Chapter 31

OUTLINES OF A PRACTICAL METHOD OF VOICE CULTURE

According to the accepted idea of Voice Culture, the word "method" is taken to mean only the plan supposedly followed for imparting a correct manner of tone-production. Owing to the prevalence of the mechanical idea, the acquirement of the correct vocal action has become so difficult as to demand almost the exclusive attention of both teachers and students. Very little time is left for other subjects of vastly more importance. Aside from the matter of tone-production, teachers do not seem to realize the importance, or even the possibility, of systematizing a course of instruction in singing.

Scientific Voice Culture is inconceivable without a systematic plan of procedure. But this is not dependent on a set of rules for imparting the correct vocal action. Eliminating the idea of mechanical vocal management does not imply the abandonment of methodical instruction in singing. On the contrary, Voice Culture cannot be made truly systematic so long as it is based on an erroneous and unscientific theory of vocal management. A vocal teacher cannot perfect a system of instruction until he has done with the mechanical idea. Then he will find himself to be in possession of all the materials of a sound practical method.

Most important of the materials of a practical method is a comprehensive repertoire of vocal music. Every teacher should have at his command a wide range of compositions in every form available for the voice. This should include simple exercises, vocalises with and without words, songs of every description, arias of the lyric, dramatic, and coloratura type, and recitatives, as well as concerted numbers of every description. All these compositions should be graded, according to the difficulties they present, both technical in the vocal sense, and musical. For every stage of a pupil's progress the teacher should know exactly what composition to assign for study.

Every composition used in instruction, be it simple exercise or elaborate aria, should be first of all melodious. For the normally gifted student the sense of melody and the love of singing are almost synonymous. Next to the physical endowments of voice and ear the sense of melody is the vocal student's most important gift. This feeling for melody should be appealed to at every instant. Students should not be permitted to sing anything in a mechanical fashion. Broken scales, "five finger exercises," and mechanical drills of every kind, are altogether objectionable. They blunt the sense of melody, and at the same time they tend to induce throat stiffness. Beauty of tone and of melody should always be the guiding principle in the practice of singing.

All the elements of instruction,--musical education, ear training, and the acquirement of facility in the use of the voice,--can be combined in the singing of melodious compositions. While the teacher should know the precise object of each study, this is not necessary for the student. Have the pupil simply sing his daily studies, with good tone and true musical feeling, and all the rest will take care of itself.

Every vocal teacher will formulate his method of instruction according to his own taste and judgment. There will always be room for the exercise of originality, and for the working out of individual ideas. His own experience, and his judgment in each individual case, must guide the teacher in answering many important questions. Whether to train a voice up or down, whether to pay special attention to enunciation, when to introduce the trill, what form of studies to use for technique and ornament,--these are all matters for the teacher to decide in his own way.

Above all else the teacher should seek to make the study of singing interesting to his pupils. This cannot be done by making the idea of method and of mechanical drudgery prominent. Singing is an art; both teacher and student must love their art or they cannot succeed. Everything the student is called on to do should be a distinct pleasure. To master the piano or the violin many hours of tedious practice are required. Students of singing are indeed fortunate to be spared the necessity of this tiresome work. In place of two or three hours' daily practice of scales and exercises, the vocal student need do nothing but sing good music.

Much is required of a competent vocal teacher. First of all, he must be a cultured musician and a capable judge both of composition and of performance. Further, while not necessarily a great singer, he must have a thorough command of all the resources of his own voice. His understanding of the voice should embrace a fair knowledge of vocal physiology and of vocal psychology. His ear should be so highly trained, and his experience in hearing singers so wide, that he possess in full the empirical knowledge of the voice. The vocal teacher must be familiar with the highest standards of singing. He should hear the great artists of his day and also be well versed in the traditions of his art.

A highly important gift of the vocal teacher is tact. He must know how to deal with his pupils, how to smooth over the rough places of temperament. He should be able to foster a spirit of comradeship among his pupils, to secure the stimulating effect of rivalry, while avoiding the evils of jealousy. Tact is an important element also in individual instruction. Some students will demand to know the reason of everything, others will be content to do as they are told without question. One student may be led to stiffen his throat by instruction which would have no such effect on another. In every case the teacher must study the individual temperaments of his pupils and adapt his method to the character of each student.

Practical instruction, in its outward aspect, should be very simple. At one lesson the teacher assigns certain studies and has the pupil sing them. Now and then the teacher sings a few measures in order to give the student the correct idea of the effects to be obtained. If any pronounced fault is shown in the student's tones, the master calls attention to the fault, perhaps imitating it, to make it more apparent to the student. In his home practice the student sings the assigned studies, trying always to get his tones pure and true. At the next lesson the same studies are again sung, and new compositions given for further study.

A great advantage might be gained by combining three, four, or five students in a class and giving lessons of an hour's time, or even an hour and a half. The students might sing in turn, all the others listening to the one who is singing. This form of instruction would be of great service in ear training, and in acquainting the students with the various qualities of vocal tone, both correct and faulty. Much time would thus be saved in giving explanations and in pointing out the characteristics of tone to be sought or avoided. On the side of musical education, instruction in small classes would also be found very effective.

A thorough understanding of Vocal Science, including both the mechanical features of tone-production and the psychological aspects of singing, is almost indispensable to the vocal teacher. But the student of singing will in most cases derive no benefit from this scientific knowledge. Those students who plan to become teachers must of course study Vocal Science. Yet even these students will do well to defer this study until they have acquired a thorough mastery of their voices.

* * *

Musical progress would seem to have taken a peculiar direction when a voice need be raised in defense of the old art of pure singing. Several famous writers on musical subjects would have us believe that the love of vocal melody is outgrown by one who reaches the heights of musical development. This may be true; but if so, the world has not yet progressed so far. Music without melody may some day be written. But Mozart knew naught of it, nor Beethoven, nor Wagner. Melody is still beautiful, and never more lovely than when artistically sung by a beautiful voice. We have not reached a point where we can afford to toss lightly aside the old art of Bel Canto.

For its future development, if not indeed for its continued existence, the art of singing depends on an improvement in the art of training voices. For this to be accomplished, mechanical methods must be abandoned. If this work succeeds in bringing home to the vocal profession the error of mechanical instruction in singing, it will have served its purpose.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Pietro Francesco Tosi: _Observations on the Florid Song_. Bologna, 1723.

Giovanni Battista Mancini: _Riflessioni pratiche sul Canto figurato_. Milan, 1776.

Georg Joseph Vogler: _Stimmbildungskunst_. Mannheim, 1776.

_Méthode de Chant du Conservatoire de Musique_. Paris, 1803.

Stefana Arteaga: _Le Revoluzioni del Teatro musicale italiano_. Venice, 1785.

Adolph Bernhard Marx: _Die Kunst des Gesanges_. Berlin, 1826.

Heinrich F. Mannstein: _Die grosse italienische Gesangschule_. Dresden, 1834.

Manuel Garcia: _École de Garcia_. The Ninth Edition (Paris, 1893) gives date of first edition, 1856. Grove's Dict. gives 1847.

_Proceedings of the Royal Soc._, London, Vol. 2, May, 1855.

_Hints on Singing_. (Trans. by Beata Garcia). New York, 1894.

Ferdinand Sieber: _Vollstaendiges Lehrbuch der Gesangskunst_. Magdeburg, 1858.

_The Art of Singing_. (Trans. by Dr. F. Seeger). New York, 1872.

Stéphen de la Madelaine: _Théorie complète du Chant_. Paris, 1852.

Lennox Browne and Emil Behnke: _Voice, Song, and Speech_. London, 1883.

John Howard: _The Physiology of Artistic Singing_. New York, 1886.

Gordon Holmes: _A Treatise on Vocal Physiology and Hygiene_. London, 1879.

Emma Seiler: _The Voice in Singing_. Philadelphia, 1886.

J. Frank Botume: _Modern Singing Methods_. Boston, 1885.

Francesco Lamperti: _A Treatise on the Art of Singing_. (Trans. by J. C. Griffith). New York. Original about 1876.

Wesley Mills, M. D.: _Voice Production in Singing and Speaking_. Philadelphia, 1906.

Dr. W. Reinecke: _Die Kunst der idealen Tonbildung_. Leipzig, 1906.

William Shakespeare: _The Art of Singing_. London, 1898.

G. B. Lamperti: _The Technics of Bel Canto_. New York, 1905.

Paolo Guetta: _Il Canto nel suo Mecanismo_. Milan, 1902.

Lilli Lehmann: _Meine Gesangskunst_. Berlin, 1902.

David Frangçon-Davies: _The Singing of the Future_. London, 1906.

Leo Kofler: _The Old Italian Method_. Albany, 1880.

_The Art of Breathing_. New York, 1889.

Clara Kathleen Rogers: _The Philosophy of Singing_. New York, 1893.

Albert B. Bach: _The Principles of Singing_. London (2d ed.), 1897.

Julius Stockhausen's _Gesangsmethode_. Leipzig, 1884.

Sir Morell Mackenzie: _The Hygiene of the Vocal Organs_. London, 1886.

Charles Lunn: _The Philosophy of the Voice_. London, 1878.

Antoine Ferrein: _De la Formation de la Voix de l'Homme_. Paris, 1741.

Sir Charles Bell: _On the Organs of the Human Voice_. London, 1832.

Carl Ludwig Merkel: _Der Kehlkopf_. Leipzig, 1873.

Dr. L. Mandl: _Die Gesundheitslehre der Stimme_. Braunschweig, 1876.

George F. Ladd: _Outlines of Physiological Psychology_. New York, 1892.

James M. Baldwin: _Feeling and Will_. New York, 1894.

H. S. Curtis: "Automatic Movements of the Larynx," _Amer. Jour. Psych._, Vol. 11, p. 237. 1900.

H. L. F. Helmholtz: _Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen_. Braunschweig, 1862.

E. W. Scripture: _The New Psychology_, London, 1897.

_The Elements of Experimental Phonetics_. New York, 1902.

_The Study of Speech Curves_. Washington, 1906.

William James: _The Principles of Psychology_. New York, 1890.

Hansen and Lehmann: "Ueber unwillkuerliches Fluestern," _Philo. Stud._, Vol. 11, p. 471. 1895.

C. Lloyd Morgan: _An Introduction to Comparative Psychology_. 1894.

Wilhelm Wundt: _Grundzuege der physiologischen Psychologie_. Leipzig, 1874.

Grove's _Dictionary of Music and Musicians_.

Fétis: _Biographie universelle des Musiciens_.

Musikalisches Conversations-Lexikon.

Quellen Lexikon der Musiker. (Robt. Eitner, Leipzig, 1902.)

INDEX

Acoustics of voice, 188, 216.

Anatomy of vocal organs, 211.

Attack, 51, 53.

Breathing, 20, 130.

Breath, singing on the, 14, 27, 32, 72, 194.

Candle-flame test, 221.

Coloratura, 195, 282.

Decline of singing, 341.

Ear training, 276, 281, 319, 351.

Emission, 68, 125, 188.

Empirical knowledge, 151, 176, 181, 359. basis of, 155. in modern instruction, 75, 199, 207. in traditional precepts, 184.

Enunciation, 88.

Exercises for breath-control, 26, 31. for breathing, 22. for muscular movements, 46, 50. for relaxing muscles, 90, 272. on vowels and consonants, 85.

Forward tone, 14, 68, 71, 125, 187.

Garcia, 16, 22, 34, 35, 56, 328.

Glottic stroke, 30, 52.

History of voice culture, 8, 322.

Howard, John, 43.

Imitation, 134, 166, 291, 298, 307, 309, 324, 332.

Intonation, 265, 311, 314, 352.

Laryngeal action, 34, 36, 44.

Laryngoscope, 16, 35, 56, 214, 215, 258, 336.

Lessons, 103, 366.

Local effort, 273.

Mancini, 12, 156, 307, 314, 323.

Mask, singing in the, 74, 81.

Mechanical vocal management, 83, 102, 109, 113, 135, 271, 287, 297, 299, 321, 329, 333, 346.

Mechanics of voice, 118, 220, 325, 335.

Mental voice, 180, 183.

Messa di voce, 40, 312.

Method, 92, 96, 99. Old Italian, 10, 304, 316, 320.

Méthode de Chant, 326.

Muscular sense, 143, 170. stiffness, 240, 251. strain, 267.

Nasal tone, 62, 129, 205.

Nervousness, 249, 256.

Old Italian masters, 9, 11, 14, 54, 306, 320. method, 10, 304, 316, 320.

Open throat, 14, 60, 86, 191.

Placing the voice, 38, 41, 93, 310.

Practice, 5, 105, 281, 366.

Precepts, 13, 72, 76, 184, 186, 317.

Problem of voice, 4, 7, 287, 324, 337, 338.

Psychology of muscular guidance, 136, 227. of sympathetic sensations, 165. of vocal management, 144, 229, 297.

Pure vowel theory, 88.

Quality of tone, 40, 62, 156, 179, 182, 314, 346.

Radiation of nerve impulse, 251, 259.

Reflex actions, 247, 255.

Registers, 34, 38, 55, 312, 315.

Relaxing exercises, 90, 272.

Resonance, 54, 58. chest, 61, 127. mouth-pharynx, 59. nasal, 62, 87, 127, 204. sounding-board, 44, 65.

Sensations of singing, 160. direct, 161, 173. in modern instruction, 78, 84, 114. muscular, 78. sympathetic, 161, 162, 176. of vibration, 54, 55, 58, 80.

Sight reading, 309, 310, 313.

Singing in the mask, 74, 81. on the breath, 14, 27, 32, 72, 194.

Sol-fa, 310, 314.

Stiffness, muscular, 240, 251. throat, 89, 243, 260, 262, 285, 356, 358.

Support of tone, 14, 27, 32, 73, 192.

Sympathetic sensations, 161, 162, 165, 176.

Technique, 6, 94, 282.

Throat stiffness, 89, 243, 260, 262, 285, 356, 358.

Tone-production, 4. problem of 7, 287, 324, 337, 338.

Tosi, 12, 55, 63, 156, 307, 308, 322.

Traditional precepts, 13, 14, 76, 186, 317. empirical basis, 184. in modern instruction, 72, 77.

Tremolo, 265, 272.

Vocal action, 5, 17, 92, 112, 246.

Vocal Science, 17, 19, 37, 98, 152, 339, 361, 367.

Wearing voice into place, 101.