Part 1

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE.

The original print of this book uses Helmholtz pitch notation, where middle-C is represented by a lowercase c with one over-line, the C above with two over-lines, etc. For accessibility, I have used the alternative convention of using numbers after the note name, thus:

C₁ ... C ... c d e f g a b c¹ d¹ e¹ f¹ g¹ a¹ b¹ c² ... c³ ... c⁴

(C₁ = 3 octaves below middle-C, c⁴ = 3 octaves above middle-C)

A few corrections have been made to spelling and punctuation. A list of these amendments can be found at the end of the text.

THE VOICE IN SINGING

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF

EMMA SEILER

Member of the American Philosophical Society

A NEW EDITION REVISED AND ENLARGED

PHILADELPHIA J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO 1879

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

Lippincott's Press, Philadelphia.

CONTENTS

PAGE Translator's Preface 7

Introduction 11

I Vocal Music 15

II Physiological 36

III Physical 85

IV Æsthetic 143

Appendix 185

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

The translator of this book, desirous, in common with other friends of its author, that her claims as a lady of rare scientific attainments should be recognized in this country, where she has recently taken up her abode, has obtained her consent to the publication of the following testimonials to her position in her own country from gentlemen of the highest eminence in science:

[TRANSLATED]

Mad. Emma Seiler has dwelt for a long time here in Heidelberg, and given instruction in singing. She has won the reputation of a very careful, skilled and learned teacher, possessing a fine ear and cultivated taste. While engaged on my book, “Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen, &c.,” I had the honor of becoming acquainted with Mad. Seiler, and of being assisted by her in my essay upon the formation of the vowel tones and the registers of the female voice. I have thus had an opportunity of knowing the delicacy of her musical ear and her ability to master the more difficult and abstract parts of the theory of music.

I have pleasure in bearing this testimony to her worth, in the hope of securing for her the confidence and the encouragement of those who are interested in the scientific culture of music, and who know how desirable it is that an instructress in the art of singing should be possessed of scientific knowledge, a fine ear, and a cultivated taste.

(Signed) Dr. H. Helmholtz,

Prof. of Physiology, Member of the Academies and Royal Societies of London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Berlin, Vienna, Munich, Göttingen.

Heidelberg, Aug. 5, 1866

[TRANSLATED]

Mad. E. Seiler has made for herself an honorable name in Germany, not only as a practical teacher of singing, but also by her valuable investigations in regard to the culture of the musical voice. By her own anatomical studies she has acquired a thorough knowledge of the vocal organs, and by means of the laryngoscope has advanced, in the way first trodden by Garcia, to the establishment of the conditions of the formation of the voice. We owe to her a more exact knowledge of the position of the larynx, and of its parts in the production of the several registers of the human voice; and she appears especially to have brought to a final and satisfactory decision the much-vexed question respecting the formation of the so-called _fistel tones_ (head tones). She has been associated with the best powers possessed by Germany in the department of the theory of music and physiological acoustics, standing by the side of the celebrated physiologist, Helmholtz, while he was engaged in his physiologico-acoustic work upon the generation of the vowels and the nature of harmony.

(Signed) E. du Bois-Reymond,

Professor of Physiology in the Royal University of Berlin.

Berlin, July 17, 1866

In a letter, written in English, addressed to the President and Members of the American Philosophical Society, Professor du Bois-Reymond introduces Mrs. Seiler (italicizing the words) “_as a lady of truly remarkable scientific attainments_.” “Prompted,” he states, “by a spirit of philosophical inquiry, not frequently met with in her sex, she has made herself entirely acquainted with all the facts and theories concerning the production of the human voice. She has entered, deeper probably than any one else before her, into the study of the problem of the different registers of the human voice. Most of her results she has published in a pamphlet under the title: Altes und Neues über die Ausbildung des Gesangorganes (Leipzig, 1861), which has received the approbation of both the physiologists and the singing masters of this country.”

* * * * *

The translator takes the opportunity to state that, as he makes no pretensions to any knowledge either of the science or of the art of music, his translation has been carefully revised by persons entirely competent to correct its musical phraseology.

W. H. F.

Philadelphia, December, 1867.

INTRODUCTION

In giving to the public these fruits of years of earnest labor, and in attempting to bring into harmony things which have always been treated separately, the Science and the Art of Singing, it seems necessary that I should state the reasons that prompted me to this study.

As I had for many years the advantage of the best tuition, both German and Italian, in the Art of Singing, and had often sung with favor in concerts, I was led to believe myself qualified to become a teacher of this art. But hardly had I undertaken the office before I felt that, while I was able to teach my pupils to execute pieces of music with tolerable accuracy and with the appropriate expression, I was wanting in the knowledge of any sure starting-point, any sound principle, from which to proceed in the special culture of any individual voice. In order to obtain the knowledge which thus appeared to be requisite in a teacher of vocal music, I examined the best schools of singing; and when I learned nothing from them that I did not already know, I sought the most celebrated teachers of singing to learn what was wanting. But what one teacher announced to me as a rule was usually rejected by another. Every teacher had his own peculiar system of instruction. No one could give me any definite reasons therefor, and the best assured me that so exact a method as I sought did not exist, and that every teacher must find his own way through his own experience. In such a state of darkness and uncertainty, to undertake to instruct others appeared to me a manifest wrong, for in no branch of instruction can the ignorance of the teacher do greater injury than in the teaching of vocal music. This I unhappily learned from my own personal experience, when, under the tuition of a most eminent teacher, I entirely lost my voice, whereby the embarrassment I was under, so far from being diminished, was only increased. After this misfortune I studied under _Frederick Wiek_, in Dresden (the father and instructor of Clara Schumann), in order to become a teacher on the piano. But while I thus devoted myself to this branch of teaching exclusively, it became from that time the aim and effort of my life to obtain such a knowledge of the human voice as is indispensable to a natural and healthy development of its beautiful powers.

I availed myself of every opportunity to hear Jenny Lind, who was then dwelling in Dresden, and to learn all that I could from her. I likewise hoped, by a protracted abode in Italy, the land of song, to attain the fulfilment of my wishes; but, beyond certain practical advantages, I gathered there no sure and radical knowledge. In the French method of instruction, now so popular, I found the same superficiality and uncertainty that existed everywhere else. But the more deeply I was impressed with this state of things, and the more fully I became aware of the injurious and trying consequences of the method of teaching followed at the present day, the more earnestly was I impelled to press onward in search of light and clearness in this dim domain.

Convinced that only by the way of scientific investigation the desired end could be reached, I sought the counsel of Prof. _Helmholtz_, in Heidelberg. This distinguished man was then engaged in a scientific inquiry into the natural laws lying at the basis of musical sounds. Prof. Helmholtz permitted me to take part in his investigations, and at his kind suggestion I attempted by myself, by means of the laryngoscope, to observe the physiological processes that go on in the larynx during the production of different tones. My special thanks are due to him that now, with a more thorough knowledge of the human voice, I can give instruction in singing without the fear of doing any injury. My thanks are due in a like manner to Prof. _du Bois-Reymond_, in Berlin, who, at a later period, also gave me his friendly help in my studies.

In 1861 I published a part of my investigations in Germany, where they found acknowledgment and favor. That little work is contained in the following pages, together with some account of the discoveries of Professor _Helmholtz_ relating to the human voice, and of their practical application to the education of the voice in singing.

The practical sense of the American people enables them, above all others, to appreciate the worth of every discovery and of every advance. And therefore it is my earnest hope that the publication of these investigations in this country may help to elevate and improve the Art of Singing.

THE VOICE IN SINGING

I

VOCAL MUSIC

ITS RISE, DEVELOPMENT AND DECLINE

It is a matter of complaint among all persons of good taste, who take an intelligent interest in art, and especially in music, that fine singers are becoming more and more rare, while formerly there appears never to have been any lack of men and women eminent in this art. The complaint seems not altogether without reason, when we revert to that rich summer-time of song, not yet lying very far behind us, in the last half of the last century, and compare it with the present. The retrospect shows us plainly that the art of singing has descended from its former high estate, and is now in a condition of decline. When we consider what is told us in the historical works of _Forkel_, _Burney_, _Kiesewetter_, _Brendel_ and others, and compare it with our present poverty in good voices and skilful artists, we are struck with the multitude of fine voices then heard, with their remarkable fulness of tone, as well as with the considerable number of singers--male and female--appearing at the same time.

We first recall to mind the last great artists of that time, whose names are familiar to us because they appeared in public after the beginning of the present century:--_Catalani_, who preserved to extreme old age the melody and enormous power of her voice; _Malibran_, _Sontag_, _Vespermann_, &c.; the men singers, _Rubini_, _Tamburini_, _Lablache_, and others; and, still farther back, _Mara_, whose voice had a compass, with equal fulness of tone, of three octaves, and who possessed such a power of musical utterance that she imitated within the compass of her voice the most difficult passages of the violin and flute with perfect facility. Then comes the artiste _Ajugara Bastardella_, in Parma, who executed with purity and distinctness the most difficult passages from si (b) to si (b³), and roulades with successive trills, with enchanting harmony; and the old Italian singing-masters, who sang and taught with an art which we should scarcely hold possible, were it not for the unanimous testimony of their contemporaries. There were _Porpora_ and his pupil _Perugia_, who sang two full octaves, with successive trills up and down in one breath, and executed with perfect exactness all the tones of the chromatic scale without an accompaniment; and _Farinelli_, who to his latest age preserved his wonderfully beautiful voice. Of him it is related, among other things, that on one occasion he competed with a trumpeter, who accompanied him in an aria. After both had several times dwelt on notes in which each sought to excel the other in power and duration, they prolonged a note with a double trill in thirds, which they continued until both seemed to be exhausted. At last the trumpeter gave up, entirely out of breath, while Farinelli, without taking breath, prolonged the note with renewed volume of sound, trilling and ending, finally, with the most difficult of roulades. _Pistochi_ and _Bernucchi_ rivalled Farinelli. The latter, although he had received from nature a refractory voice of little excellence, nevertheless succeeded in cultivating it so highly that he became one of the most distinguished artists of his day, called by Händel and Graun, “The King of Singers.”

It is impossible to mention by name all the many singers, male and female, who won applause and renown in the beginning and in the middle of the last century. Almost every European state was furnished with most excellent operas, and troops of artists, men and women, with voices of the highest cultivation, flocked thither. Even in the streets and inns and other places in Italy, where elsewhere we are accustomed to seek only music of the lowest kind, one could then hear the most artistic vocal music, such as was found in the churches, concert-saloons and theatres of Germany and France.

It appears that far greater demands were made upon singers then than now-a-days. At least, history celebrates, together with the great vocal flexibility of the earlier singers, the measured beauty of their singing, the noble tone, the thoroughly cultivated delivery, by which they showed themselves true artists, and produced upon their hearers effects almost miraculous.

On the other hand, how sad is the condition of vocal music in our time! How few artistically cultivated voices are there! And the few that there are, how soon are they used up and lost! Artists like _Lind_, and more recently _Trebelli_, are exceptions to be made.

Mediocre talent is now often sought, and rewarded far beyond its desert. One is often tempted to think that the public at large has wellnigh lost all capacity of judgment, when he witnesses the representation of one of our operas. Let a singer, male or female, only drawl the notes sentimentally one into another, execute a tremulo upon prolonged notes, introduce very often the softest piano and just where it is entirely out of place, growl out the lowest notes in the roughest timbre, and scream out the high notes lustily, and he or she may reckon with certainty upon the greatest applause. In fact, we have become so easily pleased that even an impure execution is suffered to pass without comment. Let the personal appearance of the singer only be handsome and prepossessing, he need trouble himself little about his art in order to win the favor of the public. This decline of the art of singing is usually ascribed to the want of good voices, and this poverty of voices to our altered modes of living. To me it appears as the natural consequence of the whole manner and way in which the art of singing has been historically developed since its earlier high state of perfection.

The human voice is, of all instruments, the most natural, the most perfect, the most intimate in its relation to us, as, for the use of it, we have a talent or faculty innate, which, in the case of other instruments, can only be laboriously acquired, to say nothing of the fact that these instruments are first to be invented and put together. Hence vocal music appears to have been almost the only music among the Greeks, and the rude instruments then in use served merely for an accompaniment. The history of our so-called _Western_ music, which dates no farther back than the fourth century after Christ, tells us hardly anything else than of vocal musicians and of their compositions for concerted and chorus singing.

Our art, only slowly developing itself from those earliest times, was cherished, mainly in Italy, for the sole purpose of exalting divine worship. We have, at least, no account of any secular art of music in those days. As yet unacquainted with harmony, the only singing was _in unison_, as was the custom, at an earlier period, among the Greeks; for not until the tenth century of the Christian era was it attempted, and then by a Flemish monk (_Hukbaldus_), to harmonize several and different notes; thus was invented and founded our harmony, whose exponent was the organ.[1]

From that time forward, history makes mention of many persons who labored worthily, now more and now less, to create a theory of music, seeking to found a system of harmony upon that rude beginning, and by degrees to improve it. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries music burst forth into blossom in the Netherlands, and thenceforth rose steadily in excellence, when also it began to branch out into the excesses of counterpoint. The fame of the Netherlands soon spread over all the civilized countries of Europe. The artists of the Netherlands were invited upon the most favorable terms to Italy, France, Spain, and Germany, and thus the progress of music spread over all these countries almost _pari passu_. For two hundred years the Netherlands maintained the reputation of the best and highest culture in vocal music, and not until the middle of the sixteenth century did there appear in Italy and Germany artists who attained to a like renown. Up to that time prejudice denied to the Italians _all talent for music_, as it has ever since exaggerated their claims in this respect. _Kiesewetter_ remarks, in his History of Music, that, although the Netherlands in Italy no longer had the monopoly, they nevertheless always maintained the supremacy in music. Climate and language were, however, so favorable to vocal music in Italy that it soon found there its peculiar home, and though theoretical knowledge of music was advanced by the earlier singers, now richness and power of voice were also attained. As it had previously been with the Netherlanders, so it now became with the Italians. They were drawn to all countries in which there was any love of art; and they soon won that supremacy in music which they maintained until the last century. Until the latter part of the sixteenth century, good musicians were devoted almost exclusively to church music, and held it beneath their dignity to take part in music of any other kind. All but church music they left to the minstrels and strolling singers, who traveled over the country from place to place, and in different lands were styled _minstrels_, _minnesänger_ and _trovatori_. They mostly sung love-songs, which they often extemporized in word and tune, finding place and popularity on all festive occasions. But under the impulse which music began to feel, the desire among the educated class to revive the old Greek drama, which just at that period had come to be well known, became more and more urgent. Imbued with the spirit of that age, the whole tendency of which was to exalt the ancient classic poets, a circle of men of science and culture from the higher classes gave themselves to the task of producing a style of music such as the Greeks must have had in the representation of their dramas. In the mansion of Count _Bardi_, in Florence, then the centre of union for all who had any claims to cultivation, music was first arranged for a _single_ voice by a dilettante, the father of the renowned Galileo.

This attempt met with applause and imitation among the most distinguished singers of the time, who thenceforth turned their attention also to secular music. It thus came about that, towards the end of the sixteenth century, on festal occasions in Italy, and even earlier in France, theatrical representations were given with vocal music. This music was, however, always composed in the form of the chorus, and the leading voice alone was represented by a singer; the other voices were represented by instruments.

Such was the beginning of solo singing, which, growing ever more in public favor, soon came to be introduced into the most solemn church music; dramatic representations, religious and secular, grew very popular, and were the forerunners of the opera and oratorio, the richest inventions of the sixteenth century.

Up to this time, a singer of sound musical culture sufficed for chorus singing, but by the introduction of solo singing a more complete education of the organ of singing became a necessity. Indeed, as early as the middle of the fifteenth century there existed in Rome and Milan schools of music and professorships for the education of singers; but with the introduction and diffusion of solo singing similar conservatories were established in nearly all the more considerable cities of Italy, and all the energies of the musician were devoted to the highest possible culture of the voice.

But, with solo singing, greater attention was paid to instruments, which were already in those days constructed with the greatest care and skill. With the higher cultivation of single voices, chorus singing also became richer in harmony and embellishment, but as, in vocal music, words accompany the music, the expression of the music becomes more definite and intelligible for the hearer, and thus with the higher cultivation of vocal music, and by means of it, even our whole modern system of harmony has been developed.

Women were, by ecclesiastical law, excluded from participation in church music, and as the voices of boys could be used only for a few years, they did not suffice to meet the ever-increasing demands of church music. At first it was attempted to supply the place of the sopranists and contraltists with so-called falsettists. As, however, these substitutes proved insufficient, the soprano and contralto of boys were sought to be preserved in men. And so, in 1625, appeared the first male sopranist in the Papal chapel in Rome. Such sopranists and contraltists soon appeared in great numbers, and as their organs of singing continued soft and tender as those of women, and their compass was the same, to them the education of female voices was given over exclusively. Thenceforth women became the richest ornament of the opera, then blooming into beauty. But only when the ecclesiastical law forbidding women to take part in church music was annulled, did women begin, in the middle of the last century, to take the place of those male sopranists and contraltists.

It thus became unnecessary to secure longer duration to the voices of boys, especially as these were never able to attain to the peculiar grace of the female voice, and so this class of singers gradually died out. But still in the first half of the present century there were many of them living and sought for as teachers of singing. _To the disappearance of this kind of singers, Rossini thinks the decline of vocal art is to be mainly ascribed._