used." It is to castrate the boys before they reach the stage of dysphonia and to keep the quality of their voices in the state before the dysphonia. A person who has undergone this procedure is called a "castrato" in English. verb castrate: to castrate

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By castrating males, it suppresses the secretion of male hormones, artificially hinders the remarkable growth of the vocal cords during the male secondary sexual characteristics period, eliminates the dysphonia (so-called "voice change"), and improves the voice quality of boy soprano. An attempt to keep the range as long as possible. On the other hand, since growth hormone is secreted, the height and ribcage grow as normal, and the growth of the skeleton, including the ribcage, and lung capacity is almost the same as that of adult men, and the tone of voice and the sustaining power of singing voice are not different from those of minors. It is said that it cannot be reproduced by female singers. Their voices were said to be sweet, wild and yet very sensual.

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From Wiki (castrato)

@gothslutbaybee said: Hi there!  I’m in the process of getting an old English sheepdog and the breeder (who is very reputable) asked that I don’t neuter/spay the dog until it’s two years old for “Heath reasons” which she didn’t specify at the time. I’m going to ask her about it when I go to visit the puppies but I was wondering if this is… a valid concern I guess? Personally I’d rather fix them earlier. And if I want to fix it earlier how do I negotiate this with her?

Anonymous said: I recently got a female Labrador retriever puppy and have gotten differing advice on when to have her spayed. One vet said that in larger breed dogs, she prefers to spay after the first heat, usually around 10 to 11 months old. Another vet said she prefers to spay before the first heat, ideally around 9 months old due to the risk of the dog getting pregnant in her first heat. Where do you stand on this and can you explain why later might be better?

There’s a fairly long post about Delayed Desexing from 2017 here, and a few updates here and here.

Note that this topic is relatively new in the veterinary field, with a lot of data being collected in the last 4 years. 4 years compared to the lifetime of a dog isn’t long enough to draw conclusions based on changed desexing recommendations, we probably wont have that for another 15 years, but it’s all we’ve got to make decisions with now.

There are more and more papers coming out with breed-specific risks and benefits related to the age of desexing, but I haven’t come across one for Old English Sheepdogs yet. They may just not be common enough to have enough data yet, certainly not compared to a Labrador or Golden Retriever.

But they are quite big dogs, and based on the data we have for other breeds of a similar size, it’s plausible that delaying desexing will reduce the risk of cruciate injury and may have a small reduction in risk for some cancers. However, the more you delay desexing in a female dog, the more your risk of mammary cancer increases.

Cruciate injuries are not lethal, but they are painful and expensive to treat. Particularly for any sort of sporting prospect, I could see the benefit to delaying desexing for that reason alone until skeletal maturity. For a male dog, 2 years is probably more than enough time, but for a female dog I get antsy about how many heat cycles she’s had so my personal preference is to aim for before the second heat. That said, it’s not wrong to desex earlier, as has traditionally been done.

That’s part of why there’s been so much discussion, there isn’t one right answer, there are at least two right answers and the details can vary so much by breed.

Spaying before the first heat lowers the risk of mammary cancer the most, and removes the risk of an unwanted pregnancy, which for some locations and demographics is a major concern. A shelter is always going to desex everything that walks out the door, they can’t trust the general public to not let their dogs and cats get pregnant or to come back later for the spay. A breeder of a rarer breed may be more discerning with their puppy buyers and have a reasonable amount of trust that they can prevent an unwanted pregnancy. A breeder of miniature poodles might desex every puppy so they can guarantee none will end up in a puppy mill.

Ultimately you get desex when you want to, vets and breeders will have reasons for their preferences, and so will you. The difference between desexing at 15 months vs 24 months is probably not that big for a male dog, but for a female may increase her mammary cancer risk into the uncomfortably risky zone. It’s worth just talking about, and listening.

Rural Australia Spey Trip: Part 2

The following morning, the dog catchers hit the town looking for strays and community dogs. They returned with several dogs and a litter of puppies. We were all devastated to hear that the puppies were to be euthanised and, despite wracking my brain for bright ideas to get them back to Perth, there was nothing I could do. Thankfully, word of the pups had spread and the police came by and gave one lucky puppy a second chance at life.

We divided into two groups and set to work on our surgery patients. Each dog was examined, pre-medicated, catheterised and induced. We used TIVA (total intravenous anaesthesia), meaning the dogs were kept asleep with frequent top-ups of propofol rather than inhalational anaesthesia. This ramps the stress level up a notch, but also trains the anaesthetist to become acutely aware of minor changes in heart rate, respiratory rate, jaw tone and eye position. The surgeons had problems of their own. The heat and humidity meant that surgical gloves pooled with sweat almost instantly and, when held up, sweat would drip down the arm and into the surgical site. Not so sterile! Our headlamps heated up quickly too, a feeling I can liken to someone burning a hole in your forehead and frying your brain.

I just got this. So I'm gonna shove it in my face.