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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
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A PLAIN TALK TO VOCAL STUDENTS.
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BY THE EDITOR.
"TO sing is to use the voice in accordance
*• with musical laws. The voice is the
sound produced by the passage of the air
through the glottis, or aperture formed by
the apposition, without contact, of the vo-
cal cords, bands or ligaments, the air being
impelled by the lungs, causing them to
vibrate. Singing is an art by which
thought and feeling are expressed by means
of vocalization and articulation. Of course
you understand vocalization to mean work
of the vowels, and articulation that of the
consonants in form of words.
It is distinctly my intention not to pre-
sent to you singing, or the voice from the
pedagogic, or to be more simple, the teach-
er's side. This article has nothing to say
to you of tone production, registers, or
anything that pertains to the voice as a
study. For that you have your teacher.
This is simply meant to handle the voice
from the hearer's standpoint, and be as-
sured that the hearer is more critical than
you think. Critical is perhaps not the
word, for it is a criticism that is not based
upon a technical knowledge, nor indeed
upon any knowledge, but upon a natural
sense. This sense will make it necessary
to regard the voice from three sides. First,
the voice as a thing of beauty; the voice
as a method of expression; and the voice
as a musical instrument.
Let us linger over the voice as a thing
of beauty, for is not beauty a pleasurable
thing of which to think—to speak? Is not
beauty worth working for? Is it not worth
thought and study to achieve beauty? So
let us accept, if you please, that beauty is
the first element to be desired in a voice.
Now then, what constitutes beauty? If
I were asked for an unbiassed expression,
I should say that quality is first, foremost,
and—well, I was going to say everything,
but perhaps I would better not be so
sweeping.
Do I prefer contralto or soprano? Well,
for a contralto, I prefer a contralto, and
for a soprano, I prefer a soprano, and there
is more in that remark than you will get
from it on one hearing. In fact, it might
well be said that quality entirely depends
upon the development of a voice, leaving
the voice where it belongs. There is per-
haps no more insurmountable difficulty
presented to the teacher than this one,
leaving out of question the voices ruined
by ignorant treatment, that are brought to
a teacher, voices shrieking out high notes
when they should be singing low ones, forc-
ing low grumbly weak tones when they
should have ringing high ones. Strange as
it may seem, if these distorted voices be in
the possession of docile, intelligent beings,
there is hope. Scientific treatment, or to
be more plain, scholarly voice-building,
will overcome this, even though the path
be dreary and weary and stony.
But what indeed—what of the pupil who
knows better than the teacher; who will
be a soprano, even though God himself has
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ordained otherwise. How can such a dif-
ficulty be overcome—alas! how, indeed?
Now; to return to the first proposition—to
the voice as a thing of beauty. To be
beautiful a voice must have quality and it
must have its own quality. Is it perhaps
the standard of beauty that is difficult to
establish? Is it that a pupil does not rec-
ognize beauty? To the one, beauty means
naught save a few coarse high notes, vul-
gar indeed—loud, shoddy. To another,
beauty means a sickly, pale, quivering,
tearful tone, either of which is equally dis-
agreeable to the hearer.
Let, then, the first step be the mastery
of one's own opinions, and the proper con-
ception of the necessary quality for beauty,
which must be formed by study and defer-
ence to the opinions of those who know—
your teacher, for instance.
It is a noteworthy fact that among wo-
men the desires run toward being a sopra-
no. More voices are ruined by this incon-
ceivable attraction for high notes than by
any other vice known to the human voice.
We will divide the voice, as is the custom,
into six classes, but we will only deal
with the female voices at present. The
voices are divided into soprano, mezzo-
soprano and contralto; tenor, baritone and
bass. There are two distinct classes of
mezzo-soprano, the one leaning to soprano
capable of singing moderately high music
at times, the other tending to contralto.
Perhaps it would be more intelligible to di-
vide the female voices into contralto, mez-
zo-contralto, mezzo-soprano, dramatic so-
prano and soprano leggiera.
Not only does that seem better, but it
seems to correct the first flagrant error
concerning the voice, and to establish that
it is quality and not range, that makes
known to you what a voice is. It is not a
question of compass, but of timbre. Many
mezzo-sopranos can sing higher notes than
many sopranos. But upon the texture of
the middle voice, the voice must be built
and, whereas it would be a trifling matter
for the mezzo to sing a very high note, or
very many of them for that matter, it
would be a terrible strain upon the voice,
(and the audience as well, do not forget
this) to sing a song which lies in the so-
prano part of the scale.
If only students could be brought into
the realization that a tone or half-tone, or
let us say, to use a better phraseology, a
step, or half step, makes absolutely no
difference in glory as far as high notes are
concerned, and so very much throughout
the entire song in artistic effect in the
matter of the lay of the voice in general.
If, in any way, you could be impressed
with the absolute truth of this, if you
could be made understand the blind un-
reasonableness of this terrible mistake;
the inevitable ruin of your voice and your
career.
Let me talk more intimately to you—
there may be some of you to whom the
outlay of so much money as a musical ed-
ucation costs is not easy. You may be
working hard to save enough for it; if you
are not, someone else may be toiling and
economizing and denying him or herself
all enjoyments, even necessities, that your
beautiful talent may be cultivated, that
you may be independent, that you may
gain reputation, and that you may be val-
uable in turn to the circle which will sur-
round you as you begin to live your own
life.
Think how serious the present moment;
consider your voice as a young child; with
what care, with what purity must that
young life be surrounded that it may grow
into usefulness to its fellow-man, that it
diffuse goodness and purity instead of
polluting the atmosphere around it. Do
not, I pray you—do not think that I am
exaggerating the importance of this.
Let us step for a moment out of the sub-
ject in hand as a study or an art, and re-
gard it ethically. Let us see what is its
relation in a moral sense to your life. I
know—I understand that many of you are
studying for nothing but your own homes
and your friends; you are girls who do not
expect to use your voices as a means of
earning your living, and to you this part
of my talk would not need to be addressed
if—yes, there is an if—if we might look
into the future and see that you always
would occupy the positions which you do
now. If there were no such occurrences
as reverses; if the day would never come
when by a Wall street crash you would find
yourself face to face with the problem how
to make a living; if, when standing in the
presence of this problem, you did not solve
it in that most natural way—teach—sing
—use the musical education. So, young
ladies, this may apply to you also, even
though at the present moment this be the
furthest from your expectations.
Now let us come into the future. You
have arrived at that point where the in-
struction of young voices is in your hands.
Do you know what responsibility that
means? If you do not; first and foremost
let me tell you it means the health of the
pupil. There is a straight line between
ruined voices and consumption. The
throat is a delicate organ and will not
stand abuse. It will not stand to be car-
ried out of its register, whether the strain
be towards the high or the low notes. The
voice becomes fatigued, which shows itself
in hoarseness or a difficulty in making the
voice speak readily, the delicate membrane
which lines the vocal cords becoming
slightly abraded. Then the voice is forced,
and in forcing the chest, the ribs will feel
the strain, headaches will set in, and gen-
eral debility of the whole system will come
on. The voice will not stay in tune, the
sweetness will be gone, and loudness im-
possible to control is all that will be left,
if, indeed, even this is left.
The circle of mediocrity is being con-
stantly enlarged. Will you not study to
diminish rather than to increase the num-
ber who are doomed to study long and
hard, and seriously, and to build hopes,
and to spend money—money that is per-
haps sadly needed elsewhere? And to ac-
complish this they trust to you. Will you
—can you abuse this trust?