Page 351+ MAY 1920 THE ETUDE ' > •: §11* Sil l Department for Voice and Vocal Teachers Edited for May by the Well-known New York Teacher DUDLE Y BUC K V' Thank You for Your Most S w e e t Fo i c e s .' S H A K E S P E A R E If;-;; | If Il l 11 n li l How Much Anatomy Must the Singer Know? IN these days of advanced science one would almost think after reading many of the modern books on voice culture that singing was not a normal function, but one that could only be acquired with a wonderful knowledge of anatomy, the knowledge of how all the muscles con-nected with the vocal apparatus work, the nerves that govern them, the tension necessary to produce a given tone, the amount of breath required to start the vocal bands vibrating, etc., and ad lib. However, this is not true, the fact re-mains that the voice is an automatic in-strument and that there are simple phys-ical laws which govern its action, and, furthermore, the nearer one comes to what is normal, the nearer one is to fine art. I do not meafi to be understood as con-sidering the pathological knowledge I have spoken about as not necessary to the vocal teacher; I consider it as absolutely essential, and I know of no profession that I would like to see licensed as much as that of the voice teacher—where the applicant would be obliged to answer and demonstrate on himself, before a board of competent medical judges, his knowl-edge of all physical action connected with the production of the voice. In this way many a beautiful voice would be saved and standardization of tone would be nearer realization. Aid from Books Many able books have been written on the production of the voice and no doubt some singers and teachers have profited by the knowledge that they contained, but it has been my observation, that as far as students are concerned—and I will not confine myself solely to students—that most books on voice-production are per-fectly comprehensible when you have mastered the subject and are of little aid until that has come to pass. Nobody can learn to sing through read-ing books. Theory and practice are two different things. I have heard a number of people talk voice production quite as well as I can talk it myself, but when it came to giving a personal example could barely demonstrate any of the things about which they talked so well, and I have always contended that a teacher of singing was not worthy of the name—in fact, was more or less of a humbug— who could not personally do anything which he demanded of a pupil. Voice production can only be acquired through two things, i e.t SOUND S AN D SENSATIONS . It is how it sounds in your ears and how it feels in your mouth and head cavities that finally decides the question of a well-produced tone, and nobody can teach another with authority who does not know the> sensation himself and the physical laws that govern its control. Science has demonstrated that all tone is complex, that it has a funda-mental tone and certain other sounds known as "upper partials," "harmonics" and "overtones." Upon these latter de-pend the richness and resonance of a musical tone, and anything that can am-plify* the overtones will enrich the funda-mental tone itself. Therefore, there can be no doubt that the key to all good voice production lies in the power to automat-ically control the breath with the dia-phragm and those muscles that co-operate and co-ordinate with it, allowing the throat to remain free, the vocal bands to have their normal play and the breath to soar into the super-laryngeal cavities unimpeded, thereby generating the neces-sary overtones absolutely vital to a per-fect tone. This is a short statement of a great art. A n art that requires much time and decided perseverance to master. It is a very difficult thing fo r the human mind to conceive two things at once, but that is exactly what happens when you try to control the breath with the diaphragm and relax the throat at the same time. Relaxation does not mean flabbiness either, fo r muscles must have elasticity in order to perform their functions nor-mally, and any hard effort which tends to take away this elasticity can only result in ultimate destruction of all beauty of tone. • Th e student can give himself a fair criterion of a free throat and the possi-bilities o f automatic breath control with the following exercise: Take a breath as deep as a contented sigh, feeling the body lift and the ribs expand. Whe n you have the breath, keep it, then silently and slowly sigh it out, trying to keep a gentle pressure against the ribs and the sensation of control with the entire lower part of the trunk, always feeling the sensation of elasticity as if you could increase the pressure or diminish it at will or stop the breath any moment you so desire with the throat still free. The sensation of relax-ation at the throat should be like the first part of a yawn. Afte r you have done this a number of times sing a very soft tone, seeing if you can come anywhere near the sensation that you had while doing it silently. All the basic principles of free tone emission are contained in this thought. Using the Diaphragm It was my personal experience and un-questionably the experience of most stu-dents of voice that when I was informed that I must use my diaphragm and relax at the throat, thus calling upon the dia-phragm to regulate the breath, that organ refused to work—at least refused to work graciously; on the other hand, the vocal bands labored and refused to speak freely the moment I obliged the diaphragm to work effectively. It seemed almost im-possible fo r me vto work out this problem, but one day I was talking with a great singer, a man whose breath control and free emission of tone was well nigh per-fect, M. Pol Plancon, and he said, "Th e diaphragnv will work effectively if it be well treated and helped by the muscles directly connected with it; these muscles can give greater succor to the diaphragm if they are helped by those muscles with which they in turn have a co-ordinate relation, but ask the diaphragm to carry all the weight which should be propor-tionately distributed all over the body and the result can only be RIGIDIT Y AN D LAC K O F SUPPORT. " In other words, it is a question of division of labor. The support must be felt all around the lower part of the torso if one would have good breath control, and a singer who does not know that the lower part of the trunk is the all-important part, as far as breath control is concerned, will never g o very far along the road to suc-cess. N o one can build anything to any height without a good foundation, • and the foundation of all singers must be a fine technic. Yo u can point to very few singers in the profession that have at-tained to any eminence at all who have not had a fine technic, and those few who have reached the height have been men and women of wonderful interpretative powers and great magnetic personalities. Naturally technic is only the foundation of the art, but the development of the aesthetic side can only be safely accom-plished after the technical side has be-come subservient to the will. Falling Stars Ho w often one hears a young singer hailed as a coming star, only to find that in a few short years she has fallen fro m the skies, unquestionably due to lack of technic—working the voice until hard effort has taken away its elasticity and diminished its beauty. The approval of the public is something to fear—they ac-claim with great enthusiasm and con-demn with equal force the moment the flower begins to fade. Therefore, all singers should bear in mind that if they would enjoy a long singing career they must have the necessary technic and live fo r their voices. Madame Sembrich made her debut in New York, when I was a boy, with good success, but she must have realized that she lacked that something necessary fo r a great artist, fo r after that single season she returned to Europe and studied fo r a number of years before singing again in public. Whe n she did appear she was a sensation! Students should practice breathing at least one-half hour daily fo r the first year or two of their studies, so as to develop the necessary physical strength and sta-bility of the breathing muscles and throat. If this is systematically adhered to they will find that their path to ulti-mate success will be beset with fewer difficulties in the future years of their work. Unquestionably one of the great-est aids to good breath control is the staccato. It should be practiced on single tones repeated rapidly, then slowly and on short arpeggios, not more than an octave in length. Here one can instantly feel the flattening of the abdominal wall, the setting downward and forward of the diaphragm and the sensation of throwing the tones fnom the lower part o f the torso, which at once produces a spontane-ous tone, the fundamental principal of all free tone emission. In singing a staccato arpeggio it is well to d o so with "ha," making a good deal of the aspirant. The sensation of the throat must be that of letting go and dropping open, care being taken that the body expands, thereby lift-ing it and supplying the necessary sup-port fo r the throat. In ascending the arpeggio always imagine that each tone is tipped further back on the palate. This is simply a mental suggestion to help the head tones generate the necessary overtones. Afte r a student has learned to sing vowels with free emission of tone, natu-rally he must learn to articulate conso-nants. As vowels are the only medium by which a singer can vocalize, conso-nants are therefore apt to cause much trouble. However, they are to be found in all languages and must be conquered. A s I have said above, the student having learned how to produce a tone or vowel without interference has come to the real-ization that in order to accomplish this he must have no activity in the throat and facial muscles. This same rule ap-plies to the consonants. A singer must articulate all consonants with the lips and the tip of the tongue. A consonant articulated with the back of the tongue at once causes rigidity and constitutes one of the many interferences to be avoided. A completely passive throat must therefore be maintained in articu-lating consonants, as must also be the case with the muscles of the face and those of the tongue and jaw. A student must always remember that he sings through the throat and not with the throat, and this mental suggestion will often aid in the elimination of interfer-ences. Naturally all vowels and conso-nants must be approached with absolute breath support, and the thought that the tone rests on the sternum or breast bone aids tremendously in support. The Truly Musical Person It is a very difficult task to hold back a truly musical person, and all young singers want to graduate fro m the purely technical side as rapidly as possible, but at this period of development, that is to say, before a conscious control of the technical requirements of singing are fully mastered, if they are allowed to pay too much attention to the artistic or poet-ical side of the art, it seldom fails to cost years of work to eradicate the faults they acquire. I know it makes the greatest possible demands upon their patience and perseverance in order to arrive at high ideals, but there is no short cut in art and students and teachers must always maintain a careful and constant attention to this end. If the natural desire to sing the great works of the masters is curbed until he has mastered the technical side' of his art, then he will find that the aesthetic side, the power to interpret through his personality, will be far greater than if he were subjected to the limitations of a poor technic. W e hear a great deal about standard-ization of tone nowadays, and in my opin-ion it is a decidedly pertinent question. •You hear many people say that it is im-possible, but that is not true. Standard-ization of tone is possible, for it has noth-ing whatsoever to do with character, quality or interpretation. It is solely a question of how to control the instru-
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