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.So even if you can’t hear them directly, their influence still wafts about the stage.You can feel it in your toes when they shift into a minor key.”“You’re planning a live production eventually?”“When my singers come of age, yes.” Clancy put her plate down on the cushion beside her and leaned forward to look intently at Gabriel.“Tell.”Gabriel bowed.“As you command, Blushing Rose.The idea proved out in simulation, I sculpted some snetics to produce the singers capable of performing my music.It involves a second set of vocal cords just above the first—quite tiny ones that are only deployed on command.Breath control is very important, so I strengthened the diaphragm, altered the lungs to efficiently absorb more oxygen, and …”“How do they hear their own voices?”“Ear implants.”“And there are how many of these?”Gabriel smiled paternally.“Fifteen adorable little girls in the first generation, all between the ages of eight and eleven.The extra set of vocal cords will form during early adolescence, so they’re not really in training yet.Their guardians all come from musical families with very little seniority on the childbearing lists, and were happy to have an early start on child rearing.The girls are ail being given intensive musical educations courtesy of the state.When they mature they’ll have their choice of careers, but a career in the musical field will be assured for them should they choose to accept it.”“But you haven’t finished the work for which they were intended.”“No.But when the girls get a little older I’ll toss off some choral pieces for them to train on.” He looked up at her and thought about Zhenling’s reaction to his scheme.“Some, I suppose, would consider the business decadent.”Clancy thought for a moment.“What’s decadent about it? People have been choosing their children’s genetics for hundreds of years.If you want some specialized singers, why not build them? You won’t have your security forces standing over them making them become singers; you merely make the opportunity very attractive.”“So I thought.” He relaxed against her legs and took a spoonful of cherry soup.The cherries had been stuffed with ham to balance the sweetness, and the taste was exquisite.Kem-Kem had achieved another wonder.“Still,” Clancy pointed out, “their function will become decadent, or at least useless, unless you finish your opera.If it isn’t the complexity that’s stopping you, what is?”Gabriel dropped his spoon into the soup, watched as red cherries and pale bamboo shoots floated through the emerald-green lily-leaf broth.“It’s the hideous people I’m writing about,” he said finally.“The entire cast is headed toward self-destruction without a thought for themselves or one another.And I don’t know what makes them work.”Clancy leaned forward again, began playing with his long, curling red hair.“You have a fine grasp of psychology,” she said.“I’ve seen you use it.You’ve used it on me, for that matter.”“Have I? I hope you don’t mind overmuch.But whatever knowledge I have is of contemporary psyches.Disciplined minds, well educated, with a common culture, a society that provides for the material and mental welfare of its members … I’ve got that aiding me here.“But these people are primitives.Savages.Their drives are alien and destructive.Their parents and their culture bred them, tortured them without mercy for years, then threw diem away.I have a theoretical knowledge of their motivations—Louise Brooks was sexually abused when young, therefore grew up with little self-esteem, threw herself into compulsive alcohol abuse and negative sexual impulses in order to escape her real problems, et cetera … I can write a psychological profile of her without trouble, but I can’t get into her head.There are demons in there, and the demons aren’t our sort.And in order for the music to be true I’ve got to crack her skull and get inside, and that goes for the rest of the cast, too.”There was a moment of silence
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