,,great ,,singers ,,on ,,the ,,art of ,,singing ,,educational ,,conferences ,,with ,,foremost ,,artists ,,by ,,james ,,francis ,,cooke ,a ,,series ,,of ,,personal ,,study ,,talks ,,with ,,the ,,most ,,renowned ,,opera ,,concert ,,and ,,oratorio ,,singers ,,of ,,the ,,time ,,especially ,,planned ,,for ,,voice ,,students ,illustration ,,theo4 ,,presser ,,co4 ,,philadelphia1 ,,pa4 ,,copyright1 #aiba1 ,,by ,,theo4 ,,presser ,,co4 ,,international ,,copyright ,,secured ,,contents ,,page ,,introduction #e ,,the ,,technic ,,of ,,operatic ,,production #ba ,,what ,,the ,,american ,,girl ,,should ,,know ,,about ,,an ,,operatic ,,career ,frances ,alda #ca ,,modern ,,vocal ,,methods ,,in ,,italy ,pasquale ,amato #ch ,,the ,,main ,,elements ,,of ,,interpretation ,david ,bispham #de ,,success ,,in ,,concert ,,singing ,dame ,clara ,butt #eh ,,the ,,value ,,of ,,self-,,study ,,in ,,voice ,,training ,giuseppe ,campanari #fh ,,italy1 ,,the ,,home ,,of ,,song ,enrico ,caruso #gi ,,modern ,,roads ,,to ,,vocal ,,success ,julia ,claussen #ij ,,self-,,help ,,in ,,voice ,,study ,charles ,dalmores #ajj ,,if ,,my ,,daughter ,,should ,,study ,,for ,,grand ,,opera ,andreas ,dippel #aaj ,,how ,a ,,great ,,master ,,coached ,,opera ,,singers ,emma ,eames #aba ,,the ,,open ,,door ,,to ,,opera ,florence ,easton #acc ,,what ,,must ,i ,,go ,,through ,,to ,,become ,a ,,prima ,,donna8 ,geraldine ,farrar #add ,,the ,,master ,,songs ,,of ,,robert ,,schumann ,johanna ,gadski #aed ,,teaching ,,yourself ,,to ,,sing ,amelita ,galli-,curci #aff ,,the ,,know ,,how ,,in ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,singing ,mary ,garden #agf ,,building ,a ,,vocal ,,repertoire ,alma ,gluck #ahe ,,opportunities ,,for ,,young ,,concert ,,singers ,emilio de ,gogorza #aia ,,thoroughness ,,in ,,vocal ,,preparation ,frieda ,hempel #bjj ,,common ,,sense ,,in ,,training ,,and ,,preserving ,,the ,,voice ,dame ,nellie ,melba #bjg ,,secrets ,,of ,,bel ,,canto ,bernice de ,pasquali #bag ,,how ,,fortunes ,,are ,,wasted ,,in ,,vocal ,,education ,marcella ,sembrich #bbg ,,keeping ,,the ,,voice ,,in ,,prime ,,condition ,ernestine ,schumann-,heink #bce ,,italian ,,opera ,,in ,,america ,antonio ,scotti #bea ,,the ,,singer',s ,,larger ,,musical ,,public ,henri ,scott #bfj ,,singing ,,in ,,concert ,,and ,,what ,,it ,,means ,emma ,thursby #bfi ,,new ,,aspects ,,of ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,singing ,,in ,,america ,reinald ,werrenrath #bhc ,,how ,i ,,regained ,a ,,lost ,,voice ,evan ,williams #bib ,,introduction ,,vocal ,,gold ,,mines ,,and ,,how ,,they ,,are ,,developed ,plutarch tells how a ,laconian youth picked all the feathers from the scrawny body of a nightingale and when he saw what a tiny thing was left exclaimed1 ,surely thou art all voice and nothing else6 ,among the tens of thousands of young men and women who1 having heard a few famous singers1 suddenly determine to follow the trail of the footlights1 there must be a very great number who think that the success of the singer is voice and nothing else4 ,if this collection of conferences serves to indicate how much more goes into the development of the modern singer than mere voice1 the effort will be fruitful4 ,nothing is more fascinating in human relations than the medium of communication we call speech4 ,when this is combined with beautiful music in song1 its charm is supreme4 ,the conferences collected in this book were secured during a period of from ten to fifteen years2 and in every case the notes have been carefully1 often microscopically1 reviewed and approved by the artist4 ,they are the record of actual accomplishment and not mere metempirical opinions4 ,the general design was directed by the hundreds of questions that had been presented to the writer in his own experience in teaching the art of singing4 ,only the practical teacher of singing has the opportunity to discover the real needs of the student2 and only the artist of wide experience can answer many of the serious questions asked4 ,the writer's first interest in the subject of voice commenced with the recollection of the wonderfully human and fascinating vocal organ of ,henry ,ward ,beecher1 whom he had the joy to know in his early boyhood4 ,the memory of such a voice as that of ,beecher is ineradicable4 ,once1 at the same age1 he was taken to hear ,beecher's rival pulpit orator1 the ,rev4 ,t4 de ,witt ,talmage1 in the ,brooklyn ,tabernacle4 ,the harsh1 raucous1 nasal1 penetrating1 rasping1 irritating voice of that clergyman only served to emphasize the delight in listening to ,beecher4 ,then he heard the wonderful orotund organ of ,col4 ,robert ,j4 ,ingersoll and the sonorous1 mellow voice of ,edwin ,booth4 ,shortly he found himself enlisted as a soprano in the boy choir of a large ,episcopal church4 ,while there he became the soloist1 singing many of the leading arias from famous oratorios before he was able to identify the musical importance of such works4 ,then came a long training in piano and in organ playing1 followed by public appearances as a pianist and engagements as an organist and choirmaster in different churches4 ,this1 coupled with song composition1 musical criticism and editing1 experience in conducting1 managing concerts1 accompanying noted singers and1 later1 in teaching voice for many years1 formed a background that is recounted here only to let the reader know that the conferences were not put down by one unacquainted with the actual daily needs of the student1 from his earliest efforts to his platform triumphs4 ,,what ,,must ,,the ,,singer ,,have8 ,what must the singer have8 ,a voice8 ,of course4 ,but how good must that voice be8 ,ah1 there's the rub6 ,it is this very point which adds so much fascination to the chances of becoming a great singer2 and it is this very point upon which so many1 many careers have been wrecked4 ,the young singer learns that ,jenny ,lind was first refused by ,garcia because he considered her case hopeless2 he learns that ,sir ,george ,henschel told ,bispham that he had insufficient voice to encourage him to take up the career of the singer2 he learns dozens of similar instances2 and then he goes to hear some famous singer with slender vocal gifts who1 by force of tremendous dramatic power1 eclipses dozens with finer voices4 ,he thereupon resolves that voice must be a secondary matter in the singer's success4 ,there could not be a greater mistake4 ,there must be a good vocal basis4 ,there must be a voice capable of development through a sufficient gamut to encompass the great works written for such a voice4 ,it must be capable of development into sufficient size and power that it may fill large auditoriums4 ,it must be sweet1 true to pitch1 clear2 and1 above all1 it must have that kind of an individual quality which seems to draw the musical interest of the average person to it4 ,,the ,,perfect ,,voice ,paradoxically enough1 the public does not seem to want the perfect voice1 but rather1 the human voice4 ,a noted expert1 who for many years directed the recording laboratories of a famous sound reproducing machine company1 a man whose acquaintance with great singers of the time is very wide1 once told the writer of a singer who made records so perfect from the standpoint of tone that no musical critic could possibly find fault with them4 ,yet these records did not meet with a market from the general public4 ,the reason is that the public demands something far more than a flawless voice and technically correct singing4 ,it demands the human quality1 that wonderful something that shines through the voice of every normal1 living being as the soul shines through the eyes4 ,it is this thing which gives individuality and identity to the voice and makes the widest appeal to the greatest number of people4 ,patti was not great because her dulcet tones were like honey to the ear4 ,mere sweetness does not attract vast audiences time and again4 ,once1 in a mediaeval ,german city1 the writer was informed that a nightingale had been heard in the glacis on the previous night4 ,the following evening a party of friends was formed and wandered through the park whispering with delight at every outburst from the silver throat4 ,never had bird music been so beautiful4 ,the next night someone suggested that we go again2 but no one could be found who was enthusiastic enough to repeat the experience4 ,the very perfection of the nightingale's song1 once heard1 had been sufficient4 ,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,individuality ,certain performers in vaudeville owe their continued popularity to the fascinating individuality of their voices4 ,albert ,chevalier1 once heard1 could never be forgotten4 ,his pathetic lilt to ,my ,old ,dutuch has made thousands weep4 ,when he sings such a number he has a far higher artistic control over his audience than many an elaborately trained singer trilling away at some very complicated aria4 ,a second-rate opera singer once bemoaned his fate to the writer4 ,he complained that he was obliged to sing for #ajj4jj a week1 notwithstanding his years of study and preparation1 while ,harry ,lauder1 the ,scotch comedian1 could get #ajjj a night on his tours4 ,as a matter of fact ,mr4 ,lauder1 entirely apart from his ability as an actor1 had a far better voice and had that appealing quality that simply commandeers his auditors the moment he opens his mouth4 ,any method or scheme of teaching the art of singing that does not seek to develop the inherent intellectual and emotional vocal complexion of the singer can never approach a good method4 ,vocal perfection that does not admit of the manifestation of the real individual has been the death knell of many an aspiring student4 ,nordica1 ,jean de ,reszke1 ,victor ,maurel1 ,plancon1 ,sims ,reeves1 ,schumann-,heink1 ,garden1 ,dr4 ,wuellner1 ,evan ,williams1 ,galli-,curci1 and especially our greatest of ,american singers1 ,david ,bispham1 all have manifested a vocal individuality as unforgetable to the ear as their countenances are to the eye4 ,if the reader happens to be a young singer and can grasp the significance of the previous paragraph1 he may have something more valuable to him than many lessons4 ,the world is not seeking merely the perfect voice but a great musical individuality manifested through a voice developed to express that individuality in the most natural and at the same time the most comprehensive manner possible4 ,therefore1 young man and young woman1 does it not seem of the greatest importance to you to develop1 first of all1 the mind and the soul1 so that when the great hour comes1 your audience will hear through the notes that pour from your throat something of your intellectual and emotional character8 ,they will not know how1 nor will they ask why they hear it1--but its manifestation will either be there or it will not be there4 ,upon this will depend much of your future success4 ,it can not be concealed from the discerning critics in whose hands your progress rests4 ,the high intellectual training received in college by ,ffrangcon ,davies1 ,david ,bispham1 ,plunkett ,greene1 ,herbert ,witherspoon1 ,reinald ,werrenrath and others1 is just as apparent to the intelligent listener1 in their singing at recitals1 as it would be in their conversation4 ,others have received an equivalent intellectual training in other ways4 ,the young singer1 who thinks that in the future he can get by without such a training1 is booked for disappointment4 ,get a college education if you can2 and1 if you can not1 fight to get its equivalent4 ,no useful experience in the singer's career is a wasted one4 ,the early instrumental training of ,melba1 ,sembrich1 ,campanari1 ,hempel1 ,dalmores1 ,garden1 and ,galli-,curci1 shows out in their finished singing1 in wonderful manner4 ,every singer should be able to play the piano well4 ,it has a splendid effect in the musical discipline of the mind4 ,in ,european conservatories1 in many instances1 the study of the piano is compulsory4 ,,your ,,philosophy ,,of ,,singing ,the student of singing should be an inveterate reader of worthwhile comments upon his art4 ,in this way1 if he has a discriminating mind1 he will be able to form a philosophy of singing of his own4 ,richard ,wagner prefaced his music dramas with lengthy essays giving his reasons for pursuing a certain course4 ,whatever their value may be to the musical public at this time1 it could not have been less than that to the great master when he was fighting to straighten out for his own satisfaction in his own mind just what he should do and how he should do it4 ,therefore1 read interminably2 but believe nothing that you read until you have weighed it carefully in your own mind and determined its usefulness in its application to your own particular case4 ,the student will find the following books of real value in his quest for vocal truth3 ,the ,philosophy of ,singing1 ,clara ,kathleen ,rogers2 ,the ,vocal ,instructor1 ,e4 ,j4 ,myer2 ,the ,psychology of ,singing1 ,david ,c4 ,taylor2 ,how to ,sing1 ,lilli ,lehmann2 ,reminiscences of a ,quaker ,singer1 ,david ,bispham2 ,the ,art of the ,singer1 ,w4 ,j4 ,henderson4 ,the student should also read the biographies of famous singers and keep in touch with the progress of the art1 through reading the best magazines4 ,,the ,,history ,,of ,,singing ,the history of singing parallels the history of civilization4 ,egypt1 ,israel1 ,greece and ,rome made their contributions2 but how they sang and what they sang we can not definitely know because of the destruction of the bridge between ancient and modern notation1 and because not until ,thomas ,edison invented the phonograph in #ahgg1 was there any tangible means of recording the voices of the singers4 ,the wisdom of ,socrates1 ,plato and ,caesar is therefore of trifling significance in helping us to find out more than how highly the art was regarded4 ,the absurd antics of ,nero1 in his ambition to distinguish himself as a singer1 indicated in some more or less indefinite way the importance given to singing in the heyday of ,rome4 ,the incessant references to singing1 in ,greek literature1 tell us that singing was looked upon not merely as an accomplishment but as one of the necessary arts4 ,coincident with the coming of ,italian opera1 about #afjj1 we find a great revival of the art of singing2 and many of the old ,italian masters have bequeathed us some fairly instructive comments upon the art of bel canto4 ,that these old ,italian teachers were largely individualists and taught empirically1 with no set methods other than that which their own ears determined1 seems to be accepted quite generally by investigators at this date4 ,the ,osservazione sopra il ,canto figurato of ,pietro ,francesco ,tosi 7procurable in ,english71 published in #agbc1 and the ,reflessioni pratichi sul ,canto figurato1 published in #aggf1 are valuable documents for the serious student1 particularly because these men seemed to recognize that the so-called registers should be equalized4 ,with them developed an ever-expanding jargon of voice directions which persist to this day among vocal teachers4 ,such directions as sing through the mask 7meaning the face72 sing with the throat open2 sing as though you were just about to smile2 sing as though you were just about to experience the sensation of swallowing 7come bere72 support the tone2 etc41 etc41 are often more confusing than helpful4 ,manual ,garcia 7#ahje-aijf71 who invented the laryngoscope in #ahee1 made an earnest effort to bring scientific observation to the aid of the vocal teacher1 by providing a tiny mirror on the end of a rod1 enabling the teacher to see the vocal cords during the process of phonation4 ,how much this actually helped the singing teacher is still a moot point2 but it must be remembered that ,garcia had many extremely successful pupils1 including the immortal ,jenny ,lind4 ,the writer again advises the serious student of singing to spend a great deal of time in forming his own conception of the principles by which he can get the most from his voice4 ,any progressive artist teacher will encourage him in this course4 ,in other words1 it is not enough in these days that he shall sing2 but he must know how he produces his results and be able to produce them time and time again with constantly increasing success4 ,note in the succeeding conferences how many of the great singers have given very careful and minute consideration to this4 ,the late ,evan ,williams spent years of thought and study upon it2 and the writer considers that his observations in this volume are among the most important contributions to the literature of voice teaching4 ,this was the only form in which they appeared in print4 ,only one student in a hundred thousand can dispense with a good vocal teacher1 as did the brilliant ,galli-,curci or the unforgetable ,campanari4 ,a really fine teacher of voice is practically indispensable to most students4 ,this does not mean that the best teacher is the one with the greatest reputation4 ,the reputation of a teacher only too often has depended upon his good fortune early in life in securing pupils who have made spectacular successes in a short time4 ,there are hundreds of splendid vocal teachers in ,america now1 and it is very gratifying to see many of their pupils make great successes in ,europe without any previous instruction on the other side4 ,surely nothing can be more helpful to the ambitious vocal student than the direct advice1 personal suggestions and hints of the greatest singers of the time4 ,it is with this thought that the writer takes especial pride in being the medium of the presentation of the following conferences4 ,it is suggested that a careful study of the best sound-reproducing-machine records of the great singers included will add much to the interest of the study of this work4 ,the enormous incomes received from some vocal gold mines1 such as ,caruso1 ,john ,mc,cormack1 ,patti1 ,galli-,curci1 and others1 have made the lure of the singer's career so great that many young vocalists are inclined to forget that all of the great singers of the day have attained their triumphs only after years of hard work4 ,galli-,curci's overwhelmingly successful ,american debut followed years of real labor1 when she was glad to accept small engagements in order to advance in her art4 ,john ,mc,cormack's first ,american appearances were at a side show at the ,st4 ,louis ,world's ,fair4 ,sacrifice is often the seed kernel of large success4 ,too few young singers are willing to plant that kernel4 ,they expect success to come at the end of a few courses of study and a few hundred dollars spent in advertising4 ,the public1 particularly the ,american public1 is a wary one4 ,it may be possible to advertise worthless gold mining stock in such a way that thousands may be swindled before the crook behind the scheme is jailed4 ,but it is impossible to sell our public a so-called golden-voiced singer whose voice is really nothing more than tin-foil and very thin tin-foil at that4 ,every year certain kinds of slippery managers accept huge fees from would-be singers1 which are supposed to be invested in a mysterious formula which1 like the philosopher's stone1 will turn a baser metal into pure gold4 ,no campaign of advertising spent upon a mediocrity or an inadequately prepared artist can ever result in anything but a disastrous waste4 ,don't spend a penny in advertising until you have really something to sell which the public will want4 ,it takes years to make a fine singer known2 but it takes only one concert to expose an inadequate singer4 ,every one of the artists represented in this book has been through the mill and every one has triumphed gloriously in the end4 ,there is one road4 ,they have defined it in remarkable fashion in these conferences4 ,the sign-posts read1 ,work1 ,sacrifice1 ,joy1 ,triumph4 ,with the multiplicity of methods and schemes for practice it is not surprising that the main essentials of the subject are sometimes obscured4 ,that such discussions as those included in this book will enable the thinking student to crystallize in his own mind something which to him will become a method long after he has left his student days1 can not be questioned4 ,one of the significant things which he will have to learn is perfect intonation1 keeping on the right pitch all the time2 and another thing is freedom from restriction1 best expressed by the word poise4 ,william ,shakespeare1 greatest of ,english singing teachers of his day1 once expressed these important points in the following words3 ,the ,foundations of the ,art of ,singing are two in number3 ,first3 7,a7 ,how to take breath and 7,b7 how to press it out slowly4 7,the act of slow exhalation is seen in our endeavor to warm some object with the breath47 ,second3 ,how to sing to this controlled breath pressure4 ,it may be interesting at this point to observe how the old singers practiced when seeking a full tone while using little breath4 ,they watched the effect of their breath by singing against a mirror or against the flame of a taper4 ,if a note required too much pressure the command over the breath was lost--the mirror was unduly tarnished or the flame unduly puffed4 ',ah' was their pattern vowel1 being the most difficult on account of the openness of the throat--the vowel which1 by letting more breath out1 demanded the greatest control4 ,the perfect poise of the instrument on the controlled breath was found to bring about three important results to the singer3 ,first result--,unerring tuning4 ,as we do not experience any sensation of consciously using the muscles in the throat1 we can only judge of the result by listening4 ,when the note sounds to the right breath control it springs unconsciously and instantaneously to the tune we intended4 ,the freedom of the instrument not being interfered with1 it follows through our wishing it--like any other act naturally performed4 ,this unerring tuning is the first result of a right foundation4 ,second result--,the throat spaces are felt to be unconscious and arrange themselves independently in the different positions prompted by the will and necessary to pronounciation1 the factors being freedom of tongue and soft palate1 and freedom of lips4 ,third result--,the complete freedom of the face and eyes which adapt themselves to those changes necessary to the expression of the emotions4 ,the artist can increase the intensity of his tone without necessarily increasing its volume1 and can thus produce the softest effect4 ,by his skill he can emit the soft note and cause it to travel as far as a loud note1 thus arousing emotions as of distance1 as of memories of the past4 ,he produces equally well the more powerful gradations without overstepping the boundary of noble and expressive singing4 ,on the other hand1 an indifferent performer would scarcely venture on a soft effect1 the absence of breath support would cause him to become inaudible and should he attempt to crescendo such a note the result would be throaty and unsatisfactory4 ,another most important subject is diction1 and the writer can think of nothing better than to quote from ,mme4 ,lilli ,lehmann1 the greatest ,wagnerian soprano of the last century4 ,let us now consider some of the reasons why some ,american singers have failed to succeed4 ,how do ,american women begin their studies8 ,many commence their lessons in ,december or ,january4 ,they take two or three half-hour lessons a week1 even attending these irregularly1 and ending their year's instruction in ,march or1 at the latest1 in ,april4 ,surely music study under such circumstances is little less than farcical4 ,the voice1 above all things1 needs careful and constant attention4 ,moreover1 many are lacking lamentably in the right preparations4 ,some are evidently so benighted as to believe that preparation is unnecessary4 ,or do they believe that the singing teacher must also provide a musical and general education8 ,is there one among them1 for instance1 who can enunciate her own language faultlessly2 that is1 as the stage demands8 ,many fail to realize that they should1 first of all1 be taught elocution 7diction7 by teachers who can show them how to pronounce vowels purely and beautifully1 and consonants correctly and distinctly1 so as to give words their proper sounds4 ,how can anyone expect to sing in a foreign language when he has no idea of his own language--no idea how this wonderful member1 the tongue1 should be used--to say nothing of the terrible faults in speaking8 ,i endorse the study of elocution as a preparatory study for all singing4 ,no one can realize how much simpler and how much more efficient it would make the work of the singing teacher4 ,finally1 the writer feels that there is much to be inferred from the popular criticism of the man in the street--,there is no music in that voice4 ,mr4 ,hoipolloi knows just what he means when he says that4 ,as a matter of fact1 the average voice has very little music in it4 ,by music the man means that the pitch of the tones that he hears shall be so unmistakable and so accurate1 that the quality shall be so pure and the thought of the singer so sincere and so worth-while1 that the auditor feels the wonderful human emotion that comes only from listening to a beautiful human voice4 ,put real music in every tone and your success will not be far distant4 ,,james ,,francis ,,cooke4 ,bala1 ,pa4 ,,the ,,technic ,,of ,,operatic ,,production ,,what ,,the ,,student ,,who ,,aspires ,,to ,,go ,,into ,,opera ,,should ,,know ,,about ,,the ,,mechanical ,,side ,,of ,,giving ,,an ,,operatic ,,performance ,even after one has mastered the art of singing there is still much that the artist must learn about the actual working of the opera house itself4 ,this of course is best done by actual experience2 but the writer has found that much can be gained by insight into some of the conditions that exist in the modern opera house4 ,in the childhood of hundreds of people now living opera was given with scenery and costumes that would be ridiculed in vaudeville if seen to-day4 ,pianos1 lamps1 chairs and even bird cages were often painted right on the scenery4 ,one set of costumes and properties was made to do for the better part of the repertoire in such a way that even the most flexible imagination was stretched to the breaking point several times during the performance4 ,now1 most of this has changed and the modern opera house stage is often a mechanical and electrical marvel4 ,it is most human to want to peep behind the scenes and see something of the machinery which causes the wonderful spectacle of the stage4 ,we remember how1 as children1 we longed to open the clock and see the wheels go round4 ,behind the asbestos curtain there is a world of ropes1 lights1 electrical and mechanical machinery1 paints and canvas1 which is always a territory filled with interest to those who sit in the seats in front4 ,much of the success of the opera in ,new ,york1 during the early part of the present century1 was due to the great efficiency of the ,director1 ,giulio ,gatti-,casazza4 ,gatti-,casazza was a graduate of the ,royal ,italian ,naval ,academy at ,leghorn1 and had been intended for a career as a naval engineer before he undertook the management of the opera at ,ferrara4 ,this he did because his father was on the board of directors of the ,ferrara opera house1 and the institution had not been a great success4 ,his directorship was so well executed that he was appointed head director of the opera at ,la ,scala in ,milan and astonished the musical world with his wonderful ,italian productions of ,wagner's operas under the conductorship of ,toscanini4 ,in ,new ,york many reforms were instituted1 and later took the ,new ,york company to ,paris1 giving performances which made ,europe realize that opera in ,new ,york is as fine as that in any music center in the world1 and in some particulars finer4 ,the ,new ,york opera is more cosmopolitan than that of any other country4 ,its company included artists from practically every ,european country1 but fortunately includes more ,american singers and musicians to-day than at any time in our operatic history4 ,we are indebted to the staff of the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house1 experts who1 with the kind permission of the director1 furnished the writer with the following interesting information3 ,illustration3 ,,profile ,,of ,,the ,,paris ,,grand ,,opera4 7,,note ,,that ,,the ,,stage ,,section ,,is ,,larger ,,than ,,the ,,auditorium4 ,,also ,,note ,,the ,,immense ,,space ,,given ,,to ,,the ,,grand ,,entrance ,,stairway47 ,a ,,world ,,of ,,detail ,few people have any idea of how many persons and how many departments are connected with the opera and its presentation4 ,considering them in order1 they might be classed as follows3 ,the ,general ,manager and his assistants4 ,the ,musical ,director and his assistants4 ,the ,stage ,director and his assistants4 ,the ,technical ,director and his assistants4 ,the ,business ,director and his assistants4 ,the ,wardrobe ,director and his assistants4 ,the ,master of ,properties and his assistants4 ,the ,head ,engineer and his assistants4 ,the ,accountant and his assistants4 ,the ,advertising ,manager and his assistants4 ,the ,press ,representatives and his assistants4 ,the ,superintendent and his assistants4 ,the ,head ,usher and his assistants4 ,the ,electrician and his assistants4 ,few of these important and necessary factors in the production ever appear before the public4 ,like the miners who supply us with the wealth of the earth1 they work1 as it were1 underground4 ,no one is more directly concerned with making the production than the ,technical ,director4 ,in that we are fortunate in having the views of ,mr4 ,edward ,siedle1 ,technical ,director of the ,metropolitan ,opera ,company1 of ,new ,york4 ,the complete picture that the public sees is made under the supervision of ,mr4 ,siedle1 and during the actual production he is responsible for all of the technical details4 ,his experience has extended over a great many years in different countries4 ,he writes3 ,,the ,,technic ,,of ,,the ,,production ,i understand you wish me to give you some idea of the technicalities involved in producing the stage pictures which go to form an opera4 ,let us suppose it is an opera by an ,american composer4 ,my first procedure would be to place myself in touch with the author and composer4 ,after having one or two talks with them ,i secure a libretto4 ,when a mutual understanding is agreed upon between us as to the character of the scenes required and the positions of particular things in relation to the business which has to take place during the performance1 ,i make my plans accordingly1 and look up all the data available bearing upon the subject4 ,it is now time to call in the scenic artist1 giving him my views and ideas1 so that he can start upon the designing and painting of the scenery4 ,his first design would be in the form of a rough sketch and a more clearly worked-out ground plan4 ,after further discussion and alterations we should definitely agree upon a scheme1 and he would proceed to make a scale model4 ,when this model is finished it is a perfect miniature scene of the opera as it will appear on the night the opera is produced4 ,the author and composer are then called in to meet the impresario and myself for a final consultation4 ,we now finally criticize our plans1 making any alterations which may seem necessary to us4 ,when these alterations are completed the plans are handed over to the carpenter1 who immediately starts making his frames and covering them with canvas1 working from the scale model4 ,the scenic artist is now able to commence his work in earnest4 ,the properties are our next consideration4 ,sketches and patterns are made1 authorities are consulted1 and everything possible is done to aid the ,property ,master in doing his part of the work4 ,unless the opera in question calls for special mechanical effects1 or special stage machinery1 the scene is adapted to the stage as it is4 ,if anything exceptional has to be achieved1 however1 special machinery is constructed4 ,the designing of the costumes is gone over in much the same way as the construction of the scenery4 ,the period in which the opera is laid1 the various characters and their station in life1 are all well talked over by the composer1 author and myself4 ,the costume designer is then called in1 and after listening to what every one has to say and reading the libretto1 he submits his designs4 ,these1 when finished1 are criticized by the impresario1 the composer1 the author and myself1 and any suggestion which will improve them is accepted by the designer1 and alterations are made until everything is satisfactory4 ,the designs are then sent to the costume maker4 ,the important matter of lighting and electrical effects is not dealt with until after the scenery has been completed1 painted and set up on the stage1 except in the case when exceptional effects are demanded4 ,the matter is then carefully discussed and arranged so that the apparatus will be ready by the time the earlier rehearsals are taking place4 ,the staff required by a ,technical ,director in such an institution as the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house is necessarily a large one4 ,he needs an able scenic artist with his assistants and an efficient carpenter with his assistants to complete the scenic arrangements as indicated in the models4 ,the completed scenery is delivered over to the stage carpenter who has a large body of assistants1 and is held responsible for the running of the opera during rehearsals and performances4 ,the stage carpenter has also under his control a body of carpenters who work all night1 commencing their duties after the opera is over1 removing all the scenery used in the opera just finished from the opera house and bringing from the various storehouses the scenery required for the next performance or rehearsal4 ,the electrician is an important member of my staff1 and he1 of course1 has a number of assistants4 ,the ,property ,master and his assistants and the ,wardrobe ,mistress and her assistants also are extremely important4 ,then the active engineer who is responsible for the heating and ventilating1 and also for many of the stage effects1 is another necessary and important member4 ,in all1 the ,opera ,house1 when in full swing1 requires for the technical or stage detail work alone about #ahe people4 ,illustration3 ,,how ,,an ,,operatic ,,stage ,,looks ,,from ,,behind4 ,thus far we have not considered the musical side of the production4 ,this is1 of course1 under the management of the ,general ,director and the leading ,musical ,director4 ,very little time at best is at the disposal of the musical director4 ,a director like ,toscanini would1 in a first-class opera house1 with a full and competent company1 require about fifteen days to complete the rehearsals1 and other preparations for such a production as ,aida1 should such a work be brought out as a novelty4 ,a good conductor needs at least four orchestra rehearsals4 ,pelleas et ,melisande would require more extensive rehearsing1 as the music is of a new order and is1 in a sense1 a new form of art4 ,,important ,,rehearsals ,while the head musical director is engaged with the principals and the orchestra1 the ,chorus-master spends his time training the chorus4 ,if his work is not efficiently done1 the entire production is greatly impeded4 ,the assistant conductors undertake the work of rehearsing the soloists prior to their appearance in connection with the orchestra4 ,they must know the ,head ,director's ideas perfectly1 and see that the soloists do not introduce interpretations which are too much at variance with his ideas and the accepted traditions4 ,in all about ten rehearsals are given to a work in a room set aside for that purpose1 then there are five stage rehearsals1 and finally four full ensemble rehearsals with orchestra4 ,in putting on an old work1 such as those in the standard repertoire1 no rehearsals are demanded4 ,the musical forces of the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house1 for instance1 make a company of at least two leading conductors1 twelve assistant conductors1 about ninety soloists1 a chorus numbering at least one hundred and twenty-five singers1 thirty musicians for stage music1 about twenty stage attendants and an orchestra of from eighty to one hundred performers1 to say nothing of the costume1 scenic and business staff1 making a little industry all in itself4 ,the ,general ,director1 the ,stage ,manager1 and often the ,musical ,director make innumerable suggestions to the singers regarding the proper histrionic presentation of their roles4 ,as a rule singers give too little attention to the dramatic side of their work and demand too much of the stage manager4 ,in recent years there has been a great improvement in this4 ,prior to the time of ,gluck1 ,weber and ,wagner1 acting in opera was a matter of ridicule4 ,,the ,,ballet ,about seventy or one hundred persons make up the ballet of a modern grand opera4 ,at least ten years of continuous study are required to make a finished ballet dancer in the histrionic sense4 ,many receive very large fees for their services4 ,the art of stage dancing also has undergone many great reforms in recent years2 and the ballets of to-day are therefore much more popular than they were in the latter part of the last century4 ,the most popular ballets of to-day are the ,coppelia and ,sylvia of ,delibes4 ,the ballets from the operas of ,la ,gioconda1 ,samson et ,delila1 ,armide1 ,mephistophele1 ,aida1 ,orfeo1 ,l',africaine1 and ,the ,damnation of ,faust also are very popular4 ,at a modern opera house like the ,metropolitan in ,new ,york ,city the number of employees will be between six hundred and seven hundred1 and the cost of a season will be about one million dollars4 ,,frances ,,alda 7,,mme4 ,,giulio ,,gatti-,,casazza7 ,,biographical ,mme4 ,frances ,alda was born at ,christ ,church1 ,new ,zealand1 ,may #cast1 #ahhc4 ,she was educated at ,melbourne and studied singing with ,mathilde ,marchesi in ,paris4 ,her debut was made in ,massenet's ,manon1 at the ,opera ,comique in ,paris in #aijd4 ,after highly successful engagements in ,paris1 ,brussels1 ,parma and ,milan 7where she created the title role in the ,italian version of ,louise71 she made her ,american debut at the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house in ,new ,york as ,gilda in ,verdi's ,rigoletto4 ,since her initial success in ,new ,york she has been connected with the ,metropolitan stage every season4 ,in #aiaj she married ,giulio ,gatti-,casazza1 manager of the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house1 and is probably better able to speak upon the subject herewith discussed than any one in ,america4 ,she has also appeared with great success in ,london1 ,warsaw1 ,buenos ,aires and other cities1 in opera and in concert4 ,many of the most important leading roles in modern opera have been created by her in ,america4 ,illustration3 ,,mme4 ,,frances ,,alda4 7,c7 ,underwood ,underwood4 ,,what ,,the ,,american ,,girl ,,should ,,know ,,about ,,an ,,operatic ,,career ,,mme4 ,,frances ,,alda 7,,mme4 ,,gatti-,,casazza7 ,,regularity ,,and ,,success ,to the girl who aspires to have an operatic career1 who has the requisite vocal gifts1 physical health1 stage presence and--most important of all--a high degree of intelligence1 the great essential is regular daily work4 ,this implies regular lessons1 regular practice1 regular exercise1 regular sleep1 regular meals--in fact1 a life of regularity4 ,the daily lesson in most cases seems an imperative necessity4 ,lessons strung over a series of years merely because it seems more economical to take one lesson a week instead of seven rarely produce the expected results4 ,marchesi1 with her famous wisdom on vocal matters1 advised twenty minutes a day and then not more than ten minutes at a time4 ,for nine months ,i studied with the great ,parisian maestra and in my tenth month ,i made my debut4 ,of course1 ,i had sung a great deal before that time and also could play both the piano and the violin4 ,a thorough musical knowledge is always valuable4 ,the early years of the girl who is destined for an operatic career may be much more safely spent with ,czerny exercises for the piano or ,kreutzer studies for the violin than with ,concone ,solfeggios for the voice4 ,most girls over-exercise their voices during the years when they are too delicate4 ,it always pays to wait and spend the time in developing the purely musical side of study4 ,,moderation ,,and ,,good ,,sense ,more voices collapse from over-practice and more careers collapse from under-work than from anything else4 ,the girl who hopes to become a prima donna will dream of her work morning1 noon and night4 ,nothing can take it out of her mind4 ,she will seek to study every imaginable thing that could in any way contribute to her equipment4 ,there is so much to learn that she must work hard to learn all4 ,even now ,i study pretty regularly two hours a day1 but ,i rarely sing more than a few minutes4 ,i hum over my new roles with my accompanist1 ,frank ,la ,forge1 and study them in that way4 ,it was to such methods as this that ,marchesi attributed the wonderful longevity of the voices of her best-known pupils4 ,when they followed the advice of the dear old maestra their voices lasted a long1 long time4 ,her vocal exercises were little more than scales sung very slowly1 single1 sustained tones repeated time and again until her critical ear was entirely satisfied1 and then arpeggios4 ,after that came more complicated technical drills to prepare the pupil for the fioriture work demanded in the more florid operas4 ,at the base of all1 however1 were the simplest kind of exercises4 ,through her discriminating sense of tone quality1 her great persistence and her boundless enthusiasm1 she used these simple vocal materials with a wizardry that produced great prime donne4 ,,the ,,precious ,,head ,,voice ,marchesi laid great stress upon the use of the head voice4 ,this she illustrated to all her pupils herself1 at the same time not hesitating to insist that it was impossible for a male teacher to teach the head voice properly4 7,marchesi herself carried out her theories by refusing to teach any male applicants47 ,she never let any pupil sing above ,f on the top line of the treble staff in anything but the head voice4 ,they rarely ever touched their highest notes with full voice4 ,the upper part of the voice was conserved with infinite care to avoid early breakdowns4 ,even when the pupils sang the top notes they did it with the feeling that there was still something in reserve4 ,in my operatic work at present ,i feel this to be of greatest importance4 ,the singer who exhausts herself upon the top notes is neither artistic nor effective4 ,,the ,,american ,,girl',s ,,chances ,,in ,,opera ,the ,american girl who fancies that she has less chances in opera than her sisters of the ,european countries is silly4 ,look at the lists of artists at the ,metropolitan1 for instance4 ,the list includes twice as many artists of ,american nationality as of any other nation4 ,this is in no sense the result of pandering to the patriotism of the ,american public4 ,it is simply a matter of supply and demand4 ,new ,yorkers demand the best opera in the world and expect the best voices in the world4 ,the management would accept fine artists with fine voices from ,china or ,africa or the ,north ,pole if they were forthcoming4 ,a diamond is a diamond no matter where it comes from4 ,the management virtually ransacks the musical marts of ,europe every year for fine voices4 ,inevitably the list of ,american artists remains higher4 ,on the whole1 the ,american girls have better natural voices1 more ambition and are willing to study seriously1 patiently and energetically4 ,this is due in a measure to better physical conditions in ,america and in ,australia1 another free country that has produced unusual singers4 ,what is the result8 ,america is now producing the best and enjoying the best4 ,there is more fine music of all kinds now in ,new ,york during one week than one can get in ,paris in a month and more than one can get in ,milan in six months4 ,this has made ,new ,york a great operatic and musical center4 ,it is a wonderful opportunity for ,americans who desire to enter opera4 ,,the ,,need ,,for ,,superior ,,intelligence ,there was a time in the halcyon days of the old coloratura singers when the opera singer was not expected to have very much more intelligence than a parrot4 ,any singer who could warble away at runs and trills was a great artist4 ,the situation has changed entirely to-day4 ,the modern opera-goer demands great acting as well as great singing4 ,the opera house calls for brains as well as voices4 ,there should properly be great and sincere rivalry among fine singers4 ,the singer must listen to other singers with minute care and patience1 and then try to learn how to improve herself by self-study and intelligent comparison4 ,just as the great actor studies everything that pertains to his role1 so the great singer knows the history of the epoch of the opera in which he is to appear1 he knows the customs1 he may know something of the literature of the time4 ,in other words1 he must live and think in another atmosphere before he can walk upon the stage and make the audience feel that he is really a part of the picture4 ,sir ,herbert ,beerbohm ,tree gave a presentation that was convincing and beautiful1 while the mediocre actor1 not willing to give as much brain work to his performance1 falls far short of an artistic performance4 ,a modern performance of any of the great works as they are presented at the ,metropolitan is rehearsed with great care and attention to historical detail4 ,instances of this are the performances of ,l',amore di ,tre ,re1 ,carmen1 ,boheme1 and ,lohengrin1 as well as such great works as ,die ,meistersinger1 and ,tristan und ,isolde4 ,,physical ,,strength ,,and ,,singing ,few singers seem to realize that an operatic career will be determined in its success very largely through physical strength1 all other factors being present in the desired degree4 ,that is1 the singer must be strong physically in order to succeed in opera4 ,this applies to women as well as to men4 ,no one knows what the physical strain is1 how hard the work and study are4 ,in front of you is a sea of highly intelligent1 cultured people1 who for years have been trained in the best traditions of the opera4 ,they pay the highest prices paid anywhere for entertainment4 ,they are entitled to the best4 ,to face such an audience and maintain the high traditions of the house through three hours of a complicated modern score is a musical1 dramatic and intellectual feat that demands1 first of all1 a superb physical condition4 ,every day of my life in ,new ,york ,i go for a walk1 mostly around the reservoir in ,central ,park1 because it is high and the air is pure and free4 ,as a result ,i seldom have a cold1 even in mid-winter4 ,i have not missed a performance in eight years1 and this1 of course1 is due to the fact that my health is my first daily consideration4 ,illustration3 ,,pasquale ,,amato4 7,c7 ,mishkin4 ,,pasquale ,,amato ,,biographical ,pasquale ,amato1 for so many years the leading baritone at the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house in ,new ,york1 was born at ,naples ,march #bast1 #ahgh4 ,he was intended for the career of an engineer and was educated at the ,instituto ,tecnico ,domenico4 ,he then studied at the ,conservatory of ,naples from #ahif to #ahii4 ,his teachers there were ,cucialla and ,carelli4 ,he made his debut as ,germont in ,la ,traviata in the ,teatro ,bellini at ,naples in #aijj4 ,thereafter his successes have been exceptionally great in the music centers of ,south ,america1 ,italy1 ,russia1 ,england1 ,egypt1 and ,germany4 ,he has created numerous roles at the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house1 among them ,jack ,rance in the ,girl of the ,golden ,west2 ,golaud in ,pelleas and ,melisande 7,milan72 ,l',amore di ,tre ,re2 ,cyrano 7,damrosch72 ,lodoletta 7,mascagni72 ,madame ,sans ,gene4 ,he has visited ,south ,america as an artist no less than ten times4 ,his voice is susceptible of fine dramatic feeling4 ,,modern ,,vocal ,,methods ,,in ,,italy ,,pasquale ,,amato ,when ,i was about sixteen years of age my voice was sufficiently settled to encourage my friends and family to believe that ,i might become a singer4 ,this is a proud discovery for an ,italian boy1 as singing--especially operatic singing--is held in such high regard in ,italy that one naturally looks forward with joy to a career in the great opera houses of one's native country and possibly to those over the sea4 ,at eighteen ,i was accordingly entered in the conservatory1 but not without many conditions1 which should be of especial interest to young ,american vocal students4 ,the teachers did not immediately accept me as good vocal material4 ,i was recognized to have musical inclinations and musical gifts and ,i was placed under observation so that it might be determined whether the state-supported conservatory should direct my musical education along vocal lines or along other lines4 ,this is one of the cardinal differences between musical education in ,america and musical education in ,italy4 ,in ,america a pupil suddenly determines that he is destined to become a great opera singer and forthwith he hires a teacher to make him one4 ,he might have been destined to become a plumber1 or a lawyer1 or a comedian1 but that has little to do with the matter if he has money and can employ a teacher4 ,in ,italy such a direction of talents would be considered a waste to the individual and to the state4 ,of course the system has its very decided faults1 for a corps of teachers with poor or biased judgment could do a great deal of damage by discouraging real talent1 as was1 indeed1 the case with the great ,verdi1 who at the age of eighteen was refused admission to the ,milan ,conservatory by the director1 ,basili1 on the score of lack of talent4 ,however1 for the most part the judges are experienced and skilful men1 and when a pupil has been under surveillance for some time the liability of an error in judgment is very slight4 ,accordingly1 after ,i had spent some time in getting acquainted with music through the study of ,notation1 ,sight-singing1 ,theory1 ,harmony1 ,piano1 etc41 ,i was informed at the end of two years that ,i had been selected for an operatic career4 ,i can remember the time with great joy4 ,it meant a new life to me1 for ,i was certain that with the help of such conservative masters ,i should succeed4 ,on the whole1 at this time1 ,i consider the ,italian system a very wise one for it does not fool away any time with incompetence4 ,i have met so many young musicians who have shown indications of great study but who seem destitute of talent4 ,it seems like coaxing insignificant shrubs to become great oak trees4 ,no amount of coaxing or study will give them real talent if they do not have it1 so why waste the money of the state and the money of the individual upon it4 ,on the other hand1 wherever in the world there is real talent1 the state should provide money to develop it1 just as it provides money to educate the young4 ,,italian ,,vocal ,,teaching ,so much has been said about the ,old ,italian ,vocal ,method that the very name brings ridicule in some quarters4 ,nothing has been the subject for so much charlatanry4 ,it is something that any teacher1 good or bad1 can claim in this country4 ,every ,italian is of course very proud indeed of the wonderful vocal traditions of ,italy1 the centuries of idealism in search of better and better tone production4 ,there are of course certain statements made by great voice teachers of other days that have been put down and may be read in almost any library in large ,american cities4 ,but that these things make a vocal method that will suit all cases is too absurd to consider4 ,the good sense of the old ,italian master would hold such a plan up to ridicule4 ,singing is first of all an art1 and an art can not be circumscribed by any set of rules or principles4 ,the artist must1 first of all1 know a very great deal about all possible phases of the technic of his art and must then adjust himself to the particular problem before him4 ,therefore we might say that the ,italian method was a method and then again that it was no method4 ,as a matter of fact it is thousands of methods--one for each case or vocal problem4 ,for instance1 if ,i were to sing by the same means that ,mr4 ,caruso employs it would not at all be the best thing for my voice1 yet for ,mr4 ,caruso it is without question the very best method1 or his vocal quality would not be in such superb condition after constant years of use4 ,he is the proof of his own method4 ,i should say that the ,italian vocal teacher teaches1 first of all1 with his ears4 ,he listens with the greatest possible intensity to every shade of tone-color until his ideal tone reveals itself4 ,this often requires months and months of patience4 ,the teacher must recognize the vocal deficiencies and work to correct them4 ,for instance1 ,i never had to work with my high tones4 ,they are to-day produced in the same way in which ,i produced them when ,i was a boy4 ,fortunately ,i had teachers who recognized this and let it go at that4 ,possibly the worst kind of a vocal teacher is the one who has some set plan or device or theory which must be followed willy-nilly in order that the teacher's theories may be vindicated4 ,with such a teacher no voice is safe4 ,the very best natural voices have to follow some patent plan just because the teacher has been taught in one way1 is inexperienced1 and has not good sense enough to let nature's perfect work alone4 ,both of my teachers knew that my high tones were all right and the practice was directed toward the lower tones4 ,they worked me for over ten months on scales and sustained tones until the break that came at ,e flat above the ,bass ,clef was welded from the lower tones to the upper tones so that ,i could sing up or down with no ugly break audible4 ,i was drilled at first upon the vowel ah4 ,i hear ,american vocal authorities refer to ah as in father4 ,that seems to me too flat a sound1 one lacking in real resonance4 ,the vowel used in my case in ,italy and in hundreds of other cases ,i have noted is a slightly broader vowel1 such as may be found half-way between the vowel ah as in father1 and the aw as in law4 ,it is not a dull sound1 yet it is not the sound of ah in father4 ,perhaps the word doff or the first syllable of ,boston1 when properly pronounced1 gives the right impression4 ,i do not know enough of ,american vocal training to give an intelligent criticism1 but ,i wonder if ,american vocal teachers give as much attention to special parts of the training as teachers in ,italy do4 ,i hope they do1 as ,i consider it very necessary4 ,consider the matter of staccato4 ,a good vocal staccato is really a very difficult thing--difficult when it is right2 that is1 when on the pitch--every time1 clear1 distinct1 and at the same time not hard and stiff4 ,it took me weeks to acquire the right way of singing such a passage as ,un di1 quando le veneri1 from ,traviata1 but those were very profitable weeks-- ,illustration3 musical notation ,un di1 quan-do le ve-ne-ri il tem-po a-vra fu-ga-te ,accurate attack in such a passage is by no means easy4 ,anyone can sing it--but how it is sung makes the real difference4 ,the public has very odd ideas about singing4 ,for instance1 it would be amazed to learn that ,trovatore is a much more difficult role for me to sing and sing right than either ,parsifal or ,pelleas and ,melisande4 ,this largely because of the pure vocal demands and the flowing style4 ,the ,debussy opera1 wonderful as it is1 does not begin to make the vocal demands that such a work as ,trovatore does4 ,when the singer once acquires proficiency1 the acquisition of new roles comes very easy indeed4 ,the main difficulty is the daily need for drilling the voice until it has the same quality every day4 ,it can be done only by incessant attention4 ,here are some of the exercises ,i do every day with my accompanist3 ,illustration3 musical notation ,first time forte second time piano4 ,,david ,,bispham ,,biographical ,david ,bispham1 in many ways the most distinguished of all ,american singers1 was born in ,philadelphia ,january #eth1 #aheg4 ,educated at ,haverford ,college1 ,pa4 ,at first a highly successful amateur in ,philadelphia choirs and theatricals1 he went to ,milan in #ahhf1 studying with ,vannuccini1 ,lamperti and later in ,london with ,shakespeare and ,randegger4 ,his operatic debut was made in ,messager's ,basoche at the ,royal ,english ,opera ,house1 #ahia4 ,in #ahib he appeared as ,kurvenal and met with great favor4 ,his ,wagnerian roles have been especially distinctive since the start4 ,from #ahif to #aiji he sang alternately at the ,metropolitan in ,new ,york and at ,covent ,garden in ,london1 and was admittedly one of the foremost attractions of those great companies in the golden era of our operatic past4 ,he was also immensely in demand as a recital and as an oratorio singer and as a dramatic reader4 ,few singers have shown the versatility and mastery of ,david ,bispham and few have been so justly entitled to the academic honors ,,ll4,d41 ,b4,a41 and ,mus4 ,doc41 which he had earned4 ,he was the author of numerous articles on singing--the very successful autobiography1 ,a ,quaker ,singer's ,reminiscences1 and the collections1 ,david ,bispham's ,recital ,album1 ,the ,david ,bispham ,song ,book 7for schools74 ,he was also ever a strong champion of the use of the ,english language in singing4 ,he died in ,new ,york ,city ,oct4 #b;d1 #aiba4 ,illustration3 ,,david ,,bispham4 ,,the ,,main ,,elements ,,of ,,interpretation ,,david ,,bispham ,so many things enter into the great problem of interpretation in singing that it is somewhat difficult to state definitely just what the young singer should consider the most important4 ,generally speaking1 the following factors are of prime significance3 #a4 ,natural ,aptitude4 #b4 ,general ,education and ,culture4 #c4 ,good ,musical ,training4 #d4 ,accurate ,vocal ,training4 #e4 ,familiarity with ,traditions4 #f4 ,freedom of ,mind4 #g4 ,good ,health4 #h4 ,life ,experience4 #i4 ,personal ,magnetism--one of the most essential1--and #aj4 ,idealism4 #a4 ,natural ,aptitude4--,you will notice that foremost consideration is given to those broad general qualities without which all the technical and musical training of the world is practically worthless4 ,the success of the art worker in all lines depends first upon the nature of the man or woman4 ,technical training of the highest and best kind is essential1 but that which moves great audiences is not alone the mechanics of an art1 but rather the broad education1 experience1 ideals1 culture1 the human sympathy and magnetism of the artist4 #b4 ,the ,value of ,education and ,culture4--,i cannot emphasize too strongly the value of a good general education and wide culture for the singer4 ,the day has passed when a pretty face or a well-rounded ankle could be mistaken for art on the operatic stage4 ,the public now demands something more than the heroic looking young fellow who comes down to the footlights with the assurance of youth and offers1 for real vocal art1 a voice fresh but crudely trained1 and a bungling interpretation4 ,good education has often been responsible for the phenomenal success of ,american singers in ,european opera houses4 ,before the last war1 in nearly all of the great operatic centers of the ,continent1 one found ,americans ranking with the greatest artists in ,europe4 ,this was a most propitious condition1 for it meant that ,american audiences have been compelled to give the long-delayed recognition to our own singers1 and methods of general and vocal education4 ,in most cases the young people of ,america who aspire to operatic triumphs come from a somewhat better class than singers do in ,europe4 ,they have had1 in most cases1 better educational1 cultural and home advantages than the average ,european student4 ,their minds are trained to study intelligently2 they are acquainted with the history of the great nations of the world2 their tastes are cultivated1 and they are filled with the ,american energy which is one of the marvels of the centuries4 ,more than this1 they have had a kind of moral uplift in their homes which is of immense value to them4 ,they have higher ideals in life1 they are more businesslike and they keep their purposes very clearly in view4 ,this has created jealousy in some ,european centers2 but it is simply a case of the survival of the fittest1 and ,europe was compelled to bow in recognition of this4 ,vocal art in our own land is no longer to be ignored1 for our standards are as high as the highest in the world1 and we are educating a race of singers of which any country might be proud4 #c4 ,good ,musical ,training4--,a thorough musical training--that is1 a training upon some musical instrument such as the piano--is extremely desirable1 but not absolutely essential2 for the instrument called the ,human ,voice can be played on as effectively as a violin4 ,the singer who is convinced of his ability1 but who has not had such advantages in early youth1 should not be discouraged4 ,he can acquire a thorough knowledge of the essentials later on1 but he will have to work very much harder to get his knowledge--as ,i was obliged to do4 ,artistic ability is by no means a certain quality4 ,the famous art critic1 ,vassari1 has called our attention to the fact that one painter who produced wonderful pictures had an exhaustive technical training1 another arising at his side who also achieved wonderful results had to secure them by means of much bungling self-study4 ,it is very hard to repress artistic ability4 ,as the ,bible says3 ,many waters cannot quench love4 ,so it is with music2 if the ability is there1 it will come to the front through fire and water4 #d4 ,accurate and ,rational ,vocal ,training4--,i have added the word rational for it seems a necessary term at a time when so much vocal teaching is apparently in the hands of faddists4 ,there is only one way to sing1 that is the right way1 the way that is founded upon natural conditions4 ,so much has been said in print about breathing1 and placing the voice1 and resonance1 that anything new might seem redundant at this time4 ,the whole thing in a nutshell is simply to make an effort to get the breath under such excellent control that it will obey the will so easily and fluently that the singer is almost unconscious of any means he may employ to this end4 ,this can come only through long practice and careful observation4 ,when the breath is once under proper control the supply must be so adjusted that neither too much nor too little will be applied to the larynx at one time4 ,how to do this can be discovered only by much practice and self-criticism4 ,when the tone has been created it must be reinforced and colored by passing through the mouth and nose1 and the latter is a very present help in time of vocal trouble4 ,this leads to a good tone on at least twenty-six steps and half-steps of the scale and with twenty or more vowel sounds--no easy task by any means4 ,all this takes time1 but there is no reason why it should take an interminable amount of time4 ,if good results are not forthcoming in from nine months to a year1 something is wrong with either the pupil or the teacher4 ,the matter of securing vocal flexibility should not be postponed too long1 but may in many instances be taken up in conjunction with the studies in tone production1 after the first principles have been learned4 ,thereafter one enters upon the endless and indescribably interesting field of securing a repertoire4 ,only a teacher with wide experience and intimacy with the best in the vocal literature of the world can correctly grade and select pieces suitable to the ever-changing needs of the pupil4 ,no matter how wonderful the flexibility of the voice1 no matter how powerful the tones1 no matter how extensive the repertoire1 the singer will find all this worthless unless he possesses a voice that is susceptible to the expression of every shade of mental and emotional meaning which his intelligence1 experience and general culture have revealed to him in the work he is interpreting4 ,at all times his voice must be under control4 ,considered from the mechanical standpoint1 the voice resembles the violin1 the breath1 as it passes over the vocal cords1 corresponding to the bow and the resonance chambers corresponding to the resonance chambers in the violin4 #e4 ,familiarity ,with ,vocal ,traditions4--,we come to the matter of the study of the traditional methods of interpreting vocal masterpieces4 ,we must1 of course1 study these traditions1 but we must not be slaves to them4 ,in other words1 we must know the past in order to interpret masterpieces properly in the present4 ,we must not1 however1 sacrifice that great quality--individuality--for slavery to convention4 ,if the former ,italian method of rendering certain arias was marred by the tremolo of some famous singers1 there is no good artistic reason why any one should retain anything so hideous as a tremolo solely because it is traditional4 ,there is a capital story of a young ,american singer who went to a ,european opera house with all the characteristic individuality and inquisitiveness of his people4 ,in one opera the stage director told him to go to the back of the stage before singing his principal number and then walk straight down to the footlights and deliver the aria4 ,why must ,i go to the back first8 asked the young singer4 ,the director was amazed and blustered3 ,why8 ,why1 because the great ,rubini did it that way--he created the part2 it is the tradition4 ,but the young singer was not satisfied1 and finally found an old chorus man who had sung with ,rubini1 and asked him whether the tradition was founded upon a custom of the celebrated singer4 ,yes1 replied the chorus man1 da gretta ,rubini he granda man4 ,he go waya back2 then he comea front2 then he sing4 ,ah1 grandissimo6 ,but1 persisted the young ,american1 ,why did he go to the back before he sang8 ,oh6 exclaimed the excited ,italian2 ,why he go back8 ,he go to spit6 ,farcical as this incident may seem1 many musical traditions are founded upon customs with quite as little musical or esthetic importance4 ,many traditions are to-day quite as useless as the buttons on the sleeves of our coats1 although these very buttons were at one time employed by our forefathers to fasten back the long cuffs4 ,there are1 however1 certain traditional methods of rendering great masterpieces1 and particularly those marked by the florid ornamentation of the days of ,handel1 ,bach and ,haydn1 which the singer must know4 ,unfortunately1 many of these traditions have not been preserved in print in connection with the scores themselves1 and the only way in which the young singer can acquire a knowledge of them is through hearing authoritative artists1 or from teachers who have had wide and rich experience4 #f4 ,freedom of ,mind4--,under ideal conditions the mind should be free for music study and for public performance4 ,this is not always possible2 and some artists under great mental pressure have done their best work solely because they felt that the only way to bury sorrow and trouble was to thrust themselves into their artistic life and thus forget the pangs of misfortune4 ,the student1 however1 should do everything possible to have his mind free so that he can give his best to his work4 ,one who is wondering where the next penny is coming from is in a poor condition to impress an audience4 ,nevertheless1 if the real ability is there it is bound to triumph over all obstacles4 #g4 ,good ,health4--,good health is one of the great factors of success in singing4 ,who needs a sounder mind than the artist8 ,good health comes from good1 sensible living4 ,the singer must never forget that the instrument he plays upon is a part of his body and that that instrument depends for its musical excellence and general condition upon good health4 ,a #bj1jjj ,stradivarius would be worthless if it were placed in a tub of water2 and a larynx that earns for its owner from #ejj to #a1ejj a night is equally valueless when saturated with the poisons that come from intemperate or unwise living4 ,many of the singer's throat troubles arise from an unhealthy condition of the stomach caused by excesses of diet2 but1 aside from this1 a disease localized in any other part of the body affects the throat sympathetically and makes it difficult for the singer to get good results4 ,recital work1 with its long fatiguing journeys on railroads1 together with the other inconveniences of travel and the responsibility and strain that come from knowing that one person alone is to hold from #a1jjj to #e1jjj people interested for nearly two hours1 demands a very sound physical condition4 #h4 ,life ,experience4--,culture does not come from the schoolroom alone4 ,the refining processes of life are long and varied4 ,as the violin gains in richness of tone and intrinsic value with age1 so the singer's life experience has an effect upon the character of his singing4 ,he must have seen life in its broadest sense1 to place himself in touch with human sympathy4 ,to do this and still retain the freshness and sweetness of his voice should be his great aim4 ,the singer who lives a narrow and bigoted existence rarely meets with wide popular approval4 ,the public wants to hear in a voice that wonderful something that tells them that it has had opportunities to know and to understand the human side of song1 not giving parrot-like versions of some teacher's way of singing1 but that the understanding comes from the very center of the mind1 heart and soul4 ,this is particularly true in the field of the song recital4 ,most of the renowned recital singers of the last half century1 including ,schumann-,heink1 ,sembrich1 ,wuellner1 the ,henschels and others1 were considerably past their youth when they made their greatest successes4 ,a painting fresh from the artist's brush is raw1 hard and uninteresting1 till time1 with its damp and dust1 night and day1 heat and cold1 gives the enriching touch which adds so wonderfully to the softness and beauty of a picture4 ,we singers are all living canvases4 ,time1 and time only1 can give us those shades and tints which reveal living experience4 ,the young artist should hear many of the best singers1 actors1 and speakers1 should read many of the best books1 should see many beautiful pictures and wonderful buildings4 ,but most of all1 he should know and study many people and learn of their joys and their sorrows1 their successes and their failures1 their strength and their weaknesses1 their loves and their hates4 ,in all art human life is reflected1 and this is particularly true in the case of vocal art4 ,for years1 in my youth1 ,i never failed to attend all of the musical events of consequence in my native city4 ,this was of immense value to me1 since it gave me the means of cultivating my own judgment of what was good or bad in singing4 ,do not fear that you will become blase4 ,if you have the right spirit every musical event you attend will spur you on4 ,you may say that it is expensive to hear great singers1 and that you can only attend recitals and the opera occasionally4 ,if this is really the case you still have a means of hearing singers which you should not neglect4 ,i refer to the reproducing machines which have grown to be of such importance in vocal education4 ,phonograph records are nothing short of marvelous1 and my earnestness in this cause is shown by the fact that ,i have long advocated their employment in the public schools1 and have placed the matter before the educational authorities of ,new ,york4 ,i earnestly urge the music teachers of this country1 who are working for the real musical development of our children1 to take this matter up in all seriousness4 ,i can assure them that their efforts will bring them rich dividends in increased interest in musical work of their pupils1 and the forming of a musical public4 ,but nothing but the classics of song must be used4 ,the time for the scorning of high-brow songs is past1 and music must help this country to rid itself of the vogue of the low-brow and the tough4 ,let singers strive to become educated ornaments of their lofty profession4 #i4 ,personal ,magnetism4--,one of the most essential4 ,the subject of personal magnetism is ridiculed by some1 of course1 but rarely laughed at by the artist who has experienced the astonishing phenomena in the opera house or the concert room4 ,like electricity it is intangible1 indefinable1 indescribable1 but makes its existence known by manifestations that are almost uncanny4 ,if personal magnetism does not exist1 how then can we account for the fact that one pianist can sit down to the instrument and play a certain piece1 and that another pianist could play the same piece with the same technical effect but losing entirely the charm and attractiveness with which the first pianist imbued the composition8 ,personal magnetism does not depend upon personal beauty nor erudition nor even upon perfect health4 ,henry ,irving and ,sarah ,bernhardt were certainly not beautiful1 but they held the world of the theater in the palm of their hand4 ,some artists have really been in the last stages of severe illness but have1 nevertheless1 possessed the divine electric spark to inspire hundreds1 as did the hectic ,chopin when he made his last famous visit to ,england and ,scotland4 ,personal magnetism is not a kind of hypnotic influence to be found solely in the concert hall or the theater4 ,most artists possess it to a certain degree4 ,without this subtle and mysterious force1 success with the public never comes4 #aj4 ,idealism4--,ideals are the flowers of youth4 ,only too often they are not tenderly cared for1 and the result is that many who have been on the right track are turned in the direction of failure by materialism4 ,it is absolutely essential for the young singer to have high ideals4 ,direct your efforts to the best in whatever branch of vocal art you determine to undertake4 ,do not for a moment let mediocrity or the substitution of artificial methods enter your vision4 ,holding to your ideal will mean costly sacrifices to you2 but all sacrifices are worth while if one can realize one's ideal4 ,the ideal is only another term for ,heaven to me4 ,if we could all attain to the ideal1 we would all be in a kind of earthly ,paradise4 ,it has always seemed to me that when our ,lord said ,the ,kingdom of ,heaven is at hand1 he meant that it is at hand for us to possess now2 that is the ideal in life4 ,illustration3 ,,dame ,,clara ,,butt4 ,,dame ,,clara ,,butt ,,biographical ,dame ,butt was born at ,southwick1 ,sussex1 ,february #a1 #ahgc4 ,her first lessons were with ,d4 ,w4 ,rootham in ,bristol4 ,in #ahhi she won a scholarship at the ,royal ,college of music where the teacher was ,j4 ,h4 ,blower4 ,later she studied for short periods with ,bouhy in ,paris and ,etelka ,gerster in ,berlin4 ,her debut was made as ,ursula in ,sullivan's setting of the ,longfellow poem1 ,golden ,legend4 ,her success was immediate and very great4 ,she became in demand at all of the great ,english musical festivals and also sang before enormous audiences for years in the great ,english cities4 ,in #aijj she married the noted ,english baritone ,r4 ,kennerly ,rumford and together they have made many tours1 including a tour of the world1 appearing everywhere with continued success4 ,her voice is one of rich1 full contralto quality with such individual characteristics that great ,english composers have written special works to reveal these great natural gifts4 ,dame ,butt received her distinction of ,dame from ,king ,george in #aibj4 ,her happy family life with her children has won her endless admirers among musical people everywhere4 ,,success ,,in ,,concert ,,singing ,,dame ,,clara ,,butt ,,health ,,and ,,singing ,it must be obvious to all aspiring vocal students that splendid good health is well nigh indispensable to the singer4 ,there have been singers1 of course1 who have had physical afflictions that have made their public appearances extremely painful1 but they have succeeded in spite of these unfortunate drawbacks4 ,in fact1 if the young singer is ambitious and has that wonderful gift of directing her efforts in the way most likely to bring fortunate results1 even physical weakness may be overcome4 ,by this ,i mean that the singer will work out some plan for bringing her physical condition to the standard that fine singing demands4 ,i believe most emphatically that the right spirit will conquer obstacles that often seem impassable4 ,one might safely say that nine-tenths of the successes in all branches of artistic work are due to the inextinguishable fire that burns in the heart and mind of the art worker and incites him to pass through any ordeal in order to deliver his message to the world4 ,,misdirected ,,effort ,the cruel part of it all is that many aspire to become great singers who can never possibly have their hopes realized4 ,natural selection rather than destiny seems to govern this matter4 ,the ugly caterpillar seems like an unpromising candidate for the brilliant career of the butterfly1 and it oftentimes happens that students who seem unpromising to some have just the qualities which1 with the right time1 instruction and experience1 will entitle them to great success4 ,it is the little ant who hopes to grow iridescent wings1 and who travels through conservatory after conservatory1 hoping to find the magic chrysalis that will do this1 who is to be pitied4 ,great success must depend upon special gifts1 intellectual as well as vocal4 ,oh1 if we only had some instinct1 like that possessed by animals1 that would enable us to determine accurately in advance the safest road for us to take1 the road that will lead us to the best development of our real talents--not those we imagine we may have or those which the flattery of friends have grafted upon us6 ,mr4 ,rumford and ,i have witnessed so much very hard and very earnest work carried on by students who have no rational basis to hope for success as singers1 that we have been placed in the uncomfortable position of advising young singers to seek some other life work4 ,,when ,,to ,,begin ,the eternal question1 ,at what age shall ,i commence to study singing8 is always more or less amusing to the experienced singer4 ,if the singer's spirit is in the child1 nothing will stop his singing4 ,he will sing from morning until night1 and seems to be guided in most cases by an all-providing ,nature that makes its untutored efforts the very best kind of practice4 ,unless the child is brought into contact with very bad music he is not likely to be injured4 ,children seem to be trying their best to prove the ,darwinian theory by showing us that they can mimic quite as well as monkeys4 ,the average child comes into the better part of his little store of wisdom through mimicry4 ,naturally if the little vocal student is taken to the vaudeville theatre1 where every imaginable vocal law is smashed during a three-hour performance1 and if the child observes that the smashing process is followed by the enthusiastic applause of the unthinking audience1 it is only reasonable to suppose that the child will discover in this what he believes to be the most approved art of singing4 ,it is evident then that the first thing which the parent of the musical child should consider is that of teaching him to appreciate what is looked upon as good and what is looked upon as bad4 ,although many singers with fine voices have appeared in vaudeville1 the others must be regarded as horrible examples1 and the child should know that they are such4 ,on the other hand1 it is quite evident that the more good singing that the child hears in the impressionable years of its youth the greater will be the effect upon the mind which is to direct the child's musical future4 ,this is a branch of the vocalist's education which may begin long before the actual lessons4 ,if it is carefully conducted the teacher should have far less difficulty in starting the child with the actual work4 ,the only possible danger might be that the child's imitative faculty could lead it to extremes of pitch in imitating some singer4 ,even this is hardly more likely to injure it than the shouting and screaming which often accompanies the play of children4 ,the actual time of starting must depend upon the individual4 ,it is never too early for him to start in acquiring his musical knowledge4 ,everything he might learn of music itself1 through the study of the piano or any other instrument would all become a part of his capital when he became a singer4 ,those singers are fortunate whose musical knowledge commenced with the cradle and whose first master was that greatest of all teachers1 the mother4 ,speaking generally1 it seems to be the impression of singing teachers that voice students should not commence the vocal side of their studies until they are from sixteen to seventeen years of age4 ,in this connection1 consider my own case4 ,my first public appearance with orchestra was when ,i was fourteen4 ,it was in ,bristol1 ,england1 and among other things ,i sang ,ora ,pro ,nobis from ,gounod's ,workers4 ,i was fortunate in having in my first teacher1 ,d4 ,w4 ,rootham1 a man too thoroughly blessed with good ,british common sense to have any tricks4 ,he had no fantastic way of doing things1 no proprietary methods1 that none else in the world was supposed to possess4 ,he listened for the beautiful in my voice and1 as his sense of musical appreciation was highly cultivated1 he could detect faults1 explain them to me and show me how to overcome them by purely natural methods4 ,the principal part of the process was to make me realize mentally just what was wrong and then what was the more artistic way of doing it4 ,,letting ,,the ,,voice ,,grow ,after all1 singing is singing1 and ,i am convinced that my master's idea of just letting the voice grow with normal exercise and without excesses in any direction was the best way for me4 ,it was certainly better than hours and hours of theory1 interesting to the student of physiology1 but often bewildering to the young vocalist4 ,real singing with real music is immeasurably better than ages of conjecture4 ,it appears that some students spend years in learning how they are going to sing at some glorious day in the future1 but it never seems to occur to them that in order to sing they must really use their voices4 ,of course1 ,i do not mean to infer that the student must omit the necessary preparatory work4 ,solfeggios1 for instance1 and scales are extremely useful4 ,concone1 tried and true1 gives excellent material for all students4 ,but why spend years in dreaming of theories regarding singing when everyone knows that the theory of singing has been the battleground for innumerable talented writers for centuries8 ,even now it is apparently impossible to reconcile all the vocal writers1 except in so far as they all modestly admit that they have rediscovered the real old ,italian school4 ,perhaps they have4 ,but1 admitting that an art teacher rediscovered the actual pigments used by ,leonardo da ,vinci1 ,rembrandt or ,raphael1 he would have no little task in creating a student who could duplicate ,mona ,lisa1 ,the ,night ,watch or the ,sistine ,madonna4 ,after leaving ,rootham1 ,i won the four hundred guinea scholarship at the ,royal ,college of ,music and studied with ,henry ,blower4 ,this ,i followed with a course with ,bouhy in ,paris and ,etelka ,gerster in ,berlin4 ,mr4 ,rumford and ,i both concur in the opinion that it is necessary for the student who would sing in any foreign language to study in the country in which the language is spoken4 ,in no other way can one get the real atmosphere4 ,the preparatory work may be done in the home country1 but if one fails to taste of the musical life of the country in which the songs came into being1 there seems to be an indefinable absence of the right flavor4 ,i believe in employing the native tongue for songs in recital work4 ,it seems narrow to me to do otherwise4 ,at the same time1 ,i have always been a champion for songs written originally with ,english texts1 and have sung innumerable times with programs made from ,english lyrics4 ,,preparing ,a ,,repertoire ,the idea that concert and recital work is not as difficult as operatic work has been pretty well exploded by this time4 ,in fact1 it is very much more difficult to sing a simple song well in concert than it is to sing some of the elaborate ,wagnerian recitatives in which the very complexities of the music make a convenient hiding place for the artist's vocal shortcomings4 ,in concert everything is concentrated upon the singer4 ,convention has ever deprived him of the convenient gestures that give ease to the opera singer4 ,the selection of useful material for concert purposes is immensely difficult4 ,it must have artistic merit1 it must have human interest1 it must suit the singer1 in most cases the piano must be used for accompaniment and the song must not be dependent upon an orchestral accompaniment for its value4 ,it must not be too old1 it must not be too far in advance of popular tastes4 ,it is a bad plan to wander indiscriminately about among countless songs1 never learning any really well4 ,the student should begin to select numbers with great care1 realizing that it is futile to try to do everything4 ,lord ,bolingbroke1 in his essay on the shortness of human life1 shows how impossible it is for a man to read more than a mere fraction of a great library though he read regularly every day of his life4 ,it is very much the same with music4 ,the resources are so vast and time is so limited that there is no opportunity to learn everything4 ,far better is it for the vocalist to do a little well than to do much ineffectually4 ,good music well executed meets with very much the same appreciation everywhere4 ,during our latest tour we gave almost the very same programs in ,america as those we have been giving upon the ,european ,continent4 ,the music-loving ,american public is likely to differ but slightly from that of the great music centers of the old world4 ,music has truly become a universal language4 ,in developing a repertoire the student might look upon the musical public as though it were a huge circle filled with smaller circles1 each little circle being a center of interest4 ,one circle might insist upon old ,english songs1 such as the delightful melodies of ,arne1 ,carey1 ,monroe4 ,another circle might expect the arias of the old ,italian masters1 ,carissimi1 ,jomelli1 ,sacchini or ,scarlatti4 ,another circle would want to hear the ,german ,lieder of such composers as ,schumann1 ,schubert1 ,brahms1 ,franz and ,wolf4 ,still another circle might go away disappointed if they could not hear something of the ultra modern writers1 such as ,strauss1 ,debussy or even that freak of musical cacophony1 ,schoenberg4 ,however diverse may be the individual likings of these smaller circles1 all of the members of your audience are united in liking music as a whole4 ,the audience will demand variety in your repertoire but at the same time it will demand certain musical essentials which appeal to all4 ,there is one circle in your audience that ,i have purposely reserved for separate discussion4 ,that is the great circle of concert goers who are not skilled musicians1 who are too frank1 too candid1 to adopt any of the cant of those social frauds who revel in ,reger and ,schoenberg1 and just because it might stamp them as real connoisseurs1 but who really can't recognize much difference between the ,liebestod of ,tristan und ,isolde and ,rule ,britannia1--but the music lovers who are too honest to fail to state that they like the ,lost ,chord or the lovely folk songs of your ,american composer1 ,stephen ,foster4 ,mr4 ,plunkett ,greene1 in his work upon song interpretation1 makes no room for the existence of songs of this kind4 ,indeed1 he would cast them all into the discard4 ,this seems to me a huge mistake4 ,surely we can not say that music is a monopoly of the few who have schooled their ears to enjoy outlandish disonances with delight4 ,music is perhaps the most universal of all the arts and with the gradual evolution of those who love it1 a natural audience is provided for music of the more complicated sort4 ,we learn to like our musical caviar with surprising rapidity4 ,it was only yesterday that we were objecting to the delightful piano pieces of ,debussy1 who can generate an atmosphere with a single chord just as ,murillo could inspire an emotion with a stroke of the brush4 ,it is not safe to say that you do not like things in this way4 ,i think that even ,schoenberg is trying to be true to his muse4 ,we must remember that ,haydn1 ,beethoven1 ,wagner and ,brahms passed through the fire of criticism in their day4 ,the more breadth a singer puts into her work the more likely is she to reap success4 ,time only can produce the accomplished artist4 ,the best is to find a joy in your work and think of nothing but large success4 ,if you have the gift1 triumph will be yours4 ,illustration3 ,,giuseppe ,,campanari4 7,c7 ,dupont4 ,,giuseppe ,,campanari ,,biographical ,giuseppe ,campanari was born at ,venice1 ,italy1 ,nov4 #agth1 #aheh4 ,his parents were not particularly musical but were very anxious for the boy to become a musician4 ,at the age of nine he commenced to study the piano and later he entered the ,conservatory of ,milan1 making his principal instrument the violoncello4 ,upon his graduation he secured a position in the 'cello section of the orchestra at ,la ,scala4 ,here for years he heard the greatest singers and the greatest operas1 gaining a musical insight into the works through an understanding of the scores which has seldom if ever been possessed by a great opera singer4 ,his first appearance as singer was at the ,teatro dal ,verme in ,milan4 ,owing to voice strain he was obliged to give up singing and in the interim he took a position as a 'cellist in the ,boston ,symphony ,orchestra1 remaining with that organization some years4 ,he then made appearances with the ,emma ,juch ,opera ,company1 the ,heinrichs ,opera ,company1 and eventually at the ,metropolitan ,opera ,company in ,new ,york1 where he achieved his greatest triumphs as leading baritone4 ,mr4 ,campanari long since became an ,american citizen and has devoted his attention to teaching for years4 ,his conference which follows is particularly interesting1 as from the vocal standpoint he is almost entirely self taught4 ,,the ,,value ,,of ,,self-,,study ,,in ,,voice ,,training ,,giuseppe ,,campanari ,so much has been written upon the futility of applying one method to all cases in vocal instruction that it seems useless for me to say anything that would add to the volume of testimony against the custom of trying to teach all pupils in the same manner4 ,no one man ever has had1 has1 or ever will have1 a method superior to all others1 for the very simple reason that the means one vocalist might employ to reach artistic success would be quite different from that which another singer1 with an entirely different voice1 different throat and different intellect1 would be obliged to employ4 ,one of the great laws of ,nature is the law of variation2 that is1 no two children of any parents are ever exactly alike4 ,even in the case of twins there is often a great variation4 ,the great ,english philosopher1 ,darwin1 made much of this principle4 ,it is one which all voice students and teachers should consider1 for although there are1 from the nature of things1 many foundation principles which must remain the same in all cases1 the differences in individual cases are sufficient to demand the greatest keenness of observation1 the widest experience and an inexhaustible supply of patience upon the part of the teacher4 ,please understand1 ,i am not decrying the use of books of exercises such as those of ,concone1 ,marchesi1 ,regine1 ,panofka and others4 ,such books are necessary4 ,i have used these and others in teaching1 suiting the book to the individual case4 ,the pupil needs material of this kind1 and it should be chosen with the greatest care and consideration not only of the pupil's voice1 but of his intellectual capacity and musical experience4 ,these books should not be considered methods4 ,they are the common property of all teachers1 and most teachers make use of them4 ,my understanding of a method is a set of hard and fast rules1 usually emanating from the mind of some one person who has the effrontery to pass them off upon an all too gullible public as the one road to a vocal ,parnassus4 ,only the singer with years of experience can realize how ridiculous this course is and how large is the percentage of failure of the pupils of teachers whose sole claim to fame is that they teach the---- method4 ,proud as ,i am of the glorious past of vocal art in the country of my birth1 ,i cannot help being amused and at the same time somewhat irritated when ,i think of the many palpable frauds that are classed under the head of the ,real ,old ,italian ,method by inexperienced teachers4 ,we cannot depend upon the past in all cases to meet present conditions4 ,the singers of the olden day in ,italy were doubtless great1 because they possessed naturally fine voices and used them in an unaffected1 natural manner4 ,in addition to this they were born speaking a tongue favorable to beautiful singing1 led simple lives and had opportunities for hearing the great operas and the great singers unexcelled by those of any other ,european country4 ,that they became great through the practice of any set of rules or methods is inconceivable4 ,there were great teachers in olden ,italy1 very great teachers1 and some of them made notes upon the means they employed1 but ,i cannot believe that if these teachers were living to-day they would insist upon their ideas being applied to each and every individual case in the same identical manner4 ,,the ,,value ,,of ,,opera ,this leads us to the subject at hand4 ,the students in ,italy in the past have had advantages for self-study that were of greatest importance4 ,on all sides good singing and great singing might be heard conveniently and economically4 ,opera was and is one of the great national amusements of ,italy4 ,opera houses may be found in all of the larger cities and in most of the smaller ones4 ,the prices of admission are1 as a rule1 very low4 ,the result is that the boys in the street are often remarkably familiar with some of the best works4 ,indeed1 it would not be extravagant to say that they were quite as familiar with these musical masterpieces as some of the residents of ,america are with the melodramatic doings of ,jesse ,james or the ,queen of ,chinatown4 ,thus it is that the average ,italian boy with a fair education and quick powers of observation reaches his majority with a taste for singing trained by many opportunities to hear great singers4 ,they have had the best vocal instruction in the world1 providing1 of course1 they have exercised their powers of judgment4 ,thus it is that it happens that such a singer as ,caruso1 certainly one of the greatest tenors of all time1 could be accidentally heard by a manager while singing and receive an offer for an engagement upon the spot4 ,caruso's present art1 of course1 is the result of much training that would fall under the head of coaching1 together with his splendid experience upon the operatic stage itself4 ,i trust that ,i have not by this time given the reader of this page the impression that teachers are unnecessary4 ,this is by no means the case4 ,a good teacher is extremely desirable4 ,if you have the good fortune to fall into the hands of a careful1 experienced1 intelligent teacher1 much may be accomplished2 but the teacher is by no means all that is required4 ,the teacher should be judged by his pupils1 and by nothing else4 ,no matter what he may claim1 it is invariably the results of his work 7the pupil's7 which must determine his value4 ,teachers come to me with wonderful theories and all imaginable kinds of methods4 ,i always say to them3 ,show me a good pupil who has been trained by your methods and ,i will say that you are a good teacher4 ,before our national elections ,i am asked1 ,which one of the candidates do you believe will make the best ,president8 ,i always reply1 ,wait four years and ,i will pass my opinion upon the ability of the candidate the people select4 ,in other words1 the proof of the pudding is in the eating4 ,,singers ,,not ,,born1 ,,but ,,made ,we often hear the trite expression1 ,singers are born1 not made4 ,this1 to my mind1 is by no means the case4 ,one may be born with the talent and deep love for music1 and one may be born with the physical qualifications which lead to the development of a beautiful voice1 but the singer is something far more than this4 ,given a good voice and the love for his music1 the singer's work is only begun4 ,he is at the outstart of a road which is beset with all imaginable kinds of obstacles4 ,in my own case ,i was extremely ambitious to be a singer4 ,night after night ,i played 'cello in the orchestra at ,la ,scala1 in ,milan1 always wishing and praying that ,i might some day be one of the actors in the wonderful world behind the footlights4 ,i listened to the famous singers in the great opera house with the minutest attention1 making mental notes of their manner of placing their voices--their method of interpretation1 their stage business1 and everything that ,i thought might be of any possible use to me in the career of the singer1 which was dearest to my heart4 ,i endeavored to employ all the common sense and good judgment ,i possessed to determine what was musically and vocally good or otherwise4 ,i was fortunate in having the training of the musician1 and also in having the invaluable advantage of becoming acquainted with the orchestral scores of the famous operas4 ,finally the long-awaited opportunity came and ,i made my debut at the ,teatro dal ,verme1 in ,milan4 ,i had had no real vocal instruction in the commonly accepted sense of the term2 but ,i had really had a kind of instruction that was of inestimable value4 ,,not ,,given ,,to ,,all ,,to ,,study ,,successfully ,,without ,a ,,teacher ,success brought with it its disadvantages4 ,i foolishly strained my voice through overwork4 ,but this did not discourage me4 ,i realized that many of the greatest singers the world has ever known were among those who had met with disastrous failure at some time in their careers4 ,i came to ,america and played the violoncello in the ,boston ,symphony ,orchestra4 ,all the time ,i was practicing with the greatest care and with the sole object of restoring my voice4 ,finally it came back better than ever and ,i sang for ,maurice ,grau1 the impresario of the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house1 in ,new ,york4 ,he engaged me and ,i sang continuously at the ,metropolitan for several years4 ,notwithstanding this varied experience1 ,i will seek to learn1 and to learn by practical example1 not theory4 ,the only opera school in the world is the opera house itself4 ,no school ever made a great singer or a great artist4 ,the most they have done has been to lay the foundation4 ,the making of the artist comes later4 ,in order to do without instruction one must be very peculiarly constituted4 ,one must be possessed of the pedagogical faculty to a marked degree4 ,one must have within oneself those qualities for observing and detecting the right means leading to an artistic end which every good teacher possesses4 ,in other words1 one must be both teacher and pupil4 ,this is a rare combination1 since the power to teach1 to impart instruction1 is one that is given to very few4 ,it is far better to study alone or not at all than with a poor teacher4 ,the teacher's responsibility1 particularly in the case of vocal students1 is very great4 ,so very much depends upon it4 ,a poor teacher can do incalculable damage4 ,by poor teachers ,i refer particularly to those who are carried away by idiotic theories and quack methods4 ,we learn to sing by singing and not by carrying bricks upon our chest or other idiotic antics4 ,consequently ,i say that it is better to go all through life with a natural or green voice than to undergo the vocal torture that is sometimes palmed off upon the public as voice teaching4 ,at best1 all the greatest living teacher can do is to put the artist upon the right track and this in itself is responsibility enough for one man or one woman to assume4 ,,singers ,,make ,,their ,,own ,,methods ,as ,i have already said1 most every singer makes a method unto himself4 ,it is all the same in the end4 ,the ,chinese may1 for instance1 have one name for ,god1 the ,persians another1 the ,mohammedans another1 and the people of ,christian lands another4 ,but the ,god principle and the worship principle are the same with all4 ,it is very similar in singing4 ,the means that apply to my own case may apparently be different from those of another1 but we are all seeking to produce beautiful tones and interpret the meaning of the composer properly4 ,one thing1 however1 the student should seek to possess above all things1 and this is a thorough foundation training in music itself4 ,this can not begin too early4 ,in my own home we have always had music4 ,my children have always heard singing and playing and consequently they become critical at a very early age4 ,i can not help repeating my advice to students who hope to find a vocal education in books or by the even more ridiculous correspondence method4 ,books may set one's mental machinery in motion and incite one to observe singers more closely1 but teach they can not and never can4 ,the sound-reproducing machines are of assistance in helping the student to understand the breathing1 phrasing1 etc41 but there is nothing really to take the place of the living singer who can illustrate with his voice the niceties of placing and timbre4 ,my advice to the voice students of ,america is to hear great singers4 ,hear them as many times as possible and consider the money invested as well placed as any you might spend in vocal instruction4 ,the golden magnet1 as well as the opportunities in other ways offered artists in ,america1 has attracted the greatest singers of our time to this country4 ,it is no longer necessary to go abroad to listen to great singers4 ,in no country of the world is opera given with more lavish expenditure of money than in ,america4 ,the great singers are now by no means confining their efforts to the large ,eastern cities4 ,many of them make regular tours of the country1 and students in all parts of this land are offered splendid opportunities for self-help through the means of concerts and musical festivals4 ,after all1 the most important thing for any singer is the development of the critical sense4 ,blind imitation is1 of course1 bad1 but how is the student to progress unless he has had an opportunity to hear the best singers of the day8 ,in my youth ,i heard continually such artists as ,la ,salle1 ,gayarre1 ,patti1 ,de ,reszke and others4 ,how could ,i help profiting by such excellent experiences8 ,,great ,,voices ,,are ,,rare ,one may be sure that in these days few1 if any1 great voices go undiscovered4 ,a remarkable natural voice is so rare that some one is sure to notice it and bring it to the attention of musicians4 ,the trouble is that so many people are so painfully deluded regarding their voices4 ,i have had them come to me with voices that are obviously execrable and still remain unconvinced when ,i have told them what seemed to me the truth4 ,this business of hearing would-be singers is an unprofitable and an uncomfortable one2 and most artists try to avoid the ordeal1 although they are always very glad to encourage real talent4 ,most young singers1 however1 have little more than the bare ambition to sing1 coupled with what can only be described by the ,american term1 a swelled head4 ,someone has told them that they are wonderfully gifted1 and persons of this kind are most always ready to swallow flattery indiscriminately4 ,almost everyone1 apparently1 wants to go into opera nowadays4 ,to singers who have not any chance whatever ,i have only to say that the sooner this is discovered the better4 ,far better put your money in bank and let compound interest do what your voice can not4 ,,enrico ,,caruso ,,biographical ,enrico ,caruso was born at ,naples1 ,february #beth1 #ahgc4 ,his fondness for music dates from his earliest childhood2 and he spent much of his spare money in attending the opera at ,san ,carlo and hearing the foremost singers of his time in many of the roles in which he appeared later on4 ,his actual study1 however1 did not start until he was eighteen1 when he came under the tuition of ,guglielmo ,vergine4 ,in #ahie he made his debut at the ,teatro ,cimarosa in ,caserta4 ,his first appearances drew comparatively little attention to his work and his future greatness was hardly suspected by many of those who heard him4 ,however1 by dint of long application to his art he gained more and more recognition4 ,in #aijb he made his debut in ,london4 ,the following year he came to ,new ,york1 where the world's greatest singers had found an ,el ,dorado for nearly a quarter of a century4 ,there he was at once proclaimed the greatest of all tenors and from that time his success was undeviating4 ,indeed his voice was so wonderful and so individual that it is difficult to compare him with any of his great predecessors2 ,tamagno1 ,campanini1 de ,reszke and others4 ,in ,europe and in ,america he was welcomed with acclaim and the records of his voice are to be found in thousands of homes of music lovers who have never come in touch with him in any other way4 ,signor ,caruso had a remarkable talent for drawing and for sculpture4 ,his death1 ,august #b;d1 #aiba1 ended the career of the greatest male singer of history4 ,illustration3 ,,enrico ,,caruso4 ,,italy1 ,,the ,,home ,,of ,,song ,,enrico ,,caruso ,,opera ,,and ,,the ,,public ,,in ,,italy ,anyone who has traveled in ,italy must have noticed the interest that is manifested at the opening of the opera season4 ,this does not apply only to the people with means and advanced culture but also to what might be called the general public4 ,in addition to the upper classes1 the same class of people in ,america who would show the wildest enthusiasm over your popular sport1 base-ball1 would be similarly eager to attend the leading operatic performances in ,italy4 ,the opening of the opera is accompanied by an indescribable fervor4 ,it is in the air4 ,the whole community seems to breathe opera4 ,the children know the leading melodies1 and often discuss the features of the performances as they hear their parents tell about them1 just as the ,american small boy retails his father's opinions upon the political struggles of the day or upon the last ball game4 ,it should not be thought that this does not mean a sacrifice to the masses1 for opera is1 in a sense1 more expensive in ,italy than in ,america2 that is1 it is more expensive by comparison in most parts of the country4 ,it should be remembered that monetary values in ,italy are entirely different from those in ,america4 ,the average ,italian of moderate means looks upon a lira as a coin far more valuable than its equivalent of twenty cents in ,united ,states currency4 ,his income is likely to be limited1 and he must spend it with care and wisdom4 ,again1 in the great operatic centers1 such as ,milan1 ,naples or ,rome1 the prices are invariably adjusted to the importance of the production4 ,in first-class productions the prices are often very high from the ,italian standpoint4 ,for instance1 at ,la ,scala in ,milan1 when an exceptionally fine performance is given with really great singers1 the prices for orchestra chairs may run as high as thirty lira or six dollars a seat4 ,even to the wealthy ,italian this amount seems the same as a much larger amount in ,america4 ,to give opera in ,italy with the same spectacular effects1 the same casts composed almost exclusively of very renowned artists1 the same mise en scene1 etc41 would require a price of admission really higher than in ,america4 ,as a matter of fact1 there is no place in the world where such a great number of performances1 with so many world-renowned singers1 are given as at the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house in ,new ,york4 ,there is no necessity for any one to make a special trip to ,europe to hear excellent performances in these days4 ,of course such a trip would be interesting1 as the performances given in many ,european centers are wonderfully fine1 and they would be interesting to hear if only from the standpoint of comparing them with those given at the ,metropolitan4 ,however1 the most eminent singers of the world come here constantly1 and the performances are directed by the ablest men obtainable1 and ,i am at loss to see why ,america should not be extremely proud of her operatic advantages4 ,in addition to this the public manifests a most intelligent appreciation of the best in music4 ,it is very agreeable to sing in ,america1 as one is sure that when he does well the public will respond at once4 ,,italian1 ,,the ,,language ,,of ,,music ,perhaps the fact that in ,italy the audiences may understand the performances better because of their knowledge of their native language may add to the pleasure of opera-going4 ,this1 however1 is a question1 except in the case of some of the more modern works4 ,the older opera librettos left much to be desired from the dramatic and poetic standpoints4 ,italian after all is the language of music4 ,in fact it is music in itself when properly spoken4 ,note that ,i say when properly spoken4 ,american girls go to ,italy to study1 and of course desire to acquire a knowledge of the language itself1 for they have heard that it is beneficial in singing4 ,they get a mere smattering1 and do not make any attempt to secure a perfect accent4 ,the result is about as funny as the efforts of the comedians who imitate ,german emigrants on the ,american stage4 ,if you start the study of ,italian1 persist until you have really mastered the language4 ,in doing this your ear will get such a drill and such a series of exercises as it has never had before4 ,you will have to listen to the vowel sounds as you have never listened4 ,this is necessary because in order to understand the grammar of the language you must hear the final vowel in each word and you must hear the consonants distinctly4 ,there is another peculiar thing about ,italian4 ,if the student who has always studied and sung in ,english1 ,german or ,french or ,russian1 attempts to sing in ,italian1 he is really turning a brilliant searchlight upon his own vocal ability4 ,if he has any faults which have been concealed in his singing in his own language1 they will be discovered at once the moment he commences to study in ,italian4 ,i do not know whether this is because the ,italian of culture has a higher standard of diction in the enunciation of the vowel sounds1 or whether the sounds themselves are so pure and smooth that they expose the deficiencies1 but it is nevertheless the case4 ,the ,american girl who studies ,italian for six months and then hopes to sing in that language in a manner not likely to disturb the sense of the ridiculous is deceiving herself4 ,it takes years to acquire fluency in a language4 ,,audiences ,,the ,,same ,,the ,,world ,,around ,audiences are as sensitive as individuals4 ,italy is known as the home of the opera2 but ,i find that1 as far as manifesting enthusiasm goes1 the world is getting pretty much the same4 ,if the public is pleased1 it applauds no matter whether it be in ,vienna1 ,paris1 ,rome1 ,buenos ,aires1 ,new ,york1 or ,oshkosh4 ,an artist feels his bond with his audience very quickly4 ,he knows whether his auditors are delighted1 whether they are merely interested or whether they are indifferent a few seconds after he has been upon the stage4 ,i can judge my own work at once by the attitude of the audience4 ,no artist sings exactly alike on two successive nights4 ,that would be impossible4 ,although every sincere artist tries to do his best at all times1 there are1 nevertheless1 occasions when one sings better than at others4 ,if ,i sing particularly well the audience is particularly enthusiastic2 if ,i am not feeling well and my singing indicates it1 the audience will let me know at once by not being quite so enthusiastic4 ,it is a barometer which is almost unfailing4 ,this is also an important thing for the young singer to consider4 ,audiences judge by real worth and not by reputation4 ,reputation may attract money to the box office1 but once the people are inside the opera house the artist must really please them or suffer4 ,young singers should not be led to think that anything but real worth is of any lasting value4 ,if the audience does not respond1 do not blame the audience4 ,it would respond if you could sing so beautifully that you could compel a response that you know should follow real artistic achievement4 ,don't blame your teacher or your lack of practice or anything or anybody but yourself4 ,the verdict of the audience is better than the examination of a hundred so-called experts4 ,there is something about an audience that makes it seem like a great human individual1 whether in ,naples or in ,san ,francisco4 ,if you touch the heart or please the sense of beauty1 the appetite for lovely music--common to all mankind--the audience is yours1 be it ,italian1 ,french1 ,german or ,american4 ,,operatic ,,preparation ,,in ,,italy ,the ,american student with a really good voice and a really fine vocal and musical training1 would have more opportunities for engagements in the smaller ,italian opera houses1 for the simple reason that there are more of these opera houses and more of these opera companies4 ,bear in mind1 however1 that opera in ,italy depends to a large extent upon the standing of the artists engaged to put on the opera4 ,in some cities of the smaller size the municipality makes an appropriation1 which serves as a guarantee or subsidy4 ,an impresario is informed what operas the community desires and what singers4 ,he tries to comply with the demand4 ,often the city is very small and the demand very slightly indicated in real money4 ,as a result the performances are comparatively mediocre4 ,the ,american student sometimes fails to secure engagements with the big companies and tries to gain experience in these small companies4 ,sometimes he succeeds1 but he should remember before undertaking this work that many native ,italian singers with realty fine voices are looking for similar opportunities and that only a very few stand any chance of reaching really noteworthy success4 ,,opera ,,will ,,always ,,be ,,expensive ,he should1 of course1 endeavor to seek engagements with the big companies if his voice and ability will warrant it4 ,where the most money is1 there will be the salaried artists and the finest operatic spectacle4 ,that is axiomatic4 ,opera is expensive and will always be expensive4 ,the supply of unusual voices has always been limited and the services of their possessors have always commanded a high reward4 ,this is based upon an economic law which applies to all things in life4 ,the young singer should realize that1 unless he can rise to the very top of his profession1 he will be compelled to enlist in a veritable army of singers with little talent and less opportunity4 ,one thing exists in ,italy which is very greatly missed in ,america4 ,even in small companies in ,italy a great deal of time is spent in rehearsals4 ,in ,america rehearsals are tremendously expensive and sometimes first performances have suffered thereby4 ,in fact1 ,i doubt whether the public realizes what a very expensive thing opera is4 ,the public has little opportunity to look behind the scenes4 ,it sees only the finished performance1 which runs smoothly only when a tremendous amount of mental1 physical and financial oil has been poured upon the machinery4 ,i often hear men say here in ,new ,york1 ,i had to pay fifty dollars for my seat to-night4 ,that is absurd--the money is going to speculators instead of into the rightful channels4 ,this money is simply lost as far as doing any service whatever to art is concerned4 ,it does not go into the opera house treasury to make for better performances1 but simply into the hands of some fellow who had been clever enough to deprive the public of its just opportunity to purchase seats4 ,the public seems to have money enough to pay an outrageous amount for seats when necessary4 ,would it not be better to do away with the speculator at the door and pay say #aj4jj for a seat that now costs #g4jj8 ,this would mean more rehearsals and better opera and no money donated to the undeserving horde at the portals of the temple4 ,,the ,,student',s ,,preparation ,i am told that many people in ,america have the impression that my vocal ability is kind of a ,god-given gift2 that is1 something that has come to me without effort4 ,this is so very absurd that ,i can hardly believe that sensible people would give it a moment's credence4 ,every voice is in a sense the result of a development1 and this is particularly so in my own case4 ,the marble that comes from the quarries of ,carrara may be very beautiful and white and flawless1 but it does not shape itself into a work of art without the hand1 the heart1 and the intellect of the sculptor4 ,just to show how utterly ridiculous this popular opinion really is1 let me cite the fact that at the age of fifteen everybody who heard me sing pronounced me a bass4 ,when ,i went to ,vergine ,i studied hard for four years4 ,during the first three years the work was for the most part moulding and shaping the voice4 ,then ,i studied repertoire for one year and made my debut4 ,even with the experience ,i had had at that time it was unreasonable to expect great success at once4 ,i kept working hard and worked for at least seven years more before any really mentionable success came to me4 ,all the time ,i had one thing on my mind and that was never to let a day pass without seeing some improvement in my voice4 ,the discouragements were frequent and bitter2 but ,i kept on working and waiting until my long awaited opportunities came in ,london and in ,new ,york4 ,the great thing is1 not to stop4 ,do not think that1 because these great cities gave me a flattering reception1 my work ceased4 ,quite on the contrary1 ,i kept on working and am working still4 ,every time ,i go upon the stage ,i am endeavoring to discover something that will make my art more worthy of public acceptance4 ,every act of each opera is a new lesson4 ,,different ,,roles ,it is difficult to invest a role with individuality4 ,i have no favorite roles4 ,i have avoided this1 because the moment one adopts a favorite role he becomes a specialist and ceases to be an artist4 ,the artist does all roles equally well4 ,i have had the unique experience of creating many roles in operas such as ,fedora1 ,adrienne1 ,germania1 ,girl of the ,golden ,west1 ,maschera4 ,this is a splendid experience1 as it always taxes the inventive faculties of the singing actor4 ,this is particularly the case in the ,italian opera of the newer composers1 or rather the composers who have worked in ,italy since the reformation of ,wagner4 ,whatever may be said1 the greatest influence in modern ,italian opera is ,wagner4 ,even the great ,verdi was induced to change his methods in ,aida1 ,otello1 and ,falstaff--all representing a much higher art than his earlier operas4 ,however1 ,wagner did nothing to rob ,italy of its natural gift of melody1 even though he did institute a reform4 ,he also did not influence such modern composers as ,puccini1 ,mascagni1 and ,leoncavallo to the extent of marring their native originality and fertility4 ,illustration3 ,,mme4 ,,julia ,,claussen4 ,,mme4 ,,julia ,,claussen ,,biographical ,mme4 ,julia ,claussen was born at ,stockholm1 ,sweden1 the land of ,jenny ,lind and ,nilsson4 ,her voice is a rich1 flexible mezzo-soprano1 with a range that has enabled her to assume some contralto roles with more success than the average so-called contralto4 ,in her childhood she studied piano1 but did not undertake the serious study of voice until she was eighteen1 when she became a student at the ,royal ,academy of ,music1 under ,professor ,lejdstrom 7studying harmony and theory under the famous ,swedish composer ,sjogren74 ,her debut was made at the ,royal ,opera1 at the age of twenty-two1 in ,la ,favorita1 singing the role in ,swedish4 ,later she went to ,berlin1 where she was coached in ,german opera by ,professor ,friedrich at the ,royal ,high ,school of ,music4 ,her ,american debut was made in #aiab1 in ,chicago1 where she made an immediate success in such roles as ,ortrud1 ,brunnhilde and ,carmen4 ,she was then engaged at ,covent ,garden and later sang at the ,champs ,elysee ,theatre1 under ,nikisch1 in ,paris4 ,for two years she appeared at the ,metropolitan4 ,she has received the rare distinction of being awarded the ,jenny ,lind ,medal from her own government and also of being admitted to the ,royal ,academy of ,sweden1 the youngest member ever elected to that august scientific and artistic body4 ,she has also been decorated by ,king ,gustavus ,v of ,sweden with ,literis et ,artibus4 ,in ,america she has made an immense success as a concert singer4 ,,modern ,,roads ,,to ,,vocal ,,success ,,mme4 ,,julia ,,claussen ,,why ,,sweden ,,produces ,,so ,,many ,,singers ,the question1 ,why does ,sweden produce so many singers8 is often asked me4 ,first it is a matter of climate1 then a matter of physique1 and lastly1 because the ,swedish children do far more singing than any one finds in many other countries4 ,the air in ,sweden is very rarefied1 clear and exhilarating4 ,owing to frugal living and abundant systematic exercise1 the people become very robust4 ,this is not a matter of one generation or so1 but goes back for centuries4 ,the ,swedes are a strong1 energetic1 thorough race2 and the same attributes of industry and precision which have made them famous in science are applied to the study of music4 ,the ,swedish child is made to understand that singing is a needful1 serious part of his life4 ,his musical training begins very early in the schools1 with a definite scheme4 ,all schools have competent1 experienced teachers of singing4 ,in my childhood another factor played a very important part4 ,there was never the endless round of attractions1 toys1 parties1 theatres and pastimes 7to say nothing of the all-consuming movies74 ,life was more tranquil and therefore the pursuit of good music was far more enjoyable4 ,american life moves at aeroplane speed4 ,the poor little children hardly have time to breathe1 let alone time to study music4 ,ragtime is the musical symptom of this ,american craving for speed and incessant excitement4 ,in a blare and confusion of noises1 like bedlam broken loose1 what chance has a child to develop good taste8 ,it is admittedly fascinating at times2 but is without rhyme1 reason or order4 ,i never permit my children to pollute my piano with it4 ,they may have it on the talking machine1 but they must not be accomplices in making it4 ,of course1 things have changed in ,sweden1 too2 and ,american ragtime1 always contagious1 has now infected all ,europe4 ,this makes the music teacher's task in this day far more difficult than formerly4 ,i hear my daughters practicing1 and now and then they seem to be putting a dash of ragtime into ,bach4 ,if ,i stop them ,i find that ,bach is too slow1 ,i don't like ,bach6 ,this is almost like saying1 ,i don't like ,rubens1 ,van ,dyke or ,millet2 please1 teacher1 give me ,mutt and ,jeff or the ,katzenjammer ,kids6 ,american children need to be constantly taught to reverence the great creators of the land4 ,why1 ,jenny ,lind is looked upon as a great national heroine in ,sweden1 much as one might regard ,george ,washington in ,america4 ,before ,america can go about musical educational work properly1 the teachers must inculcate this spirit1 a proper appreciation of what is really beautiful1 instead of a kind of wild1 mob-like orgy of blare1 bang1 smash and shriek which so many have come to know as ragtime and jazz4 ,,self-,,criticism ,if one should ask me what is the first consideration in becoming a success as a singer1 ,i should say the ability to criticise one's self4 ,in my own case ,i had a very competent musician as a teacher4 ,he told me that my voice was naturally placed and did very little to help place it according to his own ideas4 ,perhaps that was well for me1 because ,i knew myself what ,i was about4 ,he used to say1 ,that sounds beautiful1 but all the time ,i knew that it sounded terrible4 ,it was then that ,i learned that my ear must be my best teacher4 ,my teacher1 for instance1 told me that ,i would never be able to trill4 ,this was very disheartening2 but he really believed1 according to his conservative knowledge1 that ,i should never succeed in getting the necessary flexibility4 ,by chance ,i happened to meet a celebrated ,swedish singer1 ,mme4 ,oestberg1 of the old school4 ,i communicated to her the discouraging news that ,i could never hope to trill4 ,nonsense1 my dear1 she said1 someone told me that too1 but ,i determined that ,i was going to learn4 ,i did not know how to go about it exactly1 but ,i knew that with the proper patience and will-power ,i would succeed4 ,therefore ,i worked up to three o'clock one morning1 and before ,i went to bed ,i was able to trill4 ,i decided to take ,mme4 ,oestberg's advice1 and ,i practiced for several days until ,i knew that ,i could trill1 and then ,i went back to my teacher and showed him what ,i could do4 ,he had to admit it was a good trill1 and he couldn't understand how ,i had so successfully disproved his theories by accomplishing it4 ,it was then that ,i learned that the singer can do almost anything within the limits of the voice1 if one will only work hard enough4 ,work is the great producer1 and there is no substitute for it4 ,do not think that ,i am ungrateful to my teacher4 ,he gave me a splendid musical drilling in all the standard solfeggios1 in which he was most precise2 and in later years ,i said to him1 ,i am not grateful to you for making my voice1 but because you did not spoil it4 ,after having sung a great deal and thought introspectively a great deal about the voice1 one naturally begins to form a kind of philosophy regarding it4 ,of course1 breathing exercises are the basis of all good singing methods1 but it seems to me that singing teachers ask many of their pupils to do many queer impractical things in breathing1 things that don't work when the singer is obliged to stand up before a big audience and make everyone hear without straining4 ,if ,i were to teach a young girl right at this moment ,i would simply ask her to take a deep breath and note the expansion at the waist just above the diaphragm4 ,then ,i would ask her to say as many words as possible upon that breath1 at the same time having the muscles adjacent to the diaphragm to support the breath2 that is1 to sustain it and not collapse or try to push it up4 ,the trick is to get the most tone1 not with the most breath but with the least breath1 and especially the very least possible strain at the throat1 which must be kept in a floating1 gossamer-like condition all the time4 ,i see girls1 who have been to expensive teachers1 doing all sorts of wonderful calisthenics with the diaphragm1 things that ,god certainly did not intend us to do in learning to speak and to sing4 ,any attempt to draw in the front walls of the abdomen or the intercostal muscles during singing must put a kind of pneumatic pressure upon the breath stream1 which is sure to constrict the throat4 ,therefore1 in my own singing1 ,i note the opposite effect4 ,that is1 there is rather a sensation of expansion instead of contraction during the process of expiration4 ,this soon becomes very comfortable1 relieves the throat of strain1 relieves the tones of breathiness or all idea of forcing4 ,there is none of the ugly heaving of the chest or shoulders2 the body is in repose1 and the singer has a firm grip upon the tone in the right way4 ,the muscles of the front wall of the abdomen and the muscles between the lower ribs become very strong and equal to any strain1 while the throat is free4 ,in the emission of the actual tone itself ,i would advise the sensation of inhaling at first4 ,the beginner should blow out the tone4 ,usually instead of having a lovely floating character1 with the impression of control1 the tone starts with being forced1 and it always remains so4 ,the singer oversings and has nothing in reserve4 ,when ,i am singing ,i feel as though the farther away from the throat1 the deeper down ,i can control the breath stream1 the better and freer the tone becomes4 ,furthermore1 ,i can sing the long1 difficult ,wagnerian roles1 with their tremendous demands upon the vocal organs1 without the least sensation of fatigue4 ,some singers1 after such performances1 are all in4 ,no wonder they lose their voices when they should be in their prime4 ,for me the most difficult vowel is ah4 ,the throat then is most open and the breath stream most difficult to control properly4 ,therefore ,i make it a habit to begin my practice with oo1 oh1 ah1 ay1 ee in succession4 ,i never start with sustained tones4 ,this would give my throat time to stiffen4 ,i employ quick1 soft scales1 always remembering the basic principle of breath control ,i have mentioned1 and always as though inhaling4 ,this is an example of what ,i mean4 ,to avoid shrillness on the upper tone ,i take the highest note with oo and descend with oo4 ,illustration3 musical notation3 ,ex4 #a ,the same thought applied to an arpeggio would be3 ,illustration3 musical notation3 ,ex4 #b ,these ,i take within comfortable limits of my voice1 always remembering that the least strain is a backward step4 ,these exercises are taken through all possible keys4 ,there can never be too much practice of a scale or arpeggio exercise4 ,many singers1 ,i know1 who wonder why they do not succeed1 cannot do a good scale1 the very first thing they should be able to do4 ,every one should be like perfect pearls on a thread4 ,,america',s ,,fatal ,,ambition ,one of the great troubles in ,america is the irrepressible ambition of both teachers and pupils4 ,europe is also not untinged with this4 ,teachers want to show results4 ,some teachers1 ,i am told1 start in with songs at the first or second lesson1 with the sad knowledge that if they do not do this they may lose the pupil to some teacher who will peddle out songs4 ,after four or five months ,i was given an operatic aria2 and1 of course1 ,i sang it4 ,a year of scales1 exercises and solfeggios would have been far more time-saving4 ,the pupils have too much to say about their education in this way4 ,the teacher should be competent and then decide all such questions4 ,american girls do not want this4 ,they expect to step from vocal ignorance to a repertoire over night4 ,when you study voice1 you should study not for two years1 but realize you will never stop studying1 if you wish to keep your voice4 ,like any others1 without exercise1 the singing muscles grow weak and inefficient4 ,there are so many1 many things to learn4 ,of course1 my whole training was that of the opera singer1 and ,i was schooled principally in the ,wagnerian roles4 ,with the coming of the war the prejudice against the greatest anti-imperialist 7with the possible exception of ,beethoven7 which music ever has known--the immortal ,wagner--became so strong that not until now has the demand for his operas become so great that they are being resumed with wonderful success4 ,therefore1 with the exception of a few ,italian and ,french roles1 my operatic repertoire went begging4 ,it was necessary for me to enter the concert field1 as the management of the opera company with which ,i had contracts secured such engagements for me4 ,it was like starting life anew4 ,there is very little opportunity to show one's individuality in opera4 ,one must play the role4 ,therefore ,i had to learn a repertoire of songs1 every one of which required different treatment and different individuality4 ,with eighteen members on the program1 the singer has a musical1 mental and vocal task which devolves entirely upon herself without the aid of chorus1 co-singers1 orchestra1 costumes1 scenery and the glamour of the footlights4 ,it was with the greatest delight that ,i could fulfill the demands of the concert platform4 ,american musical taste is very exacting4 ,the audiences use their imagination all the time1 and like romantic songs with an atmospheric background1 which accounts for my great success with songs of such type as ,lieurance's ,by the ,waters of ,minnetonka4 ,one of the greatest tasks ,i ever have had is that of singing my roles in many different languages4 ,i learned some of them first in ,swedish1 then in ,italian1 then in ,french1 then in ,german1 then in ,english2 as ,i am obliged to re-learn my ,wagnerian roles now4 ,the road to success in voice study1 like the road to success in everything else1 has one compass which should be a consistent guide1 and that is common sense4 ,avoid extremes2 hold fast to your ideals2 have faith in your possibilities1 and work6 work66 work666 ,illustration3 ,,charles ,,dalmores ,,in ,,massenet',s ,,herodiade4 7,c7 ,mishkin4 ,,charles ,,dalmores ,,biographical ,m4 ,charles ,dalmores was born at ,nancy1 ,france1 ,december #cast1 #ahga4 ,his musical education was received at the ,nancy ,conservatoire under ,professor ,dauphin1 and it was his intention to become a specialist in ,french horn4 ,he also played the 'cello4 ,when he applied to the ,paris ,conservatoire he was refused admission to the singing course because he was too good a musician to waste his time with singing4 ,he became professor of ,french horn at the ,lyons ,conservatory2 but his love for opera led him to study by himself until he made his debut at ,rouen in #ahii4 ,he then sang at the ,theatre de la ,monnaie in ,brussels1 ,covent ,garden1 ,bayreuth1 ,new ,york1 and ,chicago1 with ever-increasing success4 ,dalmores is a dramatic tenor1 and his musicianship has enabled him to take extremely difficult roles of the modern type and achieve real artistic triumphs4 ,he is one of the finest examples of the self-trained vocalist4 ,,self-,,help ,,in ,,voice ,,study ,,charles ,,dalmores ,it is always a pleasure to talk upon self-help and not self-study1 because ,i believe most implicitly in the former and very much doubt the efficacy of the latter in actual voice study4 ,the voice1 of all things1 demands the assistance of a good teacher1 although in the end the results all come from within and not from without4 ,that is1 the voice is an organ of expression2 and what we make of it depends upon our own thought a thousand times more than what we take in from the outside4 ,it is the teacher who stimulates the right kind of thinking who is the best teacher4 ,the teacher who seeks to make his pupils parrots rarely meets with success4 ,my whole career is an illustration of this1 and when ,i think of the apparently insurmountable obstacles over which ,i have been compelled to climb ,i cannot help feeling that the relation of a few of my own experiences in the way of self-help could not fail to be beneficial4 ,,at ,,the ,,paris ,,conservatory ,i was born at ,nancy on the #cast of ,december1 #ahga4 ,i gave evidences of having musical talent and my musical instruction commenced at the age of six years4 ,i studied first at the ,conservatory at ,nancy1 intending to make a specialty of the violin4 ,then ,i had the misfortune of breaking my arm4 ,it was decided thereafter that ,i had better study the ,french horn4 ,this ,i did with much success and attribute my control of the breath at this day very largely to my elementary struggles with that most difficult of instruments4 ,at the age of fourteen ,i played the second horn at ,nancy4 ,finally1 ,i went1 with a purse made up by some citizens of my home town1 to enter the great ,conservatory at ,paris4 ,there ,i studied very hard and succeeded in winning my goal in the way of receiving the first prize for playing the ,french horn4 ,for a time ,i played under ,colonne1 and between the ages of seventeen and twenty-three in ,paris ,i played with the ,lamoureaux ,orchestra4 ,all this time ,i had my heart set upon becoming a singer and paid particular attention to all of the wonderful orchestral works we rehearsed4 ,the very mention of the fact that ,i desired to become a singer was met with huge ridicule by my friends1 who evidently thought that it was a form of fanaticism4 ,for a time ,i studied the 'cello and managed to acquire a very creditable technic upon that instrument4 ,a ,,discouraging ,,prospect ,notwithstanding the success ,i had with the two instruments1 ,i was confronted with the fact that ,i had before me the life of a poor musician4 ,my salary was low1 and there were few1 if any1 opportunities to increase it outside of my regular work with the orchestra4 ,i was told that ,i had great talent1 but this never had the effect of swelling my pocketbook4 ,in my military service ,i played in the band of an infantry regiment2 and when ,i told my companions that ,i aspired to be a great singer some day they greeted my declaration with howls of laughter1 and pointed out the fact that ,i was already along in years and had an established profession4 ,at the sedate age of twenty-three ,i was surprised to find myself appointed ,professor of ,french ,horn at the ,conservatory of ,lyons4 ,lyons is the second city of ,france from the standpoint of population4 ,it is a busy manufacturing center1 but is rich in architectural1 natural and historical interest2 and the position had its advantages1 although it was away from the great ,french center1 ,paris4 ,the opera at ,nancy was exceedingly good1 and ,i had an opportunity to go often4 ,singing and the opera were my life4 ,my father had been manager at ,nancy and ,i had made my first acquaintance with the stage as one of the boys in ,carmen4 ,a ,,test ,,that ,,failed ,i have omitted to say that at ,paris ,i tried to enter the classes for singing4 ,my voice was apparently liked1 but ,i was refused admission upon the basis that ,i was too good a musician to waste my time in becoming an inferior singer4 ,goodness gracious6 ,where is musicianship needed more than in the case of the singer8 ,this amused me1 and ,i resolved to bide my time4 ,i played in opera orchestras whenever ,i had a chance1 and thus became acquainted with the famous roles4 ,one eye was on the music and the other was on the stage4 ,during the rests ,i dreamt of the time when ,i might become a singer like those over the footlights4 ,where there is a will there is usually a way4 ,i taught solfeggio as well as ,french horn in the ,lyons ,conservatory4 ,i devised all sorts of home-made exercises to improve my voice as ,i thought best4 ,some may have done me good1 others probably were injurious4 ,i listened to singers and tried to get points from them4 ,gradually ,i was unconsciously paving the way for the great opportunity of my life4 ,it came in the form of an experienced teacher1 ,dauphin1 who had been a basso for ten years at the leading theatre of ,belgium1 fourteen years in ,london1 and later director at ,geneva and ,lyons4 ,he also received the appointment of ,professor at the ,lyons ,conservatory4 ,a ,,famous ,,opportunity ,one day ,dauphin heard me singing and inquired who ,i was4 ,then he came in the room and said to me1 ,how much do you get here for teaching and playing8 ,i replied1 proudly1 six thousand francs a year4 ,he said1 ,you shall study with me and some day you shall earn as much as six thousand francs a month4 ,dauphin1 bless his soul1 was wrong4 ,i now earn six thousand francs every night ,i sing instead of every month4 ,i could hardly believe that the opportunity ,i had waited for so long had come4 ,dauphin had me come to his house and there he told me that my success in singing would depend quite as much upon my own industry as upon his instruction4 ,thus one professor in the conservatory taught another in the art he had long sought to master4 ,notwithstanding ,dauphin's confidence in me1 all of the other professors thought that ,i was doing a perfectly insane thing1 and did all in their power to prevent me from going to what they thought was my ruin4 ,,discouraging ,,advice ,nevertheless1 ,i determined to show them that they were all mistaken4 ,during the first winter ,i studied no less than six operas1 at the same time taking various exercises to improve my voice4 ,during the second winter ,i mastered one opera every month1 and at the same time did all my regular work--studying in my spare hours4 ,at the end of my course ,i passed the customary examination1 receiving the least possible distinction from my colleagues who were still convinced that ,i was pursuing a course that would end in complete failure4 ,this brought home the truth that if ,i was to get ahead at all ,i would have to depend entirely upon myself4 ,the outlook was certainly not propitious4 ,nevertheless ,i studied by myself incessantly and disregarded the remarks of my pessimistic advisers4 ,i sang in a church and also in a big synagogue to keep up my income4 ,all the time ,i had to put up with the sarcasm of my colleagues who seemed to think1 like many others1 that the calling of the singer was one demanding little musicianship1 and tried to make me see that in giving up the ,french horn and my conservatory professorship ,i would be abandoning a dignified career for that of a species of musician who at that time was not supposed to demand any special musical training4 ,could not a shoemaker or a blacksmith take a few lessons and become a great singer8 ,i1 however1 determined to become a different kind of a singer4 ,i believed that there was a place for the singer with a thorough musical training1 and while ,i kept up my vocal work amid the rain of irony and derogatory remarks from my mistaken colleagues1 ,i did not fail to keep up my interest in the deeper musical studies4 ,i had a feeling that the more good music ,i knew the better would be my work in opera4 ,i wish that all singers could see this4 ,many singers live in a little world all of their own4 ,they know the music of the footlights1 but there their experience ends4 ,every symphony ,i have played has been molded into my life experience in such a way that it cannot help being reflected in my work4 ,a ,,critical ,,moment ,finally the time came for my debut in #ahii4 ,it was a most serious occasion for me2 for the rest of my career as a singer depended upon it4 ,it was in ,rouen1 and my fee was to be fifteen hundred francs a month4 ,i thought that that would make me the richest man in the world4 ,it was the custom of the town for the captain of the police to come before the audience at the end and inquire whether the audience approved of the artist's singing or whether their vocal efforts were unsatisfactory4 ,this was to be determined by a public demonstration4 ,when the captain held up the sign ,approved1 ,i felt as though the greatest moment in my life had arrived4 ,i had worked so long and so hard for success and had been obliged to laugh down so much scorn that you can imagine my feelings4 ,suddenly a great volume of applause came from the house and ,i knew in a second what my future should be4 ,then it was that ,i realized that ,i was only a little way along my journey4 ,i wanted to be the foremost ,french tenor of my time4 ,i knew that success in ,france alone1 while gratifying1 would be limited1 so ,i set out to conquer new worlds4 ,wagner1 up to that time1 had never been sung by any ,french tenor1 so ,i determined to master ,german and become a ,wagner singer4 ,this ,i did1 and it fell to me to receive that most coveted of ,wagnerian distinctions1 soloist at ,beyreuth1 the citadel of the highest in ,german operatic art4 ,in after years ,i sang in all parts of ,germany with as much success as in ,france4 ,later ,i went to ,london and then to ,america1 where ,i sang for many seasons4 ,it has been no small pleasure for me to return to ,paris1 where ,i once lived in penury1 and to receive the highest fee ever paid to a ,french singer in the ,french capital4 ,,the ,,need ,,for ,,great ,,care ,i don't know what more ,i can say upon the subject of self-help for the singer4 ,i have simply told my own story and have related some of the obstacles that ,i have overcome4 ,i trust that no one who has not a voice really worth while will be misled by what ,i have had to say4 ,the voice is one of the most intricate and wonderful of the human organs4 ,properly exercised and cared for1 it may be developed to a remarkable degree2 but there are cases1 of course1 where there is not enough voice at the start to warrant the aspirant making the sacrifices that ,i have made to reach my goal4 ,this is a very serious matter and one which should be determined by responsible judges4 ,at the same time1 the singers may see how possible it is for even experienced musicians1 like my colleagues in ,lyons1 to be mistaken4 ,if ,i had depended upon them and not fought my own way out1 ,i would probably be an obscure teacher in the same old city earning the munificent salary of one hundred dollars a month4 ,,fighting ,,your ,,own ,,way ,the student who has to fight his own way has a much harder battle of it2 but he has a satisfaction which certainly does not come to the one who has all his instruction fees and living expenses paid for him4 ,he feels that he has earned his success2 and1 by the processes of exploration through which the self-help student must invariably pass1 he becomes invested with a confidence and ,i know feeling which is a great asset to him4 ,the main thing is for him to keep busy all the time4 ,he has not a minute to spare upon dreaming4 ,he has no one to carry his burden but himself2 and the exercise of carrying it himself is the thing which will do most to make him strong and successful4 ,the artists who leap into success are very rare4 ,hundreds who have held mediocre positions come to the front1 while those who appear most favored stay in the background4 ,do not seek to gain eminence by any influence but that of real earnest work2 and if you do not intend to work and to work hard1 drop all of your aspirations for operatic laurels4 ,illustration3 ,,andreas ,,dippel4 7,c7 ,dupont4 ,,andreas ,,dippel ,,biographical ,andreas ,dippel was born at ,cassel1 #ahff4 ,his father was a manufacturer who had the boy educated at the local gymnasium1 with the view to making him a banker4 ,after five years in a banking house he decided to become a singer and studied with ,mme4 ,zottmayr4 ,later he went to ,berlin1 ,milan and ,vienna1 where he studied with ,julius ,hey1 ,alberto ,leoni and ,johann ,ress4 ,in #ahhg he made his debut at ,bremen1 in ,the ,flying ,dutchman4 ,he remained with that company until #ahib4 ,in the meantime1 however1 he had appeared at the ,metropolitan in ,new ,york1 with such success that he toured ,america as a concert singer with ,anton ,seidl1 ,arthur ,nikisch1 and ,theodore ,thomas4 ,from #ahic to #ahih he was a member of the ,imperial ,court ,opera at ,vienna4 ,in #ahih he returned to ,america to the ,metropolitan4 ,in #aijh he was appointed administrative manager of the ,metropolitan ,company1 later becoming the manager of the ,philadelphia-,chicago ,opera ,company4 ,mr4 ,dippel is a fine dramatic tenor with the enormous repertoire of #aej works in four different languages4 ,he is a fine actor and has been equally successful in ,new ,york1 ,london1 and ,beyreuth4 ,he also has a repertoire of #fj oratorios4 ,,if ,,my ,,daughter ,,should ,,study ,,for ,,grand ,,opera ,,andreas ,,dippel ,the training of the girl designed to become a great prima donna is one of the most complex problems imaginable4 ,you ask me to consider the case of an imaginary daughter designed for the career in order to make my opinions seem more pertinent4 ,very well4 ,if my daughter were studying for grand opera1 and if she were a very little girl1 ,i should first watch her very carefully to see whether she manifested any uncontrollable desire or ambition to become a great singer4 ,without such a desire she will never become great4 ,usually this ambition becomes evident at a very early age4 ,then ,i should realize that the mere desire to become a great singer is only an infinitesimal part of the actual requirements4 ,she must have1 first of all1 fine health1 abundant vitality and an artistic temperament4 ,she must show signs of being industrious4 ,she should have the patience to wait until real results can be accomplished4 ,in fact1 there are so many attributes that it is difficult to enumerate them all4 ,but they are all worth considering seriously4 ,why8 ,simply because1 if they are not considered1 she may be obliged to spend years of labor for which she will receive no return except the most bitter disappointment conceivable4 ,of the thousands of girls who study to become prima donnas only a very few can succeed1 from the nature of things4 ,the others either abandon their ambitions or assume lesser roles from little parts down to the chorus4 ,you will notice that ,i have said but little about her voice4 ,during her childhood there is very little means of judging of the voice4 ,some girls' voices that seem very promising when they are children turn out in a most disappointing manner4 ,so you see ,i would be obliged to consider the other qualifications before ,i even thought of the voice4 ,of course1 if the child showed no inclination for music or did not have the ability to hold a tune1 ,i should assume that she was one of those frequent freaks of nature which no amount of musical training can save4 ,above all things ,i should not attempt to force her to take up a career against her own natural inclinations or gifts4 ,the designing mother who desires to have her own ambitions realized in her daughter is the bane of every impresario4 ,with a will power worthy of a ,bismarck she maps out a career for the young lady and then attempts to force the child through what she believes to be the proper channels leading to operatic success4 ,she realizes that great singers achieve fame and wealth and she longs to taste of these4 ,it is this1 rather than any particular love for her child1 that prompts her to fight all obstacles4 ,no amount of advice or persuasion can make her believe that her child cannot become another ,tetrazzini1 or ,garden1 or ,schumann-,heink1 if only the impresario will give her a chance4 ,in nine cases out of ten ,fate and ,nature have a conspiracy to keep the particular young lady in the role of a stenographer or a dressmaker2 and in the battle with ,fate and ,nature even the most ambitious mother must be defeated4 ,,her ,,very ,,early ,,training ,once determined that she stood a fair chance of success in the operatic field ,i should take the greatest possible care of her health1 both physically and intellectually4 ,note that ,i lay particular stress upon her physical training4 ,it is most important1 as no one but the experienced singer can form any idea of what demands are made upon the endurance and strength of the opera singer4 ,her general education should be conducted upon the most approved lines4 ,anything which will develop and expand the mind will be useful to her in later life4 ,the later operatic roles make far greater demands upon the mentality of the singer than those of other days4 ,the singer is no longer a parrot with little or nothing to do but come before the footlights and sing a few beautiful tones to a few gesticulations4 ,she is expected to act and to understand what she is acting4 ,i would lay great stress upon history--the history of all nations--she should study the manners1 the dress1 the customs1 the traditions1 and the thought of different epochs4 ,in order to be at home in ,pelleas and ,melisande1 or ,tristan und ,isolde1 or ,la ,boheme she must have acquainted her mind with the historical conditions of the time indicated by the composer and librettist4 ,,her ,,first ,,musical ,,training ,her first musical training should be musical4 ,that is1 she should be taught how to listen to beautiful music before she ever hears the word technic4 ,she should be taught sight reading1 and she ought to be able to read any melody as easily as she would read a book4 ,the earlier this study is commenced with the really musical child1 the better4 ,before it is of any real value to the singer her sight reading should become second nature4 ,she should have lost all idea of the technic of the art and read with ease and naturalness4 ,this is of immense assistance4 ,then she should study the piano thoroughly4 ,the piano is the door to the music of the opera4 ,the singer who is dependent upon some assistant to play over the piano scores is unfortunate4 ,it is not really necessary for her to learn any of the other instruments2 but she should be able to play readily and correctly4 ,it will help her in learning scores1 more than anything else4 ,it will also open the door to much other beautiful music which will elevate her taste and ennoble her ideals4 ,she should go to the opera as frequently as possible in order that she may become acquainted with the great roles intuitively4 ,if she cannot attend the opera itself she can at least gain an idea of the great operatic music through the talking machines4 ,the repertory of records is now very large1 but of course does not include all of the music of all of the scenes4 ,she should be taught the musical traditions of the different historical musical epochs and the different so-called music schools4 ,first she should study musical history itself and then become acquainted with the music of the different periods4 ,the study of the violin is also an advantage in training the ear to listen for correct intonation2 but the violin is by no means absolutely necessary4 ,,languages ,all educators recognize the fact that languages are attained best in childhood4 ,the child's power of mimicry is so wonderful that it acquires a foreign language quite without any suggestion of accent1 in a time which will always put their elders to shame4 ,foreign children1 who come to ,america before the age of ten1 speak both then-native tongue and ,english with equal fluency4 ,the first new language to be taken up should be ,italian4 ,properly spoken1 there is no language so mellifluous as ,italian4 ,the beautiful quantitative value given to the vowels--the natural quest for euphony and the necessity for accurate pronunciation of the last syllable of a word in order to make the grammatical sense understandable--is a training for both the ear and the voice4 ,italy is the land of song2 and most of the conductors give their directions in ,italian4 ,not only the usual musical terms1 but also the other directions are denoted in ,italian by the orchestral conductors2 and if the singer does not understand she must suffer accordingly4 ,after the study of ,italian ,i would recommend1 in order1 ,french and ,german4 ,if my daughter were studying for opera1 ,i should certainly leave nothing undone until she had mastered ,italian1 ,french1 ,german and ,english4 ,although she would not have many opportunities to sing in ,english1 under present operatic conditions1 the ,english-speaking people in ,america1 ,great ,britain1 ,canada1 ,south ,africa1 and ,australia are great patrons of musical art2 and the artist must of course travel in some of these countries4 ,,the ,,study ,,of ,,the ,,voice ,,itself ,her actual voice study should not commence before she is seventeen or eighteen years of age4 ,in the hands of a very skilled and experienced teacher it might commence a little earlier2 but it is better to wait until her health becomes more settled and her mature strength develops4 ,at first the greatest care must be taken4 ,the teacher has at best a delicate flower which a little neglect or a little over training may deform or even kill4 ,i can not discuss methods1 as that is not pertinent to this conference4 ,there is no one absolutely right way2 and many famous singers have traveled what seem quite different roads to reach the same end4 ,however1 it is a historic fact that few great singers have ever acquired voices which have had beautiful quality1 perfect flexibility and reliability1 who have not sung for some years in the old ,italian style4 ,mind you1 ,i am not referring to an old ,italian school of singing here1 but more to that class of music adopted by the old ,italian composers--a style which permitted few vocal blemishes to go by unnoticed4 ,most of the great ,wagnerian singers have been proficient in coloratura roles before they undertook the more complicated parts of the great master at ,beyreuth4 ,it is better to leave the study of repertoire until later years2 that is1 until the study of voice has been pursued for a sufficient time to insure regular progress in the study of repertoire4 ,personally1 ,i am opposed to those methods which take the student directly to the study of repertoire without any previous vocal drill4 ,the voice1 to be valuable to the singer1 must be able to stand the wear and tear of many seasons4 ,it is often some years before the young singer is able to achieve real success and the profits come with the later years4 ,a voice that is not carefully drilled and trained1 so that the singer knows how to get the most out of it1 with the least strain and the least expenditure of effort1 will not stand the wear and tear of many years of opera life4 ,after all1 the study of repertoire is the easiest thing4 ,getting the voice properly trained is the difficult thing4 ,in the study of repertoire the singer often makes the mistake of leaping right into the more difficult roles4 ,she should start with the simpler roles2 such as those of some of the lesser parts in the old ,italian operas4 ,then1 she may essay the leading roles of1 let us say1 ,traviata1 ,barber of ,seville1 ,norma1 ,faust1 ,romeo and ,juliet1 and ,carmen4 ,instead of simple roles1 she seems inclined to spend her time upon ,isolde1 ,mimi1 ,elsa or ,butterfly4 ,it has become so1 that now1 when a new singer comes to me and wants to sing ,tosca or some role that 7sic7 the so-called new or verissimo ,italian school1 ,i almost invariably refuse to listen4 ,i ask them to sing something from ,norma or ,puritani or ,dinorah or ,lucia in which it is impossible for them to conceal their vocal faults4 ,but no1 they want to sing the big aria from the second act of ,madama ,butterfly1 which is hardly to be called an aria at all but rather a collection of dramatic phrases4 ,when they are done1 ,i ask them to sing some of the opening phrases from the same role1 and ere long they discover that they really have nothing which an impresario can purchase4 ,they are without the voice and without the complete knowledge of the parts which they desire to sing4 ,then they discover that the impresario knows that the tell-tale pieces are the old arias from old ,italian operas4 ,they reveal the voice in its entirety4 ,if the breath control is not right1 it becomes evident at once4 ,if the quality is not right1 it becomes as plain as the features of the young lady's face4 ,there is no dramatic--emotional--curtain under which to hide these shortcomings4 ,consequently1 knowing what ,i do1 ,i would insist upon my daughter having a thorough training in the old ,italian arias4 ,,her ,,training ,,in ,,acting ,her training in acting would depend largely upon her natural talent4 ,some children are born actors--natural mimics4 ,they act from their childhood right up to old age4 ,they can learn more in five minutes than others can learn in years4 ,some seem to require little or no training in the art of acting4 ,as a rule they become the most forceful acting singers4 ,others improve wonderfully under the direction of a clever teacher4 ,the new school of opera demands higher histrionic ability from the singer4 ,in fact1 we have come to a time when opera is a real drama set to music which is largely recitative and which does not distract from the action of the drama4 ,the librettos of other days were1 to say the least1 ridiculous4 ,if the music had not had a marvelous hold upon the people they could not have remained in popular favor4 ,to my mind it is an indication of the wonderful power of music that these operas retain their favor4 ,there is something about the melodies which seems to preserve them for all time2 and the public is just as anxious to hear them to-day as it was twenty-five and fifty years ago4 ,richard ,wagner turned the tide of acting in opera by his music dramas4 ,gluck and von ,weber had already made an effort in the right direction2 but it remained for the mighty power of ,wagner to accomplish the final work4 ,now we are witnessing the rise of a school of musical dramatic actors such as ,garden1 ,maurel1 ,renaud1 and others which promises to raise the public taste in this matter and which will add vastly to the pleasure of opera going1 as it will make the illusion appear more real4 ,this also imposes upon the impresario a new contingency which threatens to make opera more and more expensive4 ,costumes1 scenery and all the settings nowadays must be both historically authentic and costly4 ,the collection of wigs1 robes1 and armor1 together with a few sets of scenery1 often with the chairs and other furniture actually painted on the scenes1 which a few years ago were thought adequate for the equipment of an opera company1 have now given way to equipment more elaborate than that of a ,belasco or a ,henry ,irving4 ,nothing is left undone to make the picture real and beautiful4 ,in fact operatic productions1 as now given in ,america1 are as complete and luxurious as any performances given anywhere in the world4 ,,mme4 ,,emma ,,eames ,,biographical ,mme4 ,emma ,eames was born at ,shanghai1 ,china4 ,her father1 a graduate of ,harvard ,law ,school1 had been a sea-captain and had been in business in the ,chinese city4 ,at the age of five she was brought back to the home of her parents at ,bath1 ,maine4 ,her mother was an accomplished amateur singer who supervised her early musical training4 ,at sixteen she went to ,boston to study with ,miss ,munger4 ,at nineteen she became a pupil of ,marchesi in ,paris and remained with the celebrated teacher for two years4 ,at twenty-one she made her debut at the ,grand ,opera in ,paris in ,romeo et ,juliette4 ,two years later she appeared at ,covent ,garden1 ,london1 with such success that she was immediately engaged for the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house in ,new ,york4 ,few singers ever gained such a strong hold upon the ,american and ,english public4 ,her voice is a fine flexible soprano1 capable of doing ,marguerite or ,elisabeth equally well4 ,her husband1 ,emilio de ,gogorza1 with whom it is our privilege to present a conference later in this book1 is one of the foremost baritones of our time4 ,illustration3 ,,mme4 ,,emma ,,eames4 ,,how ,a ,,great ,,master ,,coached ,,opera ,,singers ,,mme4 ,,emma ,,eames ,,gounod ,,an ,,idealist ,one does not need to review the works of ,charles ,gounod to any great extent before discovering that above all things he was an idealist4 ,his whole aspect of life and art was that of a man imbued with a sense of the beautiful and a longing to actualize some noble art purpose4 ,he was of an age of idealists4 ,coming at the artificial period of the ,second ,empire1 he was influenced by that artistic atmosphere1 as were such masters of the brush as ,jean ,august ,ingres and ,eugene ,delacroix4 ,this1 however1 was unconscious1 and in no way affected his perfect sincerity in all he did4 ,,first ,,meeting ,,with ,,gounod ,i was taken to ,gounod by my master1 ,mme4 ,mathilde ,marchesi1 who1 perhaps1 had some reason to regret her kindness in introducing me1 since ,gounod did not favor what he conceived as the ,italian method of singing4 ,he had a feeling that the ,italian school1 as he regarded it1 was too obvious1 and that ,french taste demanded more sincerity1 more subtlety1 better balance and a certain finesse which the purely vocal ,italian style slightly obscured4 ,mme4 ,marchesi was very irate over ,gounod's attitude1 which she considered highly insulting2 whereas1 as a matter of fact1 ,gounod was doing the only thing that a man of his convictions could do1 and that was to tell what he conceived as the truth4 ,gounod's study was a room which fitted his character perfectly4 ,his very pronounced religious tendencies were marked by the stained glass windows which cast a delicate golden tint over the little piano he occasionally used when composing4 ,on one side was a pipe organ upon which he was very fond of playing4 ,in fact1 the whole atmosphere was that of a chapel1 which1 together with the beautiful and dignified appearance of the master himself1 made an impression that one could not forget4 ,his great sincerity1 his lofty aims1 his wonderful earnestness1 his dramatic intensity1 were apparent at once4 ,many composers are hopelessly disappointing in their appearance1 but when one saw ,gounod1 it was easy to realize whence come the beautiful musical colors which make ,romeo et ,juliette1 ,faust and ,the ,redemption so rich and individual4 ,his whole artistic character is revealed in a splendid word of advice he gave to me when ,i first went to him3 ,anyone who is called to any form of musical expression must reveal himself only in the language that ,god has given him to speak with4 ,find this language yourself and try1 above all things1 to be sincere--never singing down to your public4 ,gounod had a wonderful power of compelling attention4 ,while one was with him his personality was so great that it seemed to envelop you1 obliterating everything else4 ,this can be attributed not only to magnetism or hypnotism1 but also to his own intense1 all-burning interest in whatever he was engaged upon4 ,naturally the relationship of teacher and pupil is different from that of comradeship1 but ,i was impressed that ,gounod1 even in moments of apparent repose1 never seemed to lose that wonderful force which virtually consumed the entire attention of all those who were in his presence4 ,he had remarkable gifts in painting word-pictures4 ,his imagination was so vigorous that he could make one feel that which he saw in his mind's eye as actually present4 ,i attribute this to the fact that he himself was possessed by the subject at hand and spoke from the fountains of his deepest conviction4 ,first he made you see and then he made you express4 ,he taught one that to convince others one must first be convinced4 ,indeed1 he allowed a great variety of interpretations in order that one might interpret through one's own power of conception rather than through following blindly his own4 ,during my lessons with ,gounod he revealed not only his very pronounced histrionic ability1 but also his charming talent as a singer4 ,i had an accompanist who came with me to the lessons and when ,i was learning the various roles1 ,gounod always sang the duets with me4 ,although he was well along in years1 he had a small tenor voice1 exquisitely sweet and sympathetic4 ,he sang with delightful ease and with invariably perfect diction1 and perfect vision4 ,if some of our critics of musical performances were more familiar with the niceties of pronunciation and accentuation of different foreign languages1 many of our present-day singers would be called upon to suffer some very severe criticisms4 ,i speak of this because ,gounod was most insistent upon correct pronunciation and accent1 so that the full meaning of the words might be conveyed to every member of the audience4 ,a ,,hearing ,,at ,,the ,,opera ,when ,i went to the opera for my hearing or audition1 ,gounod went with me and we sang the duets together4 ,the director1 ,m4 ,gailhard1 refused my application1 claiming that ,i was a debutante and could not expect an initial performance at the ,grand ,opera despite my ability and musical attainments4 ,it may be interesting for aspiring vocal students to learn something of the various obstacles which still stand in the way of a singer1 even after one has had a very thorough training and acquired proficiency which should compel a hearing4 ,alas6 in opera1 as in many other lines of human endeavor1 there is a political background that is often black with intrigue and machinations4 ,i was determined to fight my way on the merit of my art1 and accordingly ,i was obliged to wait for nearly two years before ,i was able to make my debut4 ,these were years filled with many exasperating circumstances4 ,i went to ,brussels after two years' study with ,marchesi1 having been promised my debut there4 ,i was kept for months awaiting it and was finally prevented from making an appearance by one who1 pretending to be my friend and to be doing all in her power to further my career1 was in reality threatening the directors with instant breaking of her contract should ,i be allowed to appear4 ,i had this on the authority of ,mr4 ,gevaert1 the then director of the ,conservatoire and my firm friend4 ,the artist was a great success and her word was law4 ,it was on my return that ,i was taken to ,gounod and ,i waited a year for a hearing4 ,gounod's opera1 ,romeo et ,juliette1 had been given at the ,opera ,comique many times but there was a demand for performances at the ,grand ,opera4 ,accordingly ,gounod added a ballet1 which fitted it for performance at the ,opera4 ,apropos of this ballet1 ,gounod said to me1 with no little touch of cynicism1 ,now you shall see what kind of music a ,ga ,ga can write 7,ga ,ga is the ,french term for a very old man1 that is1 a man in his dotage74 ,he was determined that ,i should be heard at the ,grand ,opera as ,juliette1 but even his influence could not prevent the director from signing an agreement with one he personally preferred1 which required that she should have the honor of making her debut at the ,grand ,opera in the part4 ,then it was that ,i became aware that it was not only because ,i was a debutante that ,i had been denied4 ,gounod would not consent to this arrangement1 insisting on her making her debut previously in ,faust1 and fortunate it was1 since the singer in question never attained more than mediocre success4 ,gounod still demanded as a compromise that the first six performances of the opera should be given to ,adelina ,patti1 and that they should send for me for the subsequent ones4 ,in the meantime ,i was engaged at the ,opera ,comique4 ,there ,massenet looked with disfavor upon my debut before that of ,sybil ,sanderson4 ,massenet had brought fortunes to the ,opera ,comique through his immensely popular and theatrically effective operas4 ,consequently his word was law4 ,i waited for some months and no suggestion of an opportunity for a performance presented itself4 ,all the time ,i was engaged in extending my repertoire and becoming more and more indignant at the treatment ,i was receiving in not being allowed to sing the operas thus acquired4 ,my year's contract had still three months to run when ,i received an offer from ,st4 ,petersburg4 ,shortly thereafter ,i received a note from ,m4 ,gailhard announcing that he wished to see me4 ,i went and he informed me that ,gounod was still insistent upon my appearance in the role of ,juliette4 ,i was irritated by the whole long train of aggravating circumstances1 but said1 ,give me the contract1 ,i'll sign it4 ,then ,i went directly to the ,opera ,comique and asked to see the director4 ,i was towering with indignation--indeed1 ,i felt myself at least seven feet tall and perhaps quite as wide4 ,i demanded my contract4 ,to his ,mais1 ,mademoiselle-- ,i commanded1 ,send for it4 ,he brought the contract and tore it up in my presence1 only to learn next morning to his probable chagrin that ,i was engaged and announced for an important role at the ,grand ,opera4 ,the first performance of a debutante at the ,grand ,opera is a great ordeal1 and it is easy to imagine that the strain upon a young singer might deprive her of her natural powers of expression4 ,the outcome of mine was most fortuitous and with success behind me ,i found my road very different indeed4 ,however1 if ,i had not had a friend at court1 in the splendid person of ,charles ,gounod1 ,i might have been obliged to wait years longer1 and perhaps never have had an opportunity to appear in ,paris1 where only a few foreigners in a generation get such a privilege4 ,it is a great one1 ,i consider1 as there is no school of good taste and restraint like the ,french1 which is also one where one may acquire the more intellectual qualities in one's work and a sense of proportion and line4 ,,gounod ,,as ,a ,,modernist ,i have continually called attention to ,gounod's idealism4 ,there are some to-day who might find the works of ,gounod artificial in comparison with the works of some very modern writers4 ,to them ,i can only say that the works of the great master gave a great deal of joy to audiences fully as competent to judge of their artistic and aesthetic beauty as any of the present day4 ,indeed1 their flavor is so delicate and sublimated that the subsequent attempts at interpreting them with more realistic methods only succeeds in destroying their charm4 ,it may be difficult for some who are saturated with the ultra-modern tendencies in music to look upon ,gounod as a modernist1 but thus he was regarded by his own friends4 ,one of my most amusing recollections of ,gounod was his telling me--himself much amused thereby--of the first performance of ,faust4 ,his friends had attended in large numbers to assist at the expected success1 only to be witnesses of a huge failure4 ,gounod told me that the only numbers to have any success whatsoever were the ,soldiers' ,chorus1 and that of the old men in the second part of the first act4 ,he said that all his friends avoided him and disappeared or went on the other side of the street4 ,some of the more intimate told him that he must change his manner of writing as it was so unmelodious and advanced4 ,this seems to me a most interesting recollection1 in view of the cubist music of ,stravinsky and ,co4 of to-day4 ,in thinking of ,gounod we must not forget his period and his public4 ,we must realize that his operatic heroes and heroines must be approached from an altogether idealistic attitude--never a materialistic one4 ,see the manner in which ,gounod has taken ,shakespeare's ,juliette and translated her into an atmosphere of poetry4 ,nevertheless he constantly intensifies his dramatic situations as the dramatic nature of the composition demands4 ,his ,juliette1 though consistent with his idea of her throughout1 is not the ,juliet of ,shakespeare4 ,as also his ,marguerite is that of ,kaulbach and not the ,gretchen of ,goethe4 ,of course1 a great deal depends upon the training and school of the artist interpreting the role4 ,in my own interpretations ,i am governed by certain art principles which seem very vital indeed to me4 ,the figure of the ,mediaeval ,princess ,elsa has to be represented with a restraint quite opposed to that of the panting savage ,aida4 ,also1 the palpitating1 elemental ,tosca calls for another type of character painting than1 for instance1 the modest1 gestureless1 timid and womanly ,japanese girl in ,mascagni's ,iris4 ,these things are not taught in schools by teachers4 ,they come only after the prolonged study which every conscientious artist must give to her roles4 ,gounod felt this very strongly and impressed it upon me4 ,all music had a meaning to him--an inner meaning which the great mind invariably divines through a kind of artistic intuition difficult to define4 ,i remember his playing to me the last act of ,don ,giovanni1 which in his hands gained the grandeur and depth of ,greek tragedy4 ,he had in his hands the power to thrill one to the very utmost4 ,again he was keenly delighted with the most joyous passages in music4 ,he was exceptionally fond of ,mozart4 ,le ,nozze di ,figaro was especially appreciated4 ,he used to say1 after accompanying himself in the aria of ,cherubino the ,page1 from the #ast act1 ,isn't that ,spring8 ,isn't that youth8 ,isn't that the joy of life8 ,how marvelously ,mozart has crystallized this wonderful exuberant spirit in his music6 ,,one ,,reason ,,for ,,gounod',s ,,eminence ,one reason for ,gounod's eminence lay in his great reverence for his art4 ,he believed in the cultivation of reverence for one's art1 as the religious devotee has reverence for his cult4 ,to ,gounod his art was a religion4 ,to use a very expressive colloquialism1 ,he never felt himself above his job4 ,time and again we meet men and women who make it a habit to look down upon their work as though they were superior to it4 ,they are continually apologizing to their friends and depreciating their occupation4 ,such people seem foreordained for failure4 ,if one can not regard the work one is engaged upon with the greatest earnestness and respect--if one can not feel that the work is worthy of one's deepest reverence1 one can accomplish little4 ,i have seen so much of this with students and aspiring musicians that ,i feel that ,i would be missing a big opportunity if ,i did not emphasize this fine trait in ,gounod's character4 ,i know of one man in particular who has been going down and down every year largely because he has never considered anything he has had to do as worthy of his best efforts4 ,he has always been above his job4 ,if you are dissatisfied with your work1 seek out something that you think is really deserving of your labor1 something commensurate with your idea of a serious dignified occupation in which you feel that you may do your best work4 ,in most cases1 however1 it is not a matter of occupation but an attitude of mind--the difference between an earnest dignified worker and one who finds it more comfortable to evade work4 ,this is true in music as in everything else4 ,if you can make your musical work a cult as ,gounod did1 if you have talent--vision--ah6 how few have vision1 how few can really and truly see--if you have the understanding which comes through vision1 there is no artistic height which you may not climb4 ,one can not hope to give a portrait of ,gounod in so short an interview4 ,one can only point out a few of his most distinguishing features4 ,one who enjoyed his magnificent friendship can only look upon it as a hallowed memory4 ,after all1 ,gounod has written himself into his own music and it is to that we must go if we would know his real nature4 ,,mme4 ,,florence ,,easton ,,biographical ,mme4 ,florence ,easton was born at ,middleborough1 ,yorkshire1 ,england1 ,oct4 #be1 #ahhg4 ,at a very early age she was taken to ,toronto1 ,canada1 by her parents1 who were both accomplished singers4 ,she was given a musical training in youth with the view of making her a concert pianist4 ,her teacher was ,j4 ,a4 ,d4 ,tripp1 and at the age of eleven she appeared in concert4 ,her vocal talents were discovered and she was sent to the ,royal ,academy at ,london1 ,england1 where her teachers were ,reddy and ,mme4 ,agnes ,larkom1 a pupil of ,garcia4 ,she then went to ,paris and studied under ,eliot ,haslam1 an ,english teacher resident in the ,french metropolis4 ,she then took small parts in the well-known ,english ,opera organization1 the ,moody-,manners ,company1 acquiring a large repertoire in ,english4 ,with her husband1 ,francis ,maclennen1 she came to ,america to take the leading roles in the ,savage production of ,parsifal1 remaining to sing the next season in ,madama ,butterfly4 ,the couple were then engaged to sing for six years at the ,berlin ,royal ,opera and became wonderfully successful4 ,after three years at ,hamburg and two years with the ,chicago ,opera ,company she was engaged for dramatic roles at the ,metropolitan1 and has become a great favorite4 ,illustration3 ,,mme4 ,,florence ,,easton4 7,c7 ,mishkin4 ,,the ,,open ,,door ,,to ,,opera ,,mme4 ,,florence ,,easton ,what is the open door to opera in ,america8 ,is there an open door1 and if not1 how can one be made8 ,who may go through that door and what are the terms of admission8 ,these are questions which thousands of young ,american opera aspirants are asking just now4 ,the prospect of singing at a great opera house is so alluring and the reward in money is often so great that students center their attentions upon the grand prize and are willing to take a chance of winning1 even though they know that only one in a very few may succeed and then often at bitter sacrifice4 ,the question is a most interesting one to me1 as ,i think that ,i know what the open door to opera in this country might be--what it may be if enough patriotic ,americans could be found to cut through the hard walls of materialism1 conventionalism and indifference4 ,it lies through the small opera company--the only real and great school which the opera singer of the future can have4 ,,the ,,school ,,of ,,prime ,,donne ,in ,european countries there are innumerable small companies capable of giving good opera which the people enjoy quite as thoroughly as the metropolitan audiences of the world enjoy the opera which commands the best singers of the times4 ,for years these small opera companies have been the training schools of the great singers4 ,not to have gone through such a school was as damaging an admission as that of not having gone through a college would be to a college professor applying for a new position4 ,lilli ,lehmann1 ,schumann-,heink1 ,ruffo1 ,campanini1 ,jenny ,lind1 ,patti1 all are graduates of these schools of practice4 ,in ,america there seems to have existed for years a kind of prejudice1 bred of ignorance1 against all opera companies except those employing all-star casts in the biggest theatres in the biggest cities4 ,this existed1 despite the fact that these secondary opera companies often put on opera that was superior to the best that was to be heard in some ,italian1 ,german and ,french cities which possessed opera companies that stood very high in the estimation of ,americans who had never heard them4 ,it was once actually the case that the fact that a singer had once sung in a smaller opera company prevented her from aspiring to sing in a great opera company4 ,america1 however1 has become very much better informed and much more independent in such matters1 and our opera goers are beginning to resemble ,european audiences in that they let their ears and their common sense determine what is best rather than their prejudices and their conventions regarding reputation4 ,it was actually the case at one time in ,america that a singer with a great reputation could command a large audience1 whereas a singer of far greater ability and infinitely better voice might be shut out because she had once sung in an opera company not as pretentious as those in the big cities4 ,this seemed very comic indeed to many ,european singers1 who laughed in their coat sleeves over the real situation4 ,in the first place1 the small companies in many cities would provide more singers with opportunities for training and public appearances4 ,the ,united ,states now has two or three major opera companies4 ,count up on your fingers the greatest number of singers who could be accommodated with parts3 only once or twice in a decade does the young singer1 at the age when the best formative work must be done1 have a chance to attain the leading roles4 ,if we had in ,america ten or twenty smaller opera companies of real merit1 the chances would be greatly multiplied4 ,the first thing that the singer has to fight is stage fright4 ,no matter how well you may know a role in a studio1 unless you are a very extraordinary person you are likely to take months in acquiring the stage freedom and ease in working before an audience4 ,there is only one cure for stage fright1 and that is to appear continually until it wears off4 ,many deserving singers have lost their great chances because they have depended upon what they have learned in the studio1 only to find that when they went before a great and critical audience their ability was suddenly reduced to #aj per cent41 if not to zero4 ,even after years of practice and experience in great ,european opera houses where ,i appeared repeatedly before royalty1 the reputation of the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house in ,new ,york was so great that at the time ,i made my debut there ,i was so afflicted by stage fright that my voice was actually reduced to one-half of its force and my other abilities accordingly4 ,this is the truth1 and ,i am glad to have young singers know it as it emphasizes my point4 ,imagine what the effect would have been upon a young singer who had never before sung in public on the stage4 ,footlight paralysis is one of the most terrifying of all acute diseases and there is no cure for it but experience4 ,,the ,,best ,,beginning ,in the ,moody ,manners ,company in ,england1 the directors wisely understood this situation and prepared for it4 ,all the singers scheduled to take leading roles 7and they were for the most part very young singers1 since when the singer became experienced enough she was immediately stolen by companies paying higher salaries7 were expected to go for a certain time in the chorus 7not to sing1 just to walk off and on the stage7 until familiar with the situation4 ,accordingly1 my first appearance with the ,moody ,manners ,company was when ,i walked out with the chorus4 ,i have never heard of this being done deliberately by any other managers1 but think how sensible it is6 ,again1 it is far more advantageous for the young singer to appear in the smaller opera house at first1 so that if any errors are made the opera goers will not be unforgiving4 ,there is no tragedy greater than throwing a young girl into an operatic situation far greater than her experience and ability can meet1 and then condemning her for years because she did not rise to the occasion4 ,this has happened many times in recent years4 ,ambition is a beautiful thing2 but when ambition induces one to walk upon a tight rope over ,niagara1 without having first learned to walk properly on earth1 ambition should be restrained4 ,i can recollect several singers who were widely heralded at their first performances by enthusiastic admirers1 who are now no longer known4 ,what has become of them8 ,is it not better to learn the profession of opera singing in its one great school1 and learn it so thoroughly that one can advance in the profession1 just as one may advance in every other profession8 ,the singer in the small opera company who1 night after night1 says to herself1 ,to-morrow it must be better1 is the one who will be the ,lilli ,lehmann1 the ,galli-,curci1 or the ,schumann-,heink of to-morrow2 not the important person who insists upon postponing her debut until she can appear at the ,metropolitan or at ,covent ,garden4 ,colonel ,henry ,w4 ,savage did ,america an immense service1 as did the ,aborn ,brothers and ,fortune ,gallo1 in helping to create a popular taste for opera presented in a less pretentious form4 ,america needs such companies and needs them badly1 not merely to educate the public up to an appreciation of the fact that the finest operatic performances in the world are now being given at the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house1 but to help provide us with well-schooled singers for the future4 ,,necessity ,,of ,,routine ,nothing can take the place of routine in learning operas4 ,many1 many opera singers ,i have known seem to be woefully lacking in it4 ,in learning a new opera1 ,i learn all the parts that have anything to do with the part ,i am expected to sing4 ,in other words1 ,i find it very inadvisable to depend upon cues4 ,there are so many disturbing things constantly occurring on the stage to throw one off one's track4 ,for instance1 when ,i made my first appearance in ,mascagni's ,lodoletta ,i was obliged to go on with only twenty-four hours' notice1 without rehearsal1 in an opera ,i had seen produced only once4 ,i had studied the role only two weeks4 ,while on the stage ,i was so entranced with the wonderful singing of ,mr4 ,caruso that ,i forgot to come in at the right time4 ,he said to me quickly sotto voce-- ,canta6 ,canta6 ,canta6 ,and my routine drill of the part enabled me to come in without letting the audience know of my error4 ,the mere matter of getting the voice to go with the orchestra1 as well as that of identifying cues heard in the unusual quality of the orchestral instruments 7so different from the tone quality of the piano71 is most confusing1 and only routine can accustom one to being ready to meet all of these strange conditions4 ,one is supposed to keep an eye on the conductor practically all of the time while singing4 ,the best singers are those who never forget this1 but do it so artfully that the audience never suspects4 ,many singers follow the conductor's baton so conspicuously that they give the appearance of monkeys on a string4 ,this1 of course1 is highly ludicrous4 ,i don't know of any way of overcoming it but experience4 ,yes1 there is another great help1 and that is musicianship4 ,the conductor who knows that an artist is a musician in fact1 is immensely relieved and always very appreciative4 ,singers should learn as much about the technical side of music as possible4 ,learning to play the violin or the piano1 and learning to play it well is invaluable4 ,,watching ,,for ,,opportunities ,the singer must be ever on the alert for opportunities to advance4 ,this is largely a matter of preparation4 ,if one is capable1 the opportunities usually come4 ,i wonder if ,i may relate a little incident which occurred to me in ,germany long before the war4 ,i had been singing in ,berlin1 when the impresario of the ,royal ,opera approached me and asked me if ,i could sing ,aida on a following ,monday4 ,i realized that if ,i admitted that ,i had never sung ,aida before1 the thoroughgoing1 matter-of-fact ,german ,intendant would never even let me have a chance4 ,emmy ,destinn was then the prima donna at the ,royal ,opera1 and had been taken ill4 ,the post was one of the operatic plums of all ,europe4 ,before ,i knew it1 ,i had said ,yes1 ,i can sing ,aida4 ,it was a white lie1 and once told1 ,i had to live up to it4 ,i had never sung ,aida1 and only knew part of it4 ,running home ,i worked all night long to learn the last act4 ,over and over the role hundreds and hundreds of times ,i went1 until it seemed as though my eyes would drop out of my head4 ,monday night came1 and thanks to my routine experience in smaller companies1 ,i had learned ,aida so that ,i was perfectly confident of it4 ,imagine the strain1 however1 when ,i learned that the ,kaiser and the court were to be present4 ,at the end ,i was called before the ,kaiser1 who1 after warmly complimenting me1 gave me the greatly coveted post in his opera house4 ,i do not believe that he ever found out that the little ,toronto girl had actually fibbed her way into an opportunity4 ,,tales ,,of ,,strauss ,strauss was one of the leading conductors while ,i was at the ,royal ,opera and ,i sang under his baton many1 many times4 ,he was a real genius1--in that once his art work was completed1 his interest immediately centered upon the next4 ,once while we were performing ,rosenkavalier he came behind the scenes and said3 ,will this awfully long opera never end8 ,i want to go home4 ,i said to him1 ,but ,doctor1 you composed it yourself1 and he said1 ,yes1 but ,i never meant to conduct it4 ,let it be explained that ,strauss was an inveterate player of the ,german card game1 ,scat1 and would far rather seek a quiet corner with a few choice companions than go through one of his own works night after night4 ,however1 whenever the creative instinct was at work he let nothing impede it4 ,i remember seeing him write upon his cuffs 7no doubt some passing theme7 during a performance of ,meistersinger he was conducting4 ,,the ,,singer',s ,,greatest ,,need ,the singer's greatest need1 or his greatest asset if he has one1 is an honest critic4 ,my husband and ,i have made it a point never to miss hearing one another sing1 no matter how many times we have heard each other sing in a role4 ,sometimes1 after a big performance1 it is very hard to have to be told about all the things that one did not do well1 but that is the only way to improve4 ,there are always many people to tell one the good things1 but ,i feel that the biggest help that ,i have had through my career has been the help of my husband1 because he has always told me the places where ,i could improve1 so that every performance ,i had something new to think about4 ,an artist never stands still4 ,he either goes forward or backward and1 of course1 the only way to get to the top is by going forward4 ,the difficulty in ,america is in giving the young singers a chance after their voices are placed4 ,if only we could have a number of excellent stock opera companies1 even though there had to be a few traveling stars after the manner of the old dramatic companies1 where everybody had to start at the bottom and work his way up1 because with a lovely voice1 talent and perseverance anyone can get to the top if one has a chance to work4 ,by work ,i mean singing as many new roles as possible and as often as possible and not starting at a big opera house singing perhaps two or three times during a season4 ,just think of it1--the singer at a small opera house has more chance to learn in two months than the beginner at a big opera house might have in five years4 ,after all1 the thing that is most valuable to a singer is time1 as with time the voice will diminish in beauty4 ,getting to the top via the big opera house is the work of a lifetime1 and the golden tones are gone before one really has an opportunity to do one's best work4 ,illustration3 ,,geraldine ,,farrar4 ,,geraldine ,,farrar ,,biographical ,although one of the youngest of the noted ,american singers1 none has achieved such an extensive international reputation as ,miss ,farrar4 ,born ,february #bh1 #ahhb1 in ,melrose1 ,mass41 she was educated at the public schools in that city4 ,at the school age she became the pupil of ,mrs4 ,j4 ,h4 ,long1 in ,boston4 ,after studying with several teachers1 including ,emma ,thursby1 in ,new ,york1 and ,trabadello1 in ,paris1 she went to ,lilli ,lehmann in ,berlin1 and under this1 the greatest of dramatic singers of her time1 ,miss ,farrar received a most thorough and careful training in all the elements of her art4 ,she made her debut as ,marguerite in ,faust at the ,royal ,opera in ,berlin1 ,october #aeth1 #aija4 ,later1 after touring ,european cities with ever increasing successes1 she was engaged at the ,opera ,comique and ,grand ,opera1 ,paris1 and then at the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house in ,new ,york1 where she has been the leading soprano for many seasons4 ,the many enticing offers made for appearances in moving pictures led to a new phase of her career4 ,in many pictures she has appeared with her husband1 ,m4 ,lou ,tellegen1 one of the most distinguished actors of the ,french school1 who at one time was the leading man for ,sarah ,bernhardt4 ,the following conference is rich in advice to any young woman who desires to know what she must do in order to become a prima donna4 ,,what ,,must ,i ,,go ,,through ,,to ,,become ,a ,,prima ,,donna8 ,,mme4 ,,geraldine ,,farrar ,what must ,i do to become a prima donna8 ,let us reverse the usual method of discussing the question and begin with the artist upon the stage in a great opera house like the ,metropolitan in ,new ,york1 on a gala night1 every seat sold and hundreds standing4 ,it is a modern opera with a heavy score4 ,what is the first consideration of the singer8 ,primarily1 an artist in grand opera must sing in some fashion to insure the proper projection of her role across the large spaces of the all-too-large auditoriums4 ,those admirable requisites of clear diction1 facial expression and emotional appeal will be sadly hampered unless the medium of sound carries their message4 ,it is only from sad experience that one among many rises superior to some of the disadvantages of our modern opera repertoire4 ,gone are the days when the facile vocalist was supported by a small group of musicians intent upon a discreet accompaniment for the benefit of the singer's vocal exertions4 ,voices trained for the older repertoire were not at the mercy of an enlarged orchestra pit1 wherein the over-zealous gentlemen now fight--furioso ad libitum--for the supremacy of operatic effects4 ,an amiable musical observer once asked me why we all shouted so in opera4 ,i replied by a question1 asking if he had ever made an after-dinner speech4 ,he acquiesced4 ,i asked him how many times he rapped on the table for attention and silence4 ,he admitted it was rather often4 ,i asked him why4 ,he said1 so that he might be heard4 ,he answered his own question by conceding that the carrying timbre of a voice cannot compete successfully against even banquet hall festivities unless properly focused out of a normal speaking tone4 ,the difference between a small room and one seating several hundred is far greater than the average auditor realizes4 ,if the mere rattling of silver and china will eclipse this vocal effort in speech ,i leave to your imagination what must transpire when the singer is called upon to dominate with one thread of song the tremendous onslaught of an orchestra and to rise triumphant above it in a theater so large that the faithful gatherers in the gallery tell me we all look like pigmies1 and half the time are barely heard4 ,since the recesses where we must perform are so exaggerated everything must be in like proportion1 hence we are very often too noisy1 but how can it be otherwise if we are to influence the eager taxpayer in row ,x8 ,after all1 he has not come to hear us whisper1 and his point of vantage is not so admirable as if he were sitting at a musical comedy in a small theater4 ,for this condition the size of the theater and the instrumentation imposed by the composer are to be censured1 and less blame placed upon the overburdened shoulders of the vocal competitor against these odds4 ,little shading in operatic tone color is possible unless an accompanying phrase permits it or the trumpeter swallows a pin6 ,,lucia ,,or ,,zaza ,if your repertoire is ,the ,barber1 ,lucia1 ,somnambula and all such ,italian dainties1 well and good4 ,nothing need disturb the complete enjoyment of this lace-work4 ,but if your auditors weep at ,butterfly and ,zaza or thrill to ,pagliacci1 they demand you use a quite different technic1 which comes to the point of my story4 ,i believe it was ,jean de ,reszke who advocated the voice in the mask united to breath support from the diaphragm4 ,from personal observation ,i should say our coloratura charmers lay small emphasis on that highly important factor and use their head voices with a freedom more or less ,god given4 ,but the power and life-giving quality of this fundamental cannot be too highly estimated for us who must color our phrases to suit modern dramatics and evolve a carrying quality that will not only eliminate the difficulty of vocal demands1 but at the same time insure immunity from harmful after-effects4 ,this indispensable twin of the head voice is the dynamo which alone must endure all the necessary fatigue1 leaving the actual voice phrases free to float unrestricted with no ignoble distortions or possible signs of distress4 ,alas6 it is not easy to write of this1 but the experience of years proves how vital a point is its saving grace and how1 unfortunately1 it remains an unknown factor to many4 ,to note two of our finest examples of greatness in this marvelous profession1 ,lilli ,lehmann and ,jean de ,reszke1 neither of whom had phenomenal vocal gifts1 ,i would point out their remarkable mental equipment1 unceasing and passionate desire for perfection1 paired with an unerring instinct for the noble and distinguished such as has not been found in other exponents of purely vocal virtuosity1 with a few rare exceptions1 as ,melba and ,galli-,curci1 for instance1 to mention two beautiful instruments of our generation4 ,the singing art is not a casual inspiration and it should never be treated as such4 ,the real artist will have an organized mental strategy just as minute and reliable as any intricate machinery1 and will under all circumstances 7save complete physical disability7 be able to control and dominate her gifts to their fullest extent4 ,this is not learned in a few years within the four walls of a studio1 but is the result of a lifetime of painstaking care and devotion4 ,there was a time when ambition and overwork so told upon me that mistakenly ,i allowed myself to minimize my vocal practice4 ,how wrong that was ,i found out in short time and ,i have returned long since to my earlier precepts as taught me by ,lilli ,lehmann4 ,,keep ,,the ,,voice ,,strong ,,and ,,flexible ,in her book1 ,how to ,sing1 there is much for the student to digest with profit1 though possible reservations are advisable1 dependent upon one's individual health and vocal resistance4 ,her strong conviction was1 and is1 that a voice requires daily and conscientious exercise to keep it strong and flexible4 ,having successfully mastered the older ,italian roles as a young singer1 her incursion into the later-day dramatic and classic repertoire in no wise became an excuse to let languish the fundamental idea of beautiful sound4 ,how vitally important and admirably bel canto sustained by the breath support has served her is readily understood when one remembers that she has outdistanced all the colleagues of her earlier career and now well over sixty1 she is as indefatigable in her daily practice as we younger singers should be4 ,this brief extract about ,patti 7again quoting ,lilli ,lehmann7 will furnish an interesting comparison3 ,in ,adelina ,patti everything was united--the splendid voice paired with great talent for singing1 and the long oversight of her studies by her distinguished teacher1 ,strakosch4 ,she never sang roles that did not suit her voice2 in her earlier years she sang only arias and duets or single solos1 never taking part in ensembles4 ,she never sang even her limited repertory when she was indisposed4 ,she never attended rehearsals1 but came to the theater in the evening and sang triumphantly1 without ever having seen the persons who sang or acted with her4 ,she spared herself rehearsals1 which1 on the day of the performance or the day before1 exhaust all singers because of the excitement of all kinds attending them1 and which contribute neither to the freshness of the voice nor to the joy of the profession4 ,although she was a ,spaniard by birth and an ,american by early adoption1 she was1 so to speak1 the greatest ,italian singer of my time4 ,all was absolutely good1 correct and flawless1 the voice like a bell that you seemed to hear long after its singing had ceased4 ,yet she could give no explanation of her art1 and answered all her colleagues' questions concerning it with ,ah1 je n'en sais rien6 ,she possessed unconsciously1 as a gift of nature1 a union of all those qualities that other singers must attain and possess consciously4 ,her vocal organs stood in the most favorable relations to each other4 ,her talent and her remarkably trained ear maintained control over the beauty of her singing and her voice4 ,fortunate circumstances of her life preserved her from all injury4 ,the purity and flawlessness of her tone1 the beautiful equalization of her whole voice constituted the magic by which she held her listeners entranced4 ,moreover1 she was beautiful and gracious in appearance4 ,the accent of great dramatic power she did not possess1 yet ,i ascribe this more to her intellectual indolence than to her lack of ability4 ,but how few of us would ever make a career if we waited for such favors from ,nature6 ,,lessons ,,must ,,be ,,adequate ,bearing in mind the absolute necessity and real joy in vocal work1 it confounds and amazes me that teachers of this art feel their duty has been accomplished when they donate twenty minutes or half an hour to a pupil6 ,i do not honestly believe this is a fair exchange1 and it is certainly not within reason to believe that within so short a time a pupil can actually benefit by the concentration and instruction so hastily conferred upon her4 ,if this be very plain speaking1 it is said with the object to benefit the pupil only1 for it is1 after all1 they who must pay the ultimate in success or failure4 ,an hour devoted to the minute needs of one pupil is not too much time to devote to so delicate a subject4 ,an intelligent taskmaster will let his pupil demonstrate ten or fifteen minutes and during the same period of rest will discuss and awaken the pupil's interest from an intelligent point of view1 that some degree of individuality may color even the drudgery of the classroom4 ,a word of counsel from such a mistress of song as ,lehmann or ,sembrich is priceless1 but the sums that pour into greedy pockets of vocal mechanics1 not to say a harsher word1 is a regretable proceeding4 ,too many mediocrities are making sounds4 ,too many of the same class are trying to instruct1 but1 as in politics1 the real culprit is the people4 ,as long as the public forbear an intelligent protest in this direction1 just so long will the studios be crowded with pathetic seekers for fame4 ,what employment these infatuated individuals enjoyed before the advent of grand opera and the movies became a possible exhaust pipe for their vanity is not clear1 but they certainly should be discouraged4 ,new ,york alone is crowded with aspirants for the stage1 and their little bag of tricks is of very slender proportions4 ,let us do everything in our power to help the really worthy talent2 but it is a mistaken charity1 and not patriotic1 to shove singers and composers so called1 of ,american birth1 upon a weary public which perceives nothing except the fact that they are of native birth and have no talent to warrant such assumption4 ,i do not think the musical observers are doing the cause of art in this country a favor when columns are written about the inferior works of the non-gifted4 ,an ambitious effort is all right in its way1 but that is no reason to connect the ill-advised production with ,american hopes4 ,on the contrary1 it does us a bad turn4 ,i shall still contend that the ,english language is not a pretty one for our vocal exploitations1 and within my experience of the past ten years ,i have heard but one ,american work which ,i can sincerely say would have given me pleasure to create1 that same being ,mr4 ,henry ,hadley's recently produced ,cleopatra's ,night4 ,his score is rich and deserving of the highest praise4 ,in closing ,i should like to quote again from ,mme4 ,lehmann's book an exercise that would seem to fulfill a long-felt want3 ,the great scale is the most necessary exercise for all kinds of voices4 ,it was taught me by my mother4 ,she taught it to all her pupils and to us4 ,here is the scale as ,lehmann taught it to me4 ,illustration3 musical notation3 ,breath ,breath ,breath ,breath ,it was sung upon all the principal vowels4 ,it was extended stepwise through different keys over the entire range of the two octaves of the voice4 ,it was not her advice to practice it too softly1 but it was done with all the resonating organs well supported by the diaphragm1 the tone in a very supple and elastic watery state4 ,she would think nothing of devoting from forty minutes to sixty minutes a day to the slow practice of this exercise4 ,of course1 she would treat what one might call a heavy brunette voice quite differently from a bright blonde voice4 ,these terms of blonde and brunette1 of course1 have nothing to do with the complexion of the individual1 but to the color of the voice4 ,,the ,,only ,,cure ,lehmann said of this scale3 ,it is the only cure for all injuries1 and at the same time the most excellent means of fortification against all over-exertion4 ,i sing it every day1 often twice1 even if ,i have to sing one of the heaviest roles in the evening4 ,i can rely absolutely upon its assistance4 ,i often take fifty minutes to go through it once1 for ,i let no tone pass that is lacking in any degree in pitch1 power1 duration or in single vibration of the propagation form4 ,personally ,i supplement this great scale often with various florid legato phrases of arias selected from the older ,italians or ,mozart1 whereby ,i can more easily achieve the vocal facility demanded by the tessitura of ,manon or ,faust and change to the darker-hued phrases demanded in ,carmen or ,butterfly4 ,but the open secret of all success is patient1 never-ending1 conscientious work1 with a forceful emphasis on the ,,work4 ,illustration3 ,,johanna ,,gadski4 ,,mme4 ,,johanna ,,gadski ,,biographical ,mme4 ,gadski was born at ,anclam1 ,prussia1 ,june #ae1 #ahgb4 ,her studies in singing were principally with ,mme4 ,schroeder-,chaloupha4 ,when she was ten years old she sang successfully in concert at ,stettin4 ,her operatic debut was made in ,berlin1 in #ahhi1 in ,weber's ,der ,freischutz4 ,she then appeared in the opera houses of ,bremen and ,mayence4 ,in #ahid ,dr4 ,walter ,damrosch organized his opera company in ,new ,york and engaged ,mme4 ,gadski for leading roles4 ,in #ahih she became high dramatic soprano with the ,metropolitan ,opera ,company in ,new ,york1 and the following year appeared at ,covent ,garden4 ,she was constantly developing as a singer of ,wagner roles1 notably ,brunhilde and ,isolde4 ,her repertoire included forty roles in all1 and the demand for her appearance at festivals here and abroad became more and more insistent4 ,she sang at the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house in ,new ,york until #aiag1 when the notoriety caused by the activities of her husband1 ,captain ,hans ,tauscher1 ,american agent for large ,german weapon manufacturers1 forced her to resign4 ,mme4 ,gadski made a close study of the ,schumann ,songs for years2 and the following can not fail to be of artistic assistance to the singer4 ,,the ,,master ,,songs ,,of ,,robert ,,schumann ,,mme4 ,,johanna ,,gadski ,,robert ,,schumann',s ,,lyric ,,gift ,one cannot delve very far into the works of ,schumann without discovering that his gifts are peculiarly lyric4 ,his melodic fecundity is all the more remarkable because of his strong originality4 ,even in many of his piano pieces1 such as ,warum81 ,traeumerei or the famous ,slumber ,song1 the lyric character is evident4 ,beautiful melodies which seem to lend themselves to the peculiar requirements of vocal music crop up every now and then in all his works4 ,this is by no means the case with many of the other great masters4 ,in some of ,beethoven's songs1 for instance1 one can never lose sight of the fact that they are instrumental pieces4 ,it was ,schumann's particular privilege to be gifted with the acute sense of proportion which enabled him to estimate just what kind of an accompaniment a melody should have4 ,naturally some of his songs stand out far above others2 and in these the music lover and vocal student will notice that there is usually a beautiful artistic balance between the accompaniment and the melody4 ,another characteristic is the sense of propriety with which ,schumann connected his melodies with the thought of the poems he employed4 ,this is doubtless due to the extensive literary training he himself enjoyed4 ,it was impossible for a man of ,schumann's life experience to apply an inappropriate melody to any given poem4 ,with some song writers1 this is by no means the case4 ,the music of one song would fit almost any other set of words having the same poetic metre4 ,schumann was continually seeking after a distinctive atmosphere1 and this it is which gives many of his works their lasting charm4 ,,the ,,intimate ,,and ,,delicate ,,character ,,of ,,schumann ,,songs ,most of the greater ,schumann songs are of a deliciously ultimate and delicate character4 ,by this no one should infer that they are weak or spineless4 ,schumann was a deep student of psychology and of human life4 ,in the majority of cases he eschewed the melodramatic4 ,it is true that we have at least one song1 ,the ,two ,grenadiers1 which is melodramatic in the extreme2 but this1 according to the greatest judges1 is not ,schumann at his best4 ,it was the particular delight of ,schumann to take some intense little poem and apply to it a musical setting crowded full of deep poetical meaning4 ,again1 he liked to paint musical pastels such as ,im wunderschoenen ,monat ,mai1 ,fruehlingsnacht and ,der ,nussbaum4 ,these songs are redolent with the fragrance of out-of-doors4 ,there is not one jarring note4 ,the indefinable beauty and inspiration of the fields and forests have been caught by the master and imprisoned forever in this wonderful music4 ,im wunderschoenen ,monat ,mai1 which comes from the ,dichterliebe cycle1 is indescribably delicate4 ,it should be sung with great lightness and simplicity4 ,any effort toward a striving for effect would ruin this exquisite gem4 ,fruehlingsnacht with its wonderful accompaniment1 which ,franz ,liszt thought so remarkable that he combined the melody and the accompaniment1 with but slight alterations1 and made a piano piece of the whole--is a difficult song to sing properly4 ,if the singer does not catch the effervescent character of the song as a whole1 the effect is lost4 ,any dragging of the tones destroys the wonderful exuberance which ,schumann strove to connote4 ,the balance between the singer and the accompanist must be perfect1 and woe be to the singer who tries to sing ,fruehlingsnacht with a lumbering accompanist4 ,der ,nussbaum is one of the most effective and thankful of all the ,schumann songs4 ,experienced public singers almost invariably win popular appreciation with this song4 ,it is probably my favorite of all the ,schumann songs4 ,here again delicacy and simplicity reign supreme4 ,in fact simplicity in interpretation is the great requirement of all the art songs4 ,the amateur singer seems to be continually trying to secure effect with these songs and the only result of this is affectation4 ,if amateurs could only realize how hard the really great masters tried to avoid results that were to be secured by the cheap methods of affectation and show1 they would make their singing more simple4 ,success in singing art songs comes through the ability of the artist to bring out the psychic1 poetical and musical meaning of the song4 ,there is no room for cheap vocal virtuosity4 ,the great songs bear the sacred message of the best and finest in art4 ,they represent the conscientious devotion of their composers to their loftiest ideals4 ,i have mentioned three songs which are representative1 but there are numberless other songs which reveal the intimate and personal character of ,schumann's works4 ,one popular mistake regarding these songs which is quite prevalent is that of thinking that they can only be sung in tiny rooms and never in large auditoriums4 ,time and again ,i have achieved some of the best results ,i have ever secured on the concert stage with delicate intimate works sung before audiences of thousands of people4 ,the size of the auditorium has practically nothing to do with the song4 ,the method of delivery is everything4 ,if the song is properly and thoughtfully delivered1 the audience1 though it be one of thousands1 will sit quiet as mice and listen reverently to the end4 ,however1 if one of these songs were to be sung in a flamboyant1 bombastic manner1 by some singer infected with the idea that in order to impress a multitude of people an exaggerated style is necessary1 the results would be ruinous4 ,if overdone1 they are never appreciated4 ,art is art4 ,rembrandt in one of his master paintings exhibits just the right artistic balance4 ,a copy of the same painting might become a mere daub1 with a few twists of some bungling amateur's brush4 ,let the young singer remember that the results that are the most difficult to get in singing the art song are not those by which she may hope to make a sensational impression by means of show1 but those which depend first and always upon sincerity1 simplicity and a deep study of the real meaning of the masterpiece4 ,,the ,,love ,,interest ,,in ,,the ,,schumann ,,songs ,up to the time ,schumann was thirty years of age 7#ahdj71 his compositions were confined to works for the piano4 ,these piano works include some of the very greatest and most inspired of his compositions for the instrument4 ,in #ahdj ,schumann married ,clara ,wieck1 daughter of his former pianoforte teacher4 ,this marriage was accomplished only after the most severe opposition imaginable upon the part of the irate father-in-law1 who was loath to see his daughter1 whom he had trained to be one of the foremost pianists of her sex1 marry an obscure composer4 ,the effect of this opposition was to raise ,schumann's affection to the condition of a kind of fanaticism4 ,all this made a pronounced impression upon his art and seemed to make him long for expression through the medium of his love songs4 ,he wrote to a friend at this time1 ,i am now writing nothing but songs great and small4 ,i can hardly tell you how delightful it is to write for the voice1 as compared with instrumental composition2 and what a tumult and strife ,i feel within me as ,i sit down to it4 ,i have brought forth quite new things in this line4 ,in letters to his wife he is quite as impassioned over his song writing as the following quotations indicate3 ,since yesterday morning1 ,i have written twenty-seven pages of music 7something new of which ,i can tell you nothing more than that ,i have laughed and wept for joy in composing them74 ,when ,i composed them my soul was within yours4 ,without such a bride1 indeed no one could write such music2 once more ,i have composed so much that it seems almost uncanny4 ,alas6 ,i cannot help it3 ,i could sing myself to death like a nightingale4 ,during the first year of his marriage ,schumann wrote one hundred of the two hundred and forty-five songs that are attributed to him4 ,in the published collections of his works1 there are three songs attributed to ,schumann which are known to be from the pen of his talented wife4 ,as in his piano compositions ,schumann avoided long pieces and preferred collections of comparatively short pieces1 such as those in the ,carnaval1 ,kreisleriana1 ,papillons1 so in his early works for the voice ,schumann chose to write short songs which were grouped in the form of cycles4 ,seven of these cycles are particularly well known4 ,they are here given together with the best known songs from each group4 ,cycle ,songs ,liederkreis ,ich wandelte unter den ,baeumen4 ,mit ,myrthen und ,rosen4 ,die ,lotusblume4 ,myrthen ,lass mich ihm am ,busen hangen4 ,du bist wie eine ,blume4 ,der ,nussbaum4 ,eichendorff ,liederkreis ,waldesgespraech4 ,fruehlingsnacht4 ,wanderlust4 ,kerner ,cycle ,frage4 ,stille ,thraenen4 ,o1 ,ring an meinem ,finger4 ,frauenliebe und ,leben ,er1 der ,herrlichste von ,allen4 ,ich grolle nicht4 ,dichterliebe ,im wunderschoenen ,mai4 ,ich hab' im ,traum geweinet4 ,three of the songs in this ,liebesfruehling ,cycle are attributed to ,clara ,schumann4 ,critics seem to be agreed that ,schumann's talent gradually deteriorated as his mental disease increased4 ,consequently1 with but few exceptions his best song works are to be found among his early vocal compositions4 ,i have tried repeatedly to bring forth some of the lesser known songs of ,schumann and have time and again devoted long periods to their study1 but apparently the public1 by an unmistakable indication of lack of approval1 will have none of them4 ,evidently1 the songs by which ,schumann is now best known are his best works from the standpoint of popular appreciation4 ,popular approval taken in the aggregate is a mighty determining factor4 ,the survival of the fittest applies to songs as well as to other things in life4 ,this is particularly so in the case of the four famous songs1 ,die beiden ,grenadiere1 ,widmung1 ,der ,nussbaum and ,ich grolle nicht1 which never seem to diminish in popularity4 ,,schumann',s ,,love ,,for ,,the ,,romantic ,schumann's fervid imagination readily led to a love for the romantic4 ,his early fondness for the works of ,jean ,paul developed into a kind of life tendency1 which resulted in winning him the title of the ,tone-,poet of ,romanticism4 ,few of his songs1 however1 are really dramatic4 ,waldesgespraech1 which ,robert ,franz called a pianoforte piece with a voice part added1 is probably the best of ,schumann's dramatic-romantic songs4 ,i have always found that audiences are very partial to this song2 and it may be sung by a female voice as well as the male voice4 ,the ,two ,grenadiers is strictly a man's song4 ,ich grolle nicht1 while sung mostly by men1 may1 like the ,erl-,king of ,schubert1 be sung quite as successfully by women singers possessing the qualities of depth and dramatic intensity4 ,,peculiar ,,difficulties ,,in ,,interpreting ,,schumann ,,songs ,i have already mentioned the necessity for simplicity in connection with the interpretation of the ,schumann songs4 ,i need not tell the readers of these pages that the proper interpretation of these songs requires a much more extensive and difficult kind of preparatory work than the more showy coloratura works which to the novice often seem vastly more difficult4 ,the very simplicity of the ,schubert and ,schumann songs makes them more difficult to sing properly than the works of writers who adopted a somewhat more complicated style4 ,the smallest vocal discrepancies become apparent at once and it is only by the most intense application and great attention to detail that it is possible for the singer to bring her art to a standard that will stand the test of these simple1 but very difficult works4 ,too much coloratura singing is liable to rob the voice of its fullness and is not to be recommended as a preparation for the singer who would become a singer of the modern art songs4 ,this does not mean that scales and arpeggios are to be avoided4 ,in fact the flexibility and control demanded of the singers of art songs are quite as great as that required of the coloratura singer4 ,the student must have her full quota of vocal exercises before she should think of attempting the ,schumann ,lieder4 ,,schumann',s ,,popularity ,,in ,,america ,americans seem to be particularly fond of ,schumann4 ,when artists are engaged for concert performances it is the custom in this country to present optional programs to the managers of the local concert enterprises4 ,these managers represent all possible kinds of taste4 ,it is the experience of most concert artists that the ,schumann selections are almost invariably chosen4 ,this is true of the ,west as well as of the ,south and ,east4 ,one section of the program is without exception devoted to what they call classical songs and by this they mean the best songs rather than the songs whose chief claim is that they are from the old ,italian schools of ,carissimi1 ,scarlatti1 etc4 ,i make it a special point to present as many songs as possible with ,english words4 ,the ,english language is not a difficult language in which to sing2 and when the translation coincides with the original ,i can see no reason why ,american readers who may not be familiar with a foreign tongue should be denied the privilege of understanding what the song is about4 ,if they do not understand1 why sing words at all8 ,why not vocalize the melodies upon some vowel8 ,songs1 however1 were meant to combine poetry and music2 and unless the audience has the benefit of understanding both1 it has been defrauded of one of its chief delights4 ,some ,german poems1 however1 are almost untranslatable4 ,it is for this reason that many of the works of ,loewe1 for instance1 have never attained wide popularity4 ,the legends which ,loewe employed are often delightful1 but the difficulties of translation are such that the original meaning is either marred or destroyed4 ,the songs or ballads of ,loewe1 without the words1 do not seem to grasp ,american audiences and singers find it a thankless task to try to force them upon the public4 ,i have been so long in ,america that ,i feel it my duty to share in popularizing the works of the many talented ,american composers4 ,i frequently place ,mac,dowell's beautiful songs on my programs2 and the works of many other ,american composers1 including ,mrs4 ,h4 ,h4 ,a4 ,beach1 ,sidney ,homer1 ,frank ,le ,forge and others make fine concert numbers4 ,it has seemed to me that ,america has a large future in the field of lyric composition4 ,american poets have long since won their place in the international ,hall of ,fame4 ,the lyrical spirit which they have expressed verbally will surely be imbued in the music of ,american composers4 ,the opportunity is already here4 ,americans demand the best the world can produce4 ,it makes no difference what the nationality of the composer4 ,however1 ,americans are first of all patriotic2 and the composer who produces real lyric masterpieces is not likely to be asked to wait for fame and competence1 as did ,schubert and ,schumann4 ,illustration3 ,,mme4 ,,amelita ,,galli-,,curci4 7,c7 ,victor ,georg4 ,,mme4 ,,amelita ,,galli-,,curci ,,biographical ,mme4 ,galli-,curci was born at ,milan1 ,november #ahth1 #ahhi1 of a family distinguished in the arts and in the professions4 ,she entered the ,milan ,conservatory1 winning the first prize and diploma in piano playing in #aijc4 ,for a time after her graduation she toured as a pianist and then resolved to become a singer4 ,she is practically self-taught in the vocal art4 ,her debut was made in ,rome at the ,teatro ,constanzi1 in the role of ,gilda in ,rigoletto4 ,she was pronouncedly successful from the very start4 ,during the next six years she sang principally in ,italy1 ,south ,america 7,three ,tours71 and in ,spain1 her success increasing with every appearance4 ,in #aiaf she appeared at ,chicago with the ,chicago ,opera ,company1 creating a furore4 ,the exceptionally beautiful records of her interpretations created an immense demand to hear her in concert1 and her successes everywhere have been historic4 ,not since ,patti has there been a singer upon whom such wide-spread critical comment has been made in praise of her exquisite velvety quality of tone1 vocal technic and interpretative intelligence4 ,hailed as ,patti's only successor1 she has met with greater popular success in opera and concert than any of the singers of recent years4 ,in #aiba she married the gifted ,american composer1 ,homer ,samuels1 who for many years had been the pianist upon her tours4 ,,teaching ,,yourself ,,to ,,sing ,,mme4 ,,amelita ,,galli-,,curci ,just what influence heredity may have upon the musical art and upon musicians has1 of course1 been a much discussed question4 ,in my own case1 ,i was fortunate in having a father who1 although engaged in another vocation1 was a fine amateur musician4 ,my grandfather was a conductor and my grandmother was an opera singer of distinction in ,italy4 ,like myself1 she was a coloratura soprano1 and ,i can recollect with joy her voice and her method of singing4 ,even at the age of seventy-five her voice was wonderfully well preserved1 because she always sang with the greatest ease and with none of the forced throat restrictions which make the work of so many singers insufferable4 ,my own musical education began at the age of five1 when ,i commenced to play the piano4 ,meanwhile ,i sang around the house1 and my grandmother used to say in good humor3 ,keep it up1 my dear2 perhaps some day you may be a better singer than ,i am4 ,my father1 however1 was more seriously interested in instrumental music1 and desired that ,i should become a pianist4 ,how fortunate for me6 ,otherwise1 ,i should never have had that thorough musical drill which gave me an acquaintance with the art which ,i cannot believe could come in any other way4 ,mascagni was a very good friend of our family and took a great interest in my playing4 ,he came to our house very frequently1 and his advice and inspiration naturally meant much to a young1 impressionable girl4 ,,general ,,education ,my general education was very carefully guarded by my father1 who sent me to the best schools in ,milan1 one of which was under the management of ,germans1 and it was there that ,i acquired my acquaintance with the ,german language4 ,i was then sent to the ,conservatorio1 and graduated with a gold medal as a pianist4 ,this won me some distinction in ,italy and enabled me to tour as a pianist4 ,i did not pretend to play the big1 exhaustive works1 but my programs were made up of such pieces as the ,abeg of ,schumann1 studies by ,scharwenka1 impromptus of ,chopin1 the four scherzos of ,chopin1 the first ballade1 the nocturnes 7the fifth in the book was my favorite7 and works of ,bach4 7,of course1 ,i had been through the ,wohltemperiertes ,clavier47 ,in those days ,i was very frail1 and ,i had aspired to develop my repertoire so that later ,i could include the great works for the piano requiring a more or less exhaustive technic of the bravura type4 ,once ,i went to hear ,busoni1 and after the concert1 came to me like a revelation1 ,you can never be such a pianist as he4 ,your hand and your physical strength will not permit it4 ,i went home in more or less sadness1 knowing that despite the success ,i had had in my piano playing1 my decision was a wise one4 ,figuratively1 ,i closed the lid of my piano upon my career as a pianist and decided to learn how to sing4 ,the memory of my grandmother's voice singing ,bellini's ,qui la ,voce was still ringing in my ears with the lovely purity of tone that she possessed4 ,mascagni called upon us at that time1 and ,i asked him to hear me sing4 ,he did so1 and threw up his hands1 saying1 ,why in the world have you been wasting your time with piano playing when you have a natural voice like that8 ,such voices are born4 ,start to work at once to develop your voice4 ,meanwhile1 of course1 ,i had heard a great deal of singing and a great deal of so-called voice teaching4 ,i went to two teachers in ,milan1 but was so dissatisfied with what ,i heard from them and from their pupils that ,i was determined that it would be necessary for me to develop my own voice4 ,please do not take this as an inference that all vocal teachers are bad or are dispensable4 ,my own case was peculiar4 ,i had been saturated with musical traditions since my babyhood4 ,i had had1 in addition1 a very fine musical training4 ,of course1 without this ,i could not have attempted to do what ,i did in the way of self-training4 ,nevertheless1 it is my firm conviction that unless the student of singing has in his brain and in his soul those powers of judging for himself whether the quality of a tone1 the intonation 7pitch71 the shading1 the purity and the resonance are what they should be to insure the highest artistic results1 it will be next to impossible for him to secure these4 ,this is what is meant by the phrase--singers are born and not made4 ,the power of discrimination1 the judgment1 etc41 must be inherent4 ,no teacher can possibly give them to a pupil1 except in an artificial way4 ,that1 possibly1 is the reason why so many students sing like parrots3 because they have the power of mimicry1 but nothing comes from within4 ,the fine teacher can1 of course1 take a fine sense of tonal values1 etc41 and1 provided the student has a really good natural voice1 lead him to reveal to himself the ways in which he can use his voice to the best advantage4 ,add to this a fine musical training1 and we have a singer4 ,but no teacher can give to a voice that velvety smoothness1 that liquid fluency1 that bell-like clarity which the ear of the educated musician expects1 and which the public at large demands1 unless the student has the power of determining for himself what is good and what is bad4 ,,four ,,years ,,of ,,hard ,,training ,it was no easy matter to give up the gratifying success which attended my pianistic appearances to begin a long term of self-study1 self-development4 ,yet ,i realized that it would hardly be possible for me to accomplish what ,i desired in less than four years4 ,therefore1 ,i worked daily for four years1 drilling myself with the greatest care in scales1 arpeggios and sustained tones4 ,the colorature facility ,i seemed to possess naturally1 to a certain extent2 but ,i realized that only by hard and patient work would it be possible to have all my runs1 trills1 etc41 so that they always would be smooth1 articulate and free--that is1 unrestricted--at any time4 ,i studied the roles in which ,i aspired to appear1 and attended the opera faithfully to hear fine singing1 as well as bad singing4 ,as the work went on it became more and more enjoyable4 ,i felt that ,i was upon the right path1 and that meant everything4 ,if ,i had continued as a pianist ,i could never have been more than a mediocrity1 and that ,i could not have tolerated4 ,about this time came a crisis in my father's business2 it became necessary for me to teach4 ,accordingly1 ,i took a number of piano pupils and enjoyed that phase of my work very much indeed4 ,i gave lessons for four years1 and in my spare time worked with my voice1 all by myself1 with my friend1 the piano4 ,my guiding principles were3 ,there must be as little consciousness of effort in the throat as possible4 ,there must always be the ,joy of ,singing4 ,success is based upon sensation1 whether it feels right to me in my mouth1 in my throat1 that ,i know1 and nobody else can tell me4 ,i remember that my grandmother1 who sang ,una voce poco fa at seventy-five1 always cautioned me to never force a single tone4 ,i did not study exercises like those of ,concone1 ,panofka1 ,bordogni1 etc41 because they seemed to me a waste of time in my case4 ,i did not require musical knowledge1 but needed special drill4 ,i knew where my weak spots were4 ,what was the use of vocal studies which required me to do a lot of work and only occasionally touched those portions of my voice which needed special attention8 ,learning a repertoire was a great task in itself1 and there was no time to waste upon anything ,i did not actually need4 ,because of the natural fluency ,i have mentioned1 ,i devoted most of my time to slower exercises at first4 ,what could be simpler than this8 ,illustration3 musical notation3 ,ex4 #a ,these1 of course1 were sung in the most convenient range in my voice4 ,the more rapid exercises ,i took from ,c to ,f above the treble staff4 ,illustration3 musical notation3 ,ex4 #b ,even to this day ,i sing up to high ,f every day1 in order that ,i may be sure that ,i have the tones to ,e below in public work4 ,another exercise which ,i used very frequently was this1 in the form of a trill4 ,great care was taken to have the intonation 7pitch7 absolutely accurate in the rapid passages1 as well as in the slow passages4 ,illustration3 musical notation3 ,ex4 #c ,when ,i had reached a certain point1 ,i determined that it might be possible for me to get an engagement4 ,i was then twenty1 and my dear mother was horrified at the idea of my going on the stage so young4 ,she was afraid of evil influences4 ,in my own mind ,i realized that evil was everywhere1 in business1 society1 everywhere1 and that if one was to keep out of dirt and come out dean1 one must make one's art the object first of all4 ,art is so great1 so all-consuming1 that any one with a deep reverence for its beauties1 its grandeur1 can have but little time for the lower things of life4 ,all that an artist calls for in his soul is to be permitted to work at his best in his art4 ,then1 and then only1 is he happiest4 ,because of my mother's opposition1 and because ,i felt ,i was strong enough to resist the temptations which she knew ,i might encounter1 ,i virtually eloped with a copy of ,rigoletto under my arm and made my way for the ,teatro ,constanzi1 the leading ,opera ,house of ,rome4 ,i might readily have secured letters from influential musical friends1 such as ,mascagni and others1 but ,i determined that it would be best to secure an engagement upon my own merits1 if ,i could1 and then ,i would know whether or not ,i was really prepared to make my debut1 or whether ,i had better study more4 ,i went to the manager's office and1 appealing to his business sense1 told him that1 as ,i was a young unknown singer1 he could secure my services for little money1 and begged for permission to sing for him4 ,i knew he was beset by such requests1 but he immediately gave me a hearing1 and ,i was engaged for one performance of ,rigoletto4 ,the night of the debut came1 and ,i was obliged to sing ,caro ,nome again in response to a vociferous encore4 ,this was followed by other successes1 and ,i was engaged for two years for a ,south ,american tour1 under the direction of my good friend and adviser1 the great operatic director1 ,mugnone4 ,in ,south ,america there was enthusiasm everywhere1 but all the time ,i kept working constantly with my voice1 striving to perfect details4 ,at the end of the ,south ,american tour ,i desired to visit ,new ,york and find out what ,america was like4 ,because of the war ,europe was operatically impossible 7it was #aiaf71 but ,i had not the slightest idea of singing in the ,united ,states just then4 ,by merest accident ,i ran into an ,american friend 7,mr4 ,thorner7 on ,broadway4 ,he had heard me sing in ,italy1 and immediately took me to ,maestro ,campanini1 who was looking then for a coloratura soprano to sing for only two performances in ,chicago1 as the remainder of his program was filled for the year4 ,this was in the springtime1 and it meant that ,i was to remain in ,new ,york until ,october and ,november4 ,the opportunity seemed like an unusual accident of fate1 and ,i resolved to stay1 studying my own voice all the while to improve it more and more4 ,october and the debut in ,rigoletto came4 ,the applause astounded me2 it was electric1 like a thunderstorm4 ,no one was more astonished than ,i4 ,engagements and offers came from everywhere1 but not enough1 ,i hope1 to ever induce me not to believe that in the vocal art one must continually strive for higher and higher goals4 ,laziness1 indifference and lassitude which come with success are the ruin of ,art and the artist4 ,the normal healthy artist with the right ideals never reaches his ,zenith4 ,if he did1 or if he thought he did1 his career would come to a sudden end4 ,illustration3 ,,mary ,,garden4 7,c7 ,mishkin4 ,,mary ,,garden ,,biographical ,mary ,garden was born ,february #bjth1 #ahgg1 in ,aberdeen1 ,scotland4 ,she came to ,america with her parents when she was eight years of age and was brought up in ,chicopee1 ,massachusetts1 ,hartford1 ,connecticut1 and ,chicago1 ,illinois4 ,she studied the violin when she was six and the piano when she was twelve4 ,it was the ambition of her parents to make her an instrumental performer4 ,she studied voice with ,mrs4 ,s4 ,r4 ,duff1 who in time took her to ,paris and placed her under the instruction of ,trabadello and ,lucien ,fugere4 ,her operatic debut was made in ,charpentier's ,louise at the ,opera ,comique in #aijj4 ,her success was immediate both as an actress and as a singer4 ,she was chosen by ,debussy and others for especially intricate roles4 ,she created the role of ,melisande2 also1 ,fiammette in ,laroux's ,la ,reine ,fiammette4 ,in #aijg she made her ,american debut in ,thais at the ,manhattan ,opera ,house in ,new ,york ,city4 ,later she accepted leading roles with the ,philadelphia-,chicago ,opera ,co4 ,she is considered by many the finest singing actress living--her histrionic gifts being in every way equal to her vocal gifts4 ,in #aiba she was made the manager of the ,chicago ,opera ,company4 ,,the ,,know ,,how ,,in ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,singing ,,mary ,,garden ,the modern opera singer cannot content herself merely with the know how of singing4 ,that is1 she must be able to know so much more than the mere elemental facts of voice production that it would take volumes to give an intimation of the real requirements4 ,the girl who wants to sing in opera must have one thought and one thought only--what will contribute to my musical1 histrionic and artistic success8 ,unless the career comes first there is not likely to be any career4 ,i wonder if the public ever realizes what this sacrifice means to an artiste--to a woman4 ,of course1 there are great recompenses--the thrill that comes with artistic triumphs--the sensations that accompany achievement--who but the artist can know what this means--the joy of bringing to life some great masterpiece8 ,music manifests itself in children at a very early age4 ,it is very rare indeed that it comes to the surface later in life4 ,i was always musical4 ,only the media changed--one time it was violin1 then piano1 then voice4 ,the dolls of my sisters only annoyed me because ,i could not tolerate dolls4 ,they seemed a waste of time to me1 and when they had paper dolls1 ,i would go into the room when nobody was looking and cut the dolls' heads off4 ,i have never been able to account for my delight in doing this4 ,my father was musical4 ,he wanted me to be a musician1 but he had little thought at first of my being a singer4 ,accordingly1 at eight ,i was possessed of a fiddle4 ,this meant more to me than all the dolls in the world4 ,oh1 how ,i loved that violin1 which ,i could make speak just by drawing a bow over it6 ,there was something worth while4 ,i was only as big as a minute1 and1 of course1 as soon as ,i could play the routine things of de ,beriot1 variations and the like1 ,i was considered one of those abominable things1 an infant prodigy4 ,i was brought out to play for friends and any musical person who could stand it4 ,then ,i gave a concert1 and my father saw the finger of destiny pointing to my career as a great violinist4 ,to me the finger of destiny pointed the other way2 because ,i immediately sickened of the violin and dropped it forever4 ,yes1 ,i could play now if ,i had to1 but you probably wouldn't want to hear me4 ,ah1 but ,i do play4 ,i play every time ,i sing4 ,the violin taught me the need for perfect intonation1 fluency in execution1 ever so many things4 ,then came the piano4 ,here was a new artistic toy4 ,i worked very hard with it4 ,my sister and ,i went back to ,aberdeen for a season of private school1 and ,i kept up my piano until ,i could play acceptably many of the best-known compositions1 ,grieg1 ,chopin1 etc41 being my favorites4 ,i was never a very fine pianist1 understand me1 but the piano unlocked the doors to thousands of musical treasure houses--admitted me to musical literature through the main gate1 and has been of invaluable aid to me in my career4 ,see my fingers1 how long and thin they are--of course1 ,i was a capable pianist--long1 supple fingers1 combined with my musical experience gained in violin playing1 made that certain4 ,then ,i dropped the piano4 ,dropped it at once4 ,its possibilities stood revealed before me1 and they were not to be the limit of my ambitions4 ,for the girl who hopes to be an operatic star there could be nothing better than a good drilling in violin or piano4 ,the girl has no business to sing while she is yet a child--and she is that until she is sixteen or over4 ,better let her work hard getting a good general education and a good musical education4 ,the voice will keep1 and it will be sweeter and fresher if it is not overused in childhood4 ,once1 with my heart set upon becoming a singer1 my father fortunately took me to ,mrs4 ,robinson ,duff1 of ,chicago4 ,to her1 my mentor to this day1 ,i owe much of my vocal success4 ,i was very young and very emotional1 with a long pigtail down my back4 ,at first the work did not enrapture me1 for ,i could not see the use of spending so much time upon breathing4 ,now ,i realize what it did for me4 ,what should the girl starting singing avoid8 ,first1 let her avoid an incompetent teacher4 ,there are teachers1 for instance1 who deliberately teach the stroke of the glottis 7coup de glotte74 ,what is the stroke of the glottis8 ,the lips of the vocal cords in the larynx are pressed together so that the air becomes compressed behind them and instead of coming out in a steady1 unimpeded stream1 it causes a kind of explosion4 ,say the word up in the throat very forcibly and you will get the right idea4 ,this is a most pernicious habit4 ,somehow1 it crept into some phases of vocal teaching1 and has remained4 ,it leads to a constant irritation of the throat and ruin to the vocal organs4 ,when ,i went to ,paris1 ,mrs4 ,duff took me to many of the leading vocal teachers of the city1 and said1 ,now1 ,mary1 ,i want you to use your own judgment in picking out a teacher1 because if you don't like the teacher you will not succeed4 ,thus we went around from studio to studio4 ,one asked me to do this--to hum--to make funny1 unnatural noises1 anything but sing4 ,finally1 ,trabadello1 now retired to his country home1 really asked me to sing in a normal1 natural way1 not as a freak4 ,i said to myself1 ,this is the teacher for me4 ,i could not have had a better one4 ,look out for teachers with freak methods--ten to one they are making you one of their experiments4 ,there is nothing that any voice teacher has ever found superior to giving simple scales and exercises sung upon the syllables ,lah 7ah1 as in harbor71 ,leh 7eh1 as in they71 ,lee 7ee1 as in me74 ,with a good teacher to keep watch over the breathing and the quality1 what more can one have8 ,i have always believed in a great many scales and in a great deal of singing florid roles in ,italian4 ,italian is inimitable for the singer4 ,the dulcet1 velvet-like character of the language gives something which nothing else can impart4 ,it does not make any difference whether you purpose singing in ,french1 ,german1 ,english1 ,russian or ,soudanese1 you will gain much from exercising in ,italian4 ,staccato practice is valuable4 ,here is an exercise which ,i take nearly every day of my life3 ,illustration3 musical notation ,the staccato must be controlled from the diaphragm1 however1 and this comes only after a great deal of work4 ,three-quarters of an hour a day practice suffices me4 ,i find it injurious to practice too long4 ,but ,i study for hours4 ,such a role as ,aphrodite ,i take quietly and sing it over mentally time and time again without making a sound4 ,i study the harmonies1 the nuances1 the phrasing1 the breathing1 so that when the time for singing it comes ,i know it and do not waste my voice by going over it time and again1 as some singers do4 ,in the end ,i find that ,i know it better for this kind of study4 ,the study of acting has been a very personal matter with me4 ,i have never been through any courses of study1 such as that given in dramatic schools4 ,this may do for some people1 but it would have been impossible for me4 ,there must be technic in all forms of art1 but it has always seemed to me that acting was one of the arts in which the individual must make his own technic4 ,i have seen many representatives of the schools of acting here and abroad4 ,sometimes their performances1 based upon technical studies of the art1 result in superb acting4 ,again1 their work is altogether indifferent4 ,technic in acting is more likely to suppress than to inspire4 ,if acting is not inspired1 it is nothing4 ,i study the human emotions that would naturally underlie the scene in which ,i am placed--then ,i think what one would be most likely to do under such conditions4 ,when the actual time of appearance on the stage arrives1 ,i forget all about this and make myself the person of the role4 ,this is the ,italian method rather than the ,french4 ,there are1 to my mind1 no greater actors living than ,duse and ,zacchona1 and they are both exponents of the natural method that ,i employ4 ,great acting has always impressed me wonderfully4 ,i went from ,paris to ,london repeatedly to see ,beerbohm ,tree in his best roles4 ,sir ,herbert was not always uniformly fine1 but he was a great actor and ,i learned much from watching him4 ,once ,i induced ,debussy to make the trip to see him act4 ,debussy was delighted4 ,debussy6 ,ah1 what a rare genius--my greatest friend in ,art6 ,everything he wrote we went over together4 ,he was a terribly exacting master4 ,few people in ,america realize what a transcendent pianist he was4 ,the piano seemed to be thinking1 feeling1 vibrating while he was at the keyboard4 ,time and again we went over his principal works1 note for note4 ,now and then he would stop and clasp his hands over his face in sudden silence1 repeating1 ,it is all wrong--it is all wrong4 ,but he was too good a teacher to let it go at that4 ,he could tell me exactly what was wrong and how to remedy it4 ,when ,i first sang for him1 at the time when they were about to produce ,pelleas and ,melisande at the ,opera ,comique1 ,i thought that ,i had not pleased him4 ,but ,i learned later that he had said to ,m4 ,carre1 the director3 ,don't look for anyone else4 ,from that time he and his family became my close friends4 ,the fatalistic side of our meeting seemed to interest him very much4 ,to think1 he used to say1 that you were born in ,aberdeen1 ,scotland1 lived in ,america all those years and should come to ,paris to create my ,melisande6 ,as ,i have said1 ,debussy was a gorgeous pianist4 ,he could play with the greatest delicacy and could play in the leonine fashion of ,rubinstein4 ,he was familiar with ,beethoven1 ,bach1 ,handel and the classics1 and was devoted to them4 ,wagner he could not abide4 ,he called him a griffe papier--a scribbler4 ,he thought that he had no importance in the world of music1 and to mention ,wagner to him was like waving a red flag before a bull4 ,it is difficult to account for such an opinion4 ,wagner1 to me1 is the great tone colorist1 the master of orchestral wealth and dramatic intensity4 ,sometimes ,i have been so ,wagner-hungry that ,i have not known what to do4 ,for years ,i went every year to ,munich to see the wonderful performances at the ,prinzregenten ,theater4 ,in closing let me say that it seems to me a great deal of the failure among young singers is that they are too impatient to acquire the know how4 ,they want to blossom out on the first night as great prima donnas1 without any previous experience4 ,how ridiculous this is6 ,i worked for a whole year at the ,opera ,comique1 at #ajj a month1 singing such a trying opera as ,louise two and three times a week4 ,when they raised me to #age a month ,i thought that ,i was rich1 and when #djj a month came1 my fortune had surely been made6 ,all this time ,i was gaining precious experience4 ,it could not have come to me in any other way4 ,as ,i have said1 the natural school--the natural school1 like that of the ,italians--stuffed as it is with glorious red blood instead of the white bones of technic in the misunderstood sense1 was the only possible school for me4 ,if our girls would only stop hoping to make a debut at #a1jjj a night and get down to real hard work1 the results would come much quicker and there would be fewer broken hearts4 ,,mme4 ,,alma ,,gluck ,,biographical ,mme4 ,alma ,gluck was born at ,jassy1 ,roumania4 ,her father played the violin1 but was not a professional musician4 ,at the age of six she was brought to ,america4 ,she was taught the piano and sang naturally1 but had no idea of becoming a singer4 ,her vocal training was not begun until she was twenty years of age4 ,her teacher1 at that time1 was ,signor ,buzzi-,peccia1 with whom she remained for three years1 going directly from his studio to the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house of ,new ,york4 ,she remained there for three years1 when the immense success of her concert work drew her away from opera4 ,she then studied with ,jean de ,reszke1 and later with ,mme4 ,sembrich for four or five years4 ,since then she has appeared in all parts of the ,united ,states with unvarying success4 ,her records have been among the most popular of any ever issued4 ,together with her husband1 ,efrem ,zimbalist1 the distinguished violinist1 she has appeared before immense audiences in joint recitals4 ,illustration3 ,,mme4 ,,alma ,,gluck4 7,c7 ,mishkin4 ,,building ,a ,,vocal ,,repertoire ,,alma ,,gluck ,many seem surprised when ,i tell them that my vocal training did not begin until ,i was twenty years of age4 ,it seems to me that it is a very great mistake for any girl to begin the serious study of singing before that age1 as the feminine voice1 in most instances1 is hardly settled until then4 ,vocal study before that time is likely to be injurious1 though some survive it in the hands of very careful and understanding teachers4 ,the first kind of a repertoire that the student should acquire is a repertoire of solfeggios4 ,i am a great believer in the solfeggio4 ,using that for a basis1 one is assured of acquiring facility and musical accuracy4 ,the experienced listener can tell at once the voice that has had such training4 ,always remember that musicianship carries one much further than a good natural voice4 ,the voice1 even more than the hands1 needs a kind of exhaustive technical drill4 ,this is because in this training you are really building the instrument itself4 ,in the piano1 one has the instrument complete before he begins2 but in the case of the voice1 the instrument has to be developed and sometimes made by study4 ,when the pupil is practicing1 tones grow in volume1 richness and fluency4 ,there are exercises by ,bordogni1 ,concone1 ,vaccai1 ,lamperti1 ,marchesi1 ,panofka1 ,panserson and many others with which ,i am not familiar1 which are marvelously beneficial when intelligently studied4 ,these ,i sang on the syllable ,ah1 and not with the customary syllable names4 ,it has been said that the syllables ,do1 ,re1 ,mi1 ,fa1 etc41 aid one in reading4 ,to my mind1 they are often confusing4 ,,go ,,to ,,the ,,classics ,after a thorough drilling in solfeggios and technical exercises1 ,i would have the student work on the operatic arias of ,bellini1 ,rossini1 ,donizetti1 ,verdi1 and others4 ,these men knew how to write for the human voice6 ,their arias are so vocal that the voice develops under them and the student gains vocal assurance4 ,they were written before modern philosophy entered into music--when music was intended for the ear rather than for the mind4 ,i cannot lay too much stress on the importance of using these arias4 ,they are a tonic for the voice1 and bring back the elasticity which the more subdued singing of songs taxes4 ,when one is painting pictures through words1 and trying to create atmosphere in songs1 so much repression is brought into play that the voice must have a safety-valve1 and that one finds in the bravura arias4 ,here one sings for about fifty bars1 ,the sky is clouded for me1 ,i have been betrayed1 or ,joy abounds--the words being simply a vehicle for the ever-moving melody4 ,when hearing an artist like ,john ,mc,cormack sing a popular ballad it all seems so easy1 but in reality songs of that type are the very hardest to sing and must have back of them years of hard training or they fall to banality4 ,they are far more difficult than the limpid operatic arias1 and are actually dangerous for the insufficiently trained voice4 ,,the ,,lyric ,,song ,,repertoire ,then when the student has her voice under complete control1 it is safe to take up the lyric repertoire of ,mendelssohn1 ,old ,english ,songs1 etc4 ,how simple and charming they are6 ,the works of the lighter ,french composers1 ,hahn1 ,massenet1 ,chaminade1 ,gounod1 and others4 ,then ,handel1 ,haydn1 ,mozart1 ,loewe1 ,schubert1 ,schumann and ,brahms4 ,later the student will continue with ,strauss1 ,wolf1 ,reger1 ,rimsky-,korsakoff1 ,mousorgsky1 ,borodin and ,rachmaninoff4 ,then the modern ,french composers1 ,ravel1 ,debussy1 ,georges1 ,koechlin1 ,hue1 ,chausson1 and others4 ,i leave ,french for the last because it is1 in many ways1 more difficult for an ,english-speaking person to sing4 ,it is so full of complex and trying vowels that it requires the utmost subtlety to overcome these difficulties and still retain clarity in diction4 ,for that reason the student should have the advice of a native ,french coach4 ,when one has traveled this long road1 then he is qualified to sing ,english songs and ballads4 ,,american ,,songs ,in this country we are rich in the quantity of songs rather than in the quality4 ,the singer has to go through hundreds of compositions before he finds one that really says something4 ,commercialism overwhelms our composers4 ,they approach their work with the question1 ,will this go8 ,the spirit in which a work is conceived is that in which it will be executed4 ,inspired by the purse rather than the soul1 the mercenary side fairly screams in many of the works put out by every-day ,american publishers4 ,this does not mean that a song should be queer or ugly to be novel or immortal4 ,it means that the sincerity of the art worker must permeate it as naturally as the green leaves break through the dead branches in springtime4 ,of the vast number of new ,american composers1 there are hardly more than a dozen who seem to approach their work in the proper spirit of artistic reverence4 ,,art ,,for ,,art',s ,,sake1 ,a ,,farce ,nothing annoys me quite so much as the hysterical hypocrites who are forever prating about art for art's sake4 ,what nonsense6 ,the student who deceives himself into thinking that he is giving his life like an ascetic in the spirit of sacrifice for art is the victim of a deplorable species of egotism4 ,art for art's sake is just as iniquitous an attitude in its way as art for money's sake4 ,the real artist has no idea that he is sacrificing himself for art4 ,he does what he does for one reason and one reason only--he can't help doing it4 ,just as the bird sings or the butterfly soars1 because it is his natural characteristic1 so the artist works4 ,time and again a student will send me an urgent appeal to hear her1 saying she is poor and wants my advice as to whether it is worth while to continue her studies4 ,i invariably refuse such requests1 saying that if the student could give up her work on my advice she had better give it up without it4 ,one does not study for a goal4 ,one sings because one can't help it6 ,the goal nine times out of ten is a mere accident4 ,art for art's sake is the mask of studio idlers4 ,the task of acquiring a repertoire in these days1 when the vocal literature is so immense1 is so overwhelming1 that the student with sense will devote all his energies to work1 and not imagine himself a martyr to art4 ,,emilio ,,de ,,gogorza ,,biographical ,emilio ,edoardo de ,gogorza was born in ,brooklyn1 ,new ,york1 ,may #bith1 #ahgd1 of ,spanish parents4 ,his boyhood was spent in ,spain1 ,france and ,england4 ,in the last named country he became a boy soprano and sang with much success4 ,part of his education was received at ,oxford4 ,he returned to ,america1 where his vocal teachers were ,c4 ,moderati and ,e4 ,agramonte4 ,his debut was made in #ahig in a concert with ,mme4 ,marcella ,sembrich4 ,his rich fluent baritone voice made him a great favorite at musical festivals in ,america4 ,he has sung with nearly all of the leading ,american orchestras4 ,the peculiar quality of his voice is especially adapted to record making and his records have been immensely popular4 ,he married ,emma ,eames1 ,july #acth1 #aiaa4 ,illustration3 ,,emilio ,,de ,,gogorza4 7,c7 ,dupont ,,opportunities ,,for ,,young ,,concert ,,singers ,,emilio ,,de ,,gogorza ,there has never been a time or a country presenting more inviting opportunities to the concert and the oratorio singer than the ,america of to-day4 ,as a corollary to this statement there is the obvious fact that the ,american public1 taken as a whole1 is now the most discriminating public to be found anywhere in the world4 ,every concert is adequately reviewed by able writers2 and singers are continually on their mettle4 ,it therefore follows that while there are opportunities for concert and oratorio singers1 there is no room for the inefficient1 the talentless1 brainless aspirants who imagine that a great vocal career awaits them simply because they have a few good tones and a pleasing stage presence4 ,this is the age of the brain4 ,in singing1 the voice is only a detail4 ,it is the mentality1 the artistic feeling1 the skill in interpretation that counts4 ,some of the greatest artists are vocally inferior to singers of lesser reputation4 ,why8 ,because they read1 because they study1 because they broaden their intellects and extend their culture until their appreciation of the beautiful is so comprehensive that every degree of human emotion may be effectively portrayed4 ,in a word they become artists4 ,take the case of ,victor ,maurel1 for instance4 ,if he were ninety years old and had only the shred of a voice but still retained his artistic grasp1 ,i would rather hear him than any living singer4 ,i have learned more from hearing him sing than from any other singer4 ,verdi chose him to sing in ,otello against the advice of several friends1 saying3 ,he has more brain than any five singers ,i know4 ,some people imagine that when an artist is embarked upon his professional work study ceases4 ,it is a great mistake4 ,no one works harder than ,i do to broaden my culture and interpretative skill4 ,i am constantly studying and trust that ,i may never cease4 ,the greater the artist the more incessant the study4 ,it is one of the secrets of large success4 ,,special ,,study ,,required ,,for ,,concert ,,singing ,people imagine that the opera requires a higher kind of vocal preparation than the concert or oratorio stage4 ,this is also a great misconception4 ,the operatic singers who have been successful as concert singers at once admit that concert singing is much more difficult4 ,comparatively few opera singers succeed as concert singers4 ,why8 ,because in opera the voice needs to be concentrated and more or less uniform4 ,an opera house is really two buildings1 the auditorium and the stage4 ,the stage with its tall scene-loft is frequently as large from the standpoint of cubic feet as the auditorium4 ,sometimes it is larger4 ,to fill these two immense buildings the voice must be strong and continually concentrated1 dans le ,masque4 ,the delicate little effects that the concert singer is obliged to produce would not be heard over the footlights4 ,in order to retain interest without the assistance of scenery and action the concert singer's interpretative work must be marked by an attention to details that the opera singer rarely considers4 ,the voice1 therefore1 requires a different treatment4 ,it must be so finely trained that it becomes susceptible to the most delicate change of thought in the singer's mind4 ,this demands a really enormous amount of work4 ,the successful concert singer must also have an endurance that enables her to undergo strains that the opera singer rarely knows4 ,the grand opera singer in the great opera houses of the world rarely sings more than two or three times a week4 ,the concert singer is often obliged to sing every night for weeks4 ,they must learn how to relax and save the voice at all times1 otherwise they will lose elasticity and sweetness4 ,a young woman vocal student1 with talent1 a good natural voice1 intelligence1 industry1 sufficient practice time1 a high school education1 and a knowledge of the rudiments of music1 might complete a course of study leading to a successful concert debut in three years4 ,more frequently four or five years may be required4 ,with a bungling teacher she may spend six or seven4 ,the cost of her instruction1 with a good teacher in a great metropolis1 will be more per year than if she went to almost any one of the leading universities admitting women4 ,she will have to work harder than if she took a regular college course4 ,progress depends upon the individual4 ,one girl will accomplish more in two years than another will accomplish in five years4 ,again1 the rate of progress depends upon personal development4 ,sometimes a course of study with a good teacher will awaken a latent energy and mental condition that will enable the student to make great strides4 ,my most important work has been done by self-study with the assistance and advice of many singers and teachers who have been my friends4 ,no pupil who depends entirely upon a teacher will succeed4 ,she must work out her own salvation4 ,it is the private thought1 incessant effort and individual attitude that lead to success4 ,,study ,,in ,,your ,,home ,,country ,i honestly believe that the young vocal student can do far better by studying in ,america than by studying abroad4 ,european residence and travel are very desirable1 but the study may be done to better advantage right here in our own country4 ,americans want the best and they get it4 ,in ,europe they have no conception whatever of the extent of musical culture in ,america4 ,it is a continual source of amazement to me4 ,in the ,west and ,northwest ,i find audiences just as intelligent and as appreciative as in ,boston4 ,there is the greatest imaginable catholicity of taste4 ,just at present the tendency is away from the old ,german classics and is leading to the modern works of ,french1 ,german and ,american composers4 ,still ,i find that ,i can sing a song like ,schumann's ,widmung in ,western cities that only a few years ago were mere collections of frontier huts and shacks1 and discover that the genius of ,schumann is just as potent there as in ,new ,york ,city4 ,i have recently been all over ,europe1 and ,i have seen no such condition anywhere as that ,i have just described4 ,it is especially gratifying to note in ,america a tremendous demand for the best vocal works of the ,american composers4 ,the young concert singer must have a very comprehensive repertoire4 ,every new work properly mastered is an asset4 ,in oratorio she should first of all learn those works that are most in demand1 like the ,messiah1 the ,elijah1 the ,creation and the ,redemption4 ,then attention may be given to the modern works and works more rarely performed1 like those of ,elgar1 ,perosi and others4 ,after the young singer has proven her worth with the public she may expect an income of from #aj1jjj4jj to #ae1jjj4jj a year4 ,that is what our first-class singers have received for high-class concert work4 ,some ,european prima donnas like ,schumann-,heink and others have commanded much higher figures4 ,you ask me what influence the sound reproducing machines have had upon the demand for good vocal music in ,america4 ,they have unquestionably increased the demand very greatly4 ,they have even been known to make reputations for singers entirely without any other road to publicity4 ,take the case of ,madame ,michaelowa1 a ,russian prima donna who has never visited ,america4 ,thousands of records of her voice have been sold in ,america1 and now the demand for her appearance in this country has been so great that she has been offered huge sums for an ,american tour4 ,i believe that if used intelligently the sound reproducing machine may become a great help to the teacher and student4 ,it is used in many of the great opera houses of the world as an aid in determining the engagement of new singers who cannot be personally heard4 ,some of the records of my own voice have been so excellent that they seem positively uncanny to me when ,i hear them reproduced4 ,i have no patent exercises to offer to singing students4 ,there are a thousand ways of learning to breathe properly and they all lead to one end4 ,breathing may best be studied when it is made coincident with the requirements of singing4 ,i have no fantastic technical studies to offer4 ,my daily work simply consists of scales1 arpeggios and the simplest kind of exercises1 the simpler the better4 ,i always make it a point to commence practicing very softly1 slowly and surely4 ,i never sing notes outside my most comfortable range at the start4 ,taking notes too high or too low is an extremely bad plan at first4 ,many young students make this fault4 ,they also sing much too loud4 ,the voice should be exercised for some considerable time on soft exercises before loud notes are even attempted4 ,it is precisely the same as with physical exercises4 ,the athlete who exerts himself to his fullest extent at first is working toward ultimate exhaustion4 ,i have known students who sang at the top of their lungs and called it practice4 ,the next day they grew hoarse and wondered why the hoarseness came4 ,,never ,,sing ,,when ,,tired ,never sing when out of sorts1 tired or when the throat is sore4 ,it is all very well to try to throw such a condition off as if it were a state of mind4 ,my advice is1 ,,don',t4 ,i have known singers to try to sing off a sore throat and secure as a result a loss of voice for several days4 ,our ,american climate is very bad for singers4 ,the dust of our manufacturing cities gets in the throat and irritates it badly4 ,the noise is very nerve racking1 and ,i have a theory that the electricity in the air is injurious4 ,as ,i have said1 the chances in the concert and operatic field are unlimited for those who deserve to be there4 ,don't be misled4 ,thousands of people are trying to become concert and oratorio singers who have not talent1 temperament1 magnetism1 the right kind of intelligence nor the true musical feeling4 ,it is pitiful to watch them4 ,they are often deluded by teachers who are biased by pecuniary necessity4 ,it is safe to say that at the end of a year's good instruction the teacher may safely tell what the pupil's chances are4 ,some teachers are brutally frank4 ,their opinions are worth those of a thousand teachers who consider their own interests first4 ,secure the opinions of as many artists as possible before you determine upon a professional career4 ,the artist is not biased4 ,he does not want you for a pupil and has nothing to gain in praising you4 ,if he gives you an unfavorable report1 thank him1 because he is probably thinking of your best interests4 ,as ,i have said1 progress depends upon the individual4 ,one man can go into a steel foundry and learn more in two years than another can in five4 ,if you do not become conscious of audible results at the end of one or two years' study do some serious thinking4 ,you are either on the wrong track or you have not the natural qualifications which lead to success on the concert and oratorio stage4 ,illustration3 ,,mme4 ,,frieda ,,hempel4 7,c7 ,mitzi ,,frieda ,,hempel ,,biographical ,frieda ,hempel was born at ,leipzig1 ,june #bf1 #ahhe4 ,she studied piano for a considerable time at the ,leipzig ,conservatory and the ,stern ,conservatory4 ,later she studied singing with ,mme4 ,nicklass ,kempner1 to whom she is indebted for her entire vocal education up to the time of her debut in opera4 ,her first appearance was in the ,merry ,wives of ,windsor1 at the ,royal ,opera in ,berlin4 ,after many very successful appearances in leading ,european ,opera ,houses she was engaged for the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house in ,new ,york where she immediately became very popular in stellar roles4 ,her repertoire runs from the ,marriage of ,figaro to ,die ,meistersinger4 ,her voice is a clear1 pure1 sweet soprano2 and1 like ,mme4 ,sembrich and ,mme4 ,galli-,curci1 she clearly shows the value of her instrumental training in the accuracy1 precision and clarity of her coloratura work4 ,she has made many successful concert tours of the ,united ,states4 ,in addition to being a brilliant singer she is an excellent actress4 ,she is now an ,american citizen and the wife of an ,american business man4 ,,thoroughness ,,in ,,vocal ,,preparation ,,mme4 ,,frieda ,,hempel ,,why ,,some ,,succeed ,,and ,,some ,,fail ,in every thousand girls who aspire to ,grand ,opera probably not more than one ever succeeds4 ,this is by no means because of lack of good voices4 ,there are great numbers of good voices2 although many girls who want to be opera singers either deceive themselves or are deceived by others 7often charlatan teachers7 into believing that they have fine natural voices when they have not4 ,there is nothing more glorious than a beautiful human voice--a voice strong1 resonant1 if necessary1 but velvety and luscious if needs be4 ,there are many girls with really beautiful natural voices who have lost their chances in ,grand ,opera largely because they have either not had the personal persistence necessary to carry them to the point where their services are in demand by the public or they have had the misfortune not to have the right kind of a vocal or musical drill master--a really good teacher4 ,teachers in these days waste a fearful amount of time in what they consider to be their methods4 ,they tell you to sing in the back1 or on the side or through the mask or what not1 instead of getting right down to the real work4 ,my teacher in ,berlin1 at the ,conservatory1 insisted first of all upon having me sing tones and scales--mostly long sustained tones--for at least one entire year4 ,these were sung very softly1 very evenly1 until ,i could employ every tone in my voice with sureness and certainty4 ,i don't see how it could possibly have been accomplished in less time4 ,try that on the ,american girl and she will think that she is being cheated out of something4 ,why should she wait a whole year with silly tones when she knows that she can sing a great aria with only a little more difficulty8 ,the basis of all fine singing1 whether in the opera house or on the concert stage1 is a good legato4 ,my teacher 7,nicklass ,kempner7 was very insistent upon this4 ,in working with such studies as those of ,concone1 ,bordogni1 ,luetgen1 ,marchesi or ,garcia--the best part of the attention of the teacher was given to the simple yet difficult matter of a beautiful legato4 ,after one has been through a mass of such material1 the matter of legato singing becomes more or less automatic4 ,the tendency to slide from one tone to another is done away with4 ,the connection between one tone and another in good legato is so clean1 so free from blurs that there is nothing to compare it with4 ,one tone takes the place of another just as though one coin or disk were placed directly on top of another without any of the edges showing4 ,the change is instantaneous and imperceptible4 ,if one were to gradually slide one coin over another coin you would have a graphic illustration of what most people think is legato4 ,the result is that they sound like steam sirens1 never quite definitely upon any tone of the scale4 ,a ,,good ,,legato ,a good legato can only be acquired after an enormous amount of thorough training4 ,the tendency to be careless is human4 ,habits of carefulness come only after much drill4 ,the object of the student and the teacher should be to make a singer--not to acquire a scanty repertoire of a few arias4 ,very few of the operas ,i now sing were learned in my student days4 ,that was not the object of my teacher4 ,the object was to prepare me to take up anything from ,martha to ,rosenkavalier and know how to study it myself in the quickest and most thorough manner4 ,woe be to the pupil of the teacher who spends most of the time in teaching songs1 arias1 etc41 before the pupil is really ready to study such things4 ,,good ,,foundations ,everything is in a good foundation4 ,if you expect a building to last only a few weeks you might put up a foundation in a day or so--but if you watch the builders of the great edifices here in ,american cities you will find that more time is often spent upon the foundation than upon the building itself4 ,they dig right down to the bed rock and pile on so much stone1 concrete and steel that even great earthquakes are often withstood4 ,a ,,large ,,repertoire ,with such a thorough foundation as ,i had it has not been difficult to acquire a repertoire of some seventy-five operas4 ,that is1 by learning one at a time and working continually over a number of years the operas come easily4 ,in learning a new work ,i first read the work through as a whole several times to get the character well fixed in my mind4 ,then ,i play the music through several times until ,i am very familiar with it4 ,then ,i learn the voice part1 never studying it as a voice part by itself1 but always in relation to the orchestra and the other roles4 ,finally1 ,i learn the interpretation--the dramatic presentation4 ,one gets so little help from the orchestra in modern works that many rehearsals are necessary4 ,in some passages it is just like walking in a dark night4 ,only a true ear and thorough training can serve to keep one on the key or anywhere near the key4 ,it is therefore highly necessary that vocal students should have a good musical training in addition to the vocal training4 ,in most ,european conservatories the study of piano and harmony are compulsory for all vocal students4 ,not to have had this musical training that the study of the piano brings about1 not to have had a good course in theory or in training for sight-singing 7ear training7 is to leave out important pillars in a thorough musical foundation4 ,,more ,,opera ,,for ,,america ,it would be a great gratification for all who are interested in opera to see more fine opera houses erected in ,america with more opportunities for the people4 ,the performances at the ,metropolitan are exceedingly fine1 but only a comparatively few people can possibly hear them and there is little opportunity for the performance of a wide variety of operas4 ,the opera singer naturally gets tired of singing a few roles over and over again4 ,the ,american people should develop a taste for more and more different operas4 ,there is such a wonderful field that it should not be confined to the performance of a very few works that happen to be in fashion4 ,this is not at all the case in ,europe--there the repertoires are very much more extensive--more interesting for the public and the artists alike4 ,,strong ,,educational ,,value ,,of ,,opera ,opera has always seemed to me a very necessary thing in the ,state4 ,it has a strong educational value in that it develops the musical taste of the public as well as teaching lessons in history and the humanities in a very forceful manner4 ,children should be taken to opera as a regular part of their education4 ,opera makes a wonderful impression upon the child's imagination--the romance1 the color1 the music1 the action are rarely forgotten4 ,many of the operas are beautiful big fairy stories and the little folks glory in them4 ,parents who desire to develop the taste of their children and at the same time stimulate their minds along broader lines can do no better than to take them to opera4 ,little towns in ,europe often have fine opera houses1 while many ,american cities several times their size have to put up with moving picture theatre houses4 ,why does not some enthusiastic ,american leader take up a campaign for more opera in ,america8 ,with the taste of the public educated through countless talking machine records1 it should not prove a bad business venture if it is gone about in a sensible manner4 ,,dame ,,nellie ,,melba ,,biographical ,dame ,nellie ,melba 7stage name for ,mrs4 ,nellie ,porter ,armstrong1 nee ,mitchell7 is described in ,grove's ,dictionary as the first singer of ,british birth to attain such an exalted position upon the lyric stage as well as upon the concert platform4 ,dame ,melba was born at ,burnley near ,melbourne1 ,may #ai1 #ahfa1 of ,scotch ancestry4 ,she sang at the ,town ,hall at ,richmond when she was six years of age4 ,she studied piano1 harmony1 composition and violin very thoroughly4 ,at one time she was considered the finest amateur pianist in ,melbourne4 ,she also played the church organ in the local church with much success4 ,in #ahhb she married ,captain ,charles ,armstrong1 son of ,sir ,andrew ,armstrong1 ,baronet 7of ,kings ,county1 ,ireland74 ,in #ahhf she sang at ,queens ,hall in ,london4 ,after studying with ,mme4 ,marchesi for twelve months she made her debut as ,gilda 7,rigoletto7 at the ,theatre de la ,monnaie in ,brussels4 ,her success was instantaneous4 ,her ,london debut was made in ,lucia in #ahhh4 ,one year later she made her ,parisian debut in ,thomas' ,hamlet4 ,in #ahid she created the role of ,nedda in ,i ,pagliacci4 ,petrograd went wild over her in #ahib4 ,in #ahib she repeated her successes and in #ahic she began her long series of ,american triumphs4 ,the fact that her voice1 like that of ,patti1 has remained astonishingly fresh and silvery despite the enormous amount of singing she has done attests better than anything else to the excellence of her method of singing4 ,in the following conference she gives the secret of preserving the voice4 ,illustration3 ,,dame ,,nellie ,,melba4 ,,common ,,sense ,,in ,,training ,,and ,,preserving ,,the ,,voice ,,dame ,,nellie ,,melba ,,how ,,can ,a ,,good ,,voice ,,be ,,detected8 ,the young singer's first anxiety is usually to learn whether her voice is sufficiently good to make it worth while to go through the enormous work of preparing herself for the operatic stage4 ,how is she to determine this8 ,surely not upon the advice of her immediate friends1 nor upon that of those to whom she would naturally turn for spiritual advice1 medical advice or legal advice4 ,but this is usually just what she does4 ,because of the honored positions held by her rector1 her physician1 or her family lawyer1 their services are all brought to bear upon her1 and after an examination of her musical ability their unskilled opinion is given a weight it obviously does not deserve4 ,the only one to judge is a skilled musician1 with good artistic taste and some experience in voice matters4 ,it is sometimes difficult to approach a singing teacher for this advice1 as even the most honest could not fail to be somewhat influenced where there is a prospect of a pupil4 ,i do not mean to malign the thousands of worthy teachers1 but such a position is a delicate one1 and the pupil should avoid consulting with any adviser except one who is absolutely disinterested4 ,in any event the mere possession of a voice that is sweet and strong by no means indicates that the owner has the additional equipment which the singer must possess4 ,musical intelligence is quite as great an asset as the possession of a fine voice4 ,by musical intelligence ,i mean something quite different from general intelligence4 ,people seem to expect that the young person who desires to become a fine pianist or a fine violinist1 or a fine composer1 should possess certain musical talents4 ,that is1 they should experience a certain quickness in grasping musical problems and executing them4 ,the singer1 however1 by some peculiar popular ruling seems to be exempted from this4 ,no greater mistake could possibly be made4 ,very few people are musically gifted4 ,when one of these people happens to possess a good voice1 great industry1 a love for vocal art1 physical strength1 patience1 good sense1 good taste and abundant faith in her possibilities1 the chances of making a good singer are excellent4 ,i lay great stress upon great determination and good health4 ,i am often obliged to sing one night1 then travel a thousand miles to sing the next night4 ,notwithstanding such journeys1 the singer is expected to be in prime condition1 look nice1 and please a veritable multitude of comparative strangers all expecting wonderful things from her4 ,do you wonder that ,i lay stress upon good health8 ,the youthful training of the singer should be confined quite strictly to that of obtaining a good general and musical education4 ,that is1 the vocal training may be safely postponed until the singer is seventeen or eighteen years of age4 ,of course there have been cases of famous singers who have sung during their childhood1 but they are exceptions to all rules4 ,the study of singing demands the direction of an intelligent1 well-ordered mind4 ,it is by no means wholly a matter of imitation4 ,in fact1 without some cultivation of the taste1 that is1 the sense of discriminating between what is good and bad1 one may imitate with disastrous results4 ,,what ,,work ,,should ,,the ,,girl ,,under ,,eighteen ,,do8 ,i remember well an incident in my own youth4 ,i once went to a concert and heard a much lauded singer render an aria that was in turn vociferously applauded by the audience4 ,this singer possessed a most wonderful tremolo4 ,every tone went up and down like the teeth of a saw4 ,it was impossible for her to sing a pure even tone without wobbling up and down4 ,but the untrained audience1 hungry to applaud anything musical1 had cheered the singer despite the tremolo4 ,consequently ,i went home and after a few minutes' work ,i found that it was possible for me to produce a very wonderful tremolo4 ,i went proudly to my teacher and gave an exhibition of my new acquirement4 ,who on earth have you been listening to8 exclaimed my teacher4 ,i confessed and was admonished not to imitate4 ,the voice in childhood is a very delicate organ despite the wear and tear which children give it by unnecessary howling and screaming4 ,more than this1 the child-mind is so susceptible to impressions and these impressions become so firmly fixed that the best vocal training for the child should be that of taking the little one to hear great singers4 ,all that the juvenile mind hears is not lost1 although much will be forgotten4 ,however1 the better part will be unconsciously stowed away in the subconscious mind1 to burst forth later in beautiful song through no different process than that by which the little birds store away the song of the older birds4 ,dealers in singing birds place them in rooms with older and highly developed singing birds to train them4 ,this is not exactly a process of imitation1 but rather one of subconscious assimilation4 ,the bird develops his own song later on1 but has the advantage of the stored-up impressions of the trained birds4 ,a ,,general ,,musical ,,training ,i have known many singers to fail dismally because they were simply singers4 ,the idea that all the singer needs to know is how to produce tones resonantly and sweetly1 how to run scales1 make gestures and smile prettily is a perfectly ridiculous one4 ,success1 particularly operatic success1 depends upon a knowledge of a great many things4 ,the general education of the singer should be as well rounded as possible4 ,nothing the singer ever learns in the public schools1 or the high schools1 is ever lost4 ,history and languages are most important4 ,i studied ,italian and ,french in my childhood and this knowledge was of immense help to me in my later work4 ,when ,i first went to ,paris ,i had to acquire a colloquial knowledge of the language1 but in all cases ,i found that the drill in ,french verbs ,i had gone through virtually saved me years of work4 ,the ,french pronunciation is extremely difficult to acquire and some are obliged to reside in ,france for years before a fluent pronunciation can be counted on4 ,i cannot speak too emphatically upon the necessity for a thorough musical education4 ,a smattering is only an aggravation4 ,fortunately1 my parents saw to it that ,i was taught the piano1 the organ1 the violin and thoroughbass4 ,at first it was thought that ,i would become a professional pianist2 and many were good enough to declare that ,i was the finest amateur pianist in ,melbourne4 ,my ,scotch-,presbyterian parents would have been horrified if they had had any idea that they were helping me to a career that was in any way related to the footlights4 ,fortunately1 my splendid father1 who is now eighty-five years old1 has long since recovered from his prejudices and is the proudest of all over my achievements4 ,but ,i can not be too grateful to him for his great interest in seeing that my early musical training was comprehensive4 ,aside from giving me a more musicianly insight into my work1 it has proved an immense convenience4 ,i can play any score through4 ,i learn all my operas myself4 ,this enables me to form my own conception1 that is1 to create it1 instead of being unconsciously influenced by the tempos and expression of some other individual4 ,the times that ,i have depended upon a repititeur have been so few that ,i can hardly remember them4 ,so there1 little girl1 when you get on your mother's long train and sing to an imaginary audience of thousands1 you will do better to run to the keyboard and practice scales or study your etudes4 ,,the ,,first ,,vocal ,,practice ,the first vocal practice should be very simple4 ,there should be nothing in the way of an exercise that would encourage forcing of any kind4 ,in fact the young singer should always avoid doing anything beyond the normal4 ,remember that a sick body means a sick voice4 ,again1 don't forget your daily outdoor exercise4 ,horseback riding1 golf and tennis are my favorites4 ,an hour's walk on a lovely country road is as good for a singer as an hour's practice4 ,i mean that4 ,in avoiding strain the pupil must above all things learn to sing the upper notes without effort or rather strain4 ,while it is desirable that a pupil should practice all her notes every day1 she should begin with the lower notes1 then take the middle notes and then the so-called upper notes or head notes which are generally described as beginning with the ,f sharp on the top line of the treble staff4 ,this line may be regarded as a danger line for singers young and old4 ,it is imperative that when the soprano sings her head notes1 beginning with ,f sharp and upward1 they shall proceed very softly and entirely without strain as they ascend4 ,i can not emphasize this too strongly4 ,,preserving ,,the ,,voice ,let me give you one of my greatest secrets4 ,like all secrets1 it is perfectly simple and entirely rational4 ,never give the public all you have4 ,that is1 the singer owes it to herself never to go beyond the boundaries of her vocal possibilities4 ,the singer who sings to the utmost every time is like the athlete who exhausts himself to the state of collapse4 ,this is the only way in which ,i can account for what the critics term the remarkable preservation of my own voice4 ,i have been singing for years in all parts of the musical world1 growing richer in musical and human experience and yet my voice to-day feels as fresh and as dear as when ,i was in my teens4 ,i have never strained1 ,i have never continued roles that proved unsuited to me1 ,i have never sung when ,i have not been in good voice4 ,this leads to another very important point4 ,i have often had students ask me how they can determine whether their teachers are giving them the kind of method or instruction they should have4 ,i have always replied1 ,if you feel tired after a lesson1 if your throat is strained after a little singing1 if you feel exhausted1 your teacher is on the wrong track1 no matter what he labels his method or how wonderful his credentials are4 ,isn't that very simple8 ,i have known young girls to go on practicing until they couldn't speak4 ,let them go to a physician and have the doctor show them by means of a laryngoscope just how tender and delicate their vocal organs are4 ,i call them my little bits of cotton2 they seem so frail and so tiny4 ,do you wonder that ,i guard them carefully8 ,this practice consists of the simplest imaginable exercises--sustained scales1 chromatic scales and trills4 ,it is not so much what one practices1 but how one practices4 ,,is ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,singing ,,dying ,,out8 ,we continually hear critics complain that the art of singing is dying4 ,it is easy enough to be a pessimist1 and ,i do not want to class myself with the pessimists2 but ,i can safely say that1 unless more attention is paid to the real art of singing1 there must be a decadence in a short time4 ,by this ,i mean that the voice seems to demand a kind of exercise leading to flexibility and fluent tone production that is not found in the ultra-dramatic music of any of the modern composers4 ,young singers begin with good voices and1 after an altogether inadequate term of preparation1 they essay the works of ,strauss and ,wagner4 ,in two years the first sign of a breakup occurs4 ,their voices become rough1--the velvet vanishes and note after note breaks disagreeably4 ,the music of the older ,italian composers1 from ,scarlatti or ,carissimi to ,donizetti and ,bellini1 despite the absurd libretti of their operas1 demanded first of all dulcet tones and limpid fluency4 ,the singers who turned their noses up at the florid arabesques of old ,italy for the more rugged pageantry of modern ,germany are destined to suffer the consequences4 ,let us have the masterpieces of the heroic ,teutons1 by all means1 but let them be sung by vocalists trained as vocalists and not merely by actors who have only taken a few steps in vocal art4 ,the main point of all operatic work must be observed if opera is to continue successfully4 ,delibes chose me to sing a performance of his ,lakme at ,brussels4 ,it was to be my debut in ,french4 ,i had not then mastered the ,french pronunciation so that ,i could sing acceptably at the ,paris ,grand ,opera1 the scene of my later triumphs4 ,consequently ,i was permitted to sing in ,brussels4 ,there the directors objected to my pronunciation1 calling it abominable4 ,delibes replied1 ,qu'elle chante en chinois1 si elle veut1 mais qu'elle chante mon opera 7,even if she sang in ,chinese1 ,i would be glad to have her sing my opera74 ,i am asked what has been my greatest incentive4 ,i can think of nothing greater than opposition4 ,the early opposition from my family made me more and more determined to prove to them that ,i would be successful4 ,if ,i heard some singer who sang successfully the roles ,i essayed1 then ,i would immediately make up my mind to excel that singer4 ,this is a human trait ,i know2 but ,i always profited by it4 ,never be afraid of competition or opposition4 ,the more you overcome1 the greater will be your ultimate triumph4 ,,mme4 ,,bernice ,,de ,,pasquali ,,biographical ,mme4 ,bernice de ,pasquali1 who succeeded ,marcella ,sembrich as coloratura soprano at the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house in ,new ,york ,city1 is not an ,italian1 as her name suggests1 but an ,american4 ,she was born in ,boston and is a member of the ,daughters of the ,american ,revolution4 ,practically all of her musical training was received in ,new ,york ,city where she became a pupil of ,oscar ,saenger4 ,her successes1 however1 are not limited to ,america as she has appeared in ,mexico1 ,cuba1 ,south ,africa and ,europe1 in many places receiving great ovations4 ,her voice is a clear1 high1 flexible soprano1 equally fine for concert or opera4 ,her husband1 ,signor ,pasquali1 made a lifetime study of the principles of the ,bel ,canto school of singing1 and the following conference is the result of long experiment and study in the esthetic1 philosophical and physiological factors in the most significant of the so-called methods of voice training4 ,illustration3 ,,mme4 ,,bernice ,,de ,,pasquali4 ,,secrets ,,of ,,bel ,,canto ,,mme4 ,,bernice ,,de ,,pasquali ,,centuries ,,of ,,experimental ,,experience ,in no land is song so much a part of the daily life of the individual as in ,italy4 ,the ,italian peasant literally wakes up singing and goes to bed singing4 ,naturally a kind of respect1 honor and even reverence attaches to the art of beautiful voice production in the land of ,scarlatti1 ,palestrina and ,verdi1 that one does not find in other countries4 ,when the ,italian singing teachers looked for a word to describe their vocal methods they very naturally selected the most appropriate1 ,bel ,canto1 which means nothing more or less than ,beautiful ,singing4 ,probably no words have been more abused in music teaching than bel canto1 and probably no words have a more direct meaning or a wider significance4 ,what then is good singing as the ,italians understand it8 ,principally the production of a perfectly controlled and exquisitely beautiful tone4 ,simple as this may seem and simple as it really is1 the laws underlying the best way of teaching how to secure a beautiful tone are the evolution of empirical experiences coming down through the centuries4 ,it is a significant fact that practically all of the great singers in ,wagner roles have first been trained in what is so loosely termed bel canto methods4 ,lilli ,lehmann1 ,schumann-,heink1 ,nordica and others were capable of singing fine coloratura passages before they undertook the works of the great master of ,beyreuth4 ,,the ,,secret ,,of ,,conserving ,,the ,,voice ,in the mass of traditions1 suggestions and advice which go to make the bel canto style1 probably nothing is so important to ,american students as that which pertains to conserving the voice4 ,whether our girls are inordinately fond of display or whether they are unable to control their vocal organs ,i do not know1 but one is continually treated to instances of the most ludicrous prodigality of voice4 ,the whole idea of these young singers seems to be to make a hit by shouting or even screeching4 ,there can be no milder terms for the straining of the tones so frequently heard4 ,this prodigality has only one result--loss of voice4 ,the great ,rubini once wrote to his friend1 the tenor ,duprez1 ,you lost your voice because you always sang with your capital4 ,i have kept mine because ,i have used only the interest4 ,this historical epigram ought to be hung in all the vocal studios of ,america4 ,our ,american voices are too beautiful1 too rare to be wasted1 practically thrown away by expending the capital before it has been able to earn any interest4 ,moreover1 the thing which has the most telling effect upon any audience is the beauty of tone quality4 ,people will stop at any time to listen to the wonderful call of the nightingale4 ,in some parts of ,europe it is the custom to make parties to go at nights to the woods to hear that wonderful singer of the forests4 ,did you ever hear of any one forming a party for the express purpose of listening to the crowing of a rooster8 ,one is a treat to the ear1 the other is a shock4 ,when our young singers learn that people do not attend concerts to have their ears shocked but to have them delighted with beautiful sound1 they will be nearer the right idea in voice culture4 ,the student's first effort1 then1 should be to preserve the voice4 ,from the very first lesson he must strive to learn how to make the most with little4 ,how is the student to know when he is straining the voice8 ,this is simple enough to ascertain4 ,at the very instant that the slightest constriction or effort is noticed strain is very likely to be present4 ,much of this depends upon administering exactly the right amount of breath to the vocal cords at the moment of singing4 ,too much breath or too little breath is bad4 ,the student finds by patient experiment under the direction of the experienced teacher just how much breath to use4 ,all sorts of devices are employed to test the breath1 but it is probable that the best devices of all are those which all singers use as the ultimate test1 the ear and the feeling of delightful relaxation surrounding the vocal organs during the process of singing4 ,,courage ,,in ,,singing ,much of the student's early work is marred by fear4 ,he fears to do this and he fears to do that1 until he feels himself walled in by a set of rules that make his singing stilted4 ,from the very start the singer1 particularly the one who aspires to become an operatic singer1 should endeavor to discard fear entirely4 ,think that if you fail in your efforts1 thousands of singers have failed in a similar manner in their student days4 ,success in singing is at the end of a tall ladder1 the rungs of which are repeated failures4 ,we climb up over our failures to success4 ,learn to fear nothing1 the public least of all4 ,if the singer gives the audience the least suspicion that she is in fear of their verdict1 the audience will detect it at once and the verdict will be bad4 ,also do not fear the criticism of jealous rivals4 ,affirm success4 ,say to yourself1 ,i will surely succeed if ,i persevere4 ,in this way you will acquire those habits of tranquillity which are so essential for the singer to possess4 ,,the ,,reason ,,for ,,the ,,lack ,,of ,,well-,,trained ,,voices ,there are abundant opportunities just now for finely trained singers4 ,in fact there is a real dearth of well-equipped voices4 ,managers are scouring the world for singers with ability as well as the natural voice4 ,why does this dearth exist8 ,simply because the trend of modern musical work is far too rapid4 ,results are expected in an impossible space of time4 ,the pupil and the maestro work for a few months and1 lo and behold6 a prima donna6 ,can any one who knows anything about the art of singing fail to realize how absurd this is8 ,more voices are ruined by this haste than by anything else4 ,it is like expecting the child to do the feats of the athlete without the athlete's training4 ,there are singers in opera now who have barely passed the1 what might be called1 rudimentary stage4 ,with the decline of the older operas1 singers evidently came to the conclusion that it was not necessary to study for the perfection of tone-quality1 evenness of execution and vocal agility4 ,the modern writers did not write such fioratura passages1 then why should it be necessary for the student to bother himself with years of study upon exercises and vocalises designed to prepare him for the operas of ,bellini1 ,rossini1 ,spontini1 ,donizetti1 ,scarlatti1 ,carissimi or other masters of the florid school8 ,what a fatuous reasoning4 ,are we to obliterate the lessons of history which indicate that voices trained in such a school as that of ,patti1 ,jenny ,lind1 ,sembrich1 ,lehmann1 ,malibran1 ,rubini and others1 have phenomenal endurance1 and are able to retain their freshness long after other voices have faded8 ,no1 if we would have the wonderful vitality and longevity of the voices of the past we must employ the methods of the past4 ,,the ,,delicate ,,nature ,,of ,,the ,,human ,,voice ,of all instruments the human voice is by far the most delicate and the most fragile4 ,the wonder is that it will stand as much punishment as is constantly given to it4 ,some novices seem to treat it with as little respect as though it were made out of brass like a tuba or a trombone4 ,the voice is subject to physical and psychical influences4 ,every singer knows how acutely all human emotions are reflected in the voice2 at the same time all physical ailments are immediately active upon the voice of the singer4 ,there is a certain freshness or edge which may be worn off the voice by ordinary conversation on the day of the concert or the opera4 ,some singers find it necessary to preserve the voice by refraining from all unnecessary talking prior to singing4 ,long-continued practice is also very bad4 ,an hour is quite sufficient on the day of the concert4 ,during the first years of study1 half an hour a day is often enough practice4 ,more practice should only be done under special conditions and with the direction of a thoroughly competent teacher4 ,singing in the open air1 when particles of dust are blowing about1 is particularly bad4 ,the throat seems to become irritated at once4 ,in my mind tobacco smoke is also extremely injurious to the voice1 notwithstanding the fact that some singers apparently resist its effects for years4 ,i once suffered severely from the effects of being in a room filled with tobacco smoke and was unable to sing for at least two months4 ,i also think that it is a bad plan to sing immediately after eating4 ,the peristaltic action of the stomach during the process of digestion is a very pronounced function and anything which might tend to disturb it might affect the general health4 ,the singer must lead an exceedingly regular life1 but the exaggerated privations and excessive care which some singers take are quite unnecessary4 ,the main thing is to determine what is a normal life and then to live as close to this as possible4 ,if you find that some article of diet disagrees with you1 remember to avoid that food2 for an upset stomach usually results in complete demoralization of the entire vocal system4 ,,some ,,practice ,,suggestions ,no matter how great the artist1 daily practice1 if even not more than forty minutes a day1 is absolutely necessary4 ,there is a deep philosophical and physiological principle underlying this and it applies particularly to the vocal student4 ,each minute spent in intelligent practice makes the voice better and the task easier4 ,the power to do comes with doing4 ,part of each day's practice should be devoted to singing the scale softly and slowly with perfect intonation4 ,every tone should be heard with the greatest possible acuteness4 ,the ears should analyze the tone quality with the same scrutiny with which a botanist would examine the petals of a newly discovered specimen4 ,as the singer does this he will notice that his sense of tone color will develop2 and this is a very vital part of every successful singer's equipment4 ,he will become aware of beauties as well as defects in his voice which may never have been even suspected if he will only listen microscopically enough4 ,much of the singer's progress depends upon the mental model he keeps before him4 ,the singer who constantly hears the best of singing naturally progresses faster than one surrounded by inferior singing4 ,this does not recommend that the student should imitate blindly but that he should hear as much fine singing as possible4 ,those who have not the means to attend concerts and the opera may gain immensely from hearing fine records4 ,little ,adelina ,patti1 playing as a child on the stage of the old ,academy of ,music in ,new ,york1 was really attending the finest kind of a conservatory unawares4 ,the old ,italian teachers and writers upon voice1 knowing the florid style in which their pupils would be expected to sing1 did not have much to do with fanciful exercises4 ,they gave their lives to the quest of the bel canto2 and many of them had difficulty in convincing their pupils that the simplest exercises were often the hardest4 ,take for instance this invaluable scale exercise sung with the marks of expression carefully observed4 ,this exercise is one of the most difficult to sing properly4 ,nevertheless1 some student will rush on to florid exercises before he can master this exercise4 ,to sing it right it must be regarded with almost devotional reverence4 ,indeed1 it may well be practiced diligently for years4 ,every tone is a problem1 a problem which must be solved in the brain and in the body of the singer and not in the mind of any teacher4 ,the student must hold up every tone for comparison with his ideal tone4 ,every note must ring sweet and clear1 pure and free4 ,every tone must be even more susceptible to the emotions than the expression upon the most mobile face4 ,every tone must be made the means of conveying some human emotion4 ,some singers practice their exercises in such a perfunctory manner that they get as a result voices so stiff and hard that they sound as though they came from metallic instruments which could only be altered in a factory instead of from throats lined with a velvet-like membrane4 ,illustration3 musical notation3 ,sing with great attention to intonation4 ,flexibility1 mobility and susceptibility to expression are quite as important as mere sweetness4 ,after the above exercise has been mastered the pupil may pass to the chromatic scale 7scala semitonata sostenuto72 and this scale should be sung in the same slow sustained manner as the foregoing illustration4 ,,mme4 ,,marcella ,,sembrich ,,biographical ,mme4 ,marcella ,sembrich 7,praxede ,marcelline ,kochanska7 was born in ,wisnewczyk1 ,galicia1 ,february #ae1 #aheh4 ,sembrich was her mother's name4 ,her father was a music teacher and she tells with pleasure how she watched her father make a little violin for her to practice upon4 ,at the age of seven she was taken to ,wilhelm ,stengel at ,lemberg for further instruction4 ,later she went to study with the famous pedagogue1 ,julius ,epstein1 at ,vienna1 who was amazed by the child's prodigious talent as a pianist and as a violinist4 ,he asked1 ,is there anything else she can do8 ,yes1 replied ,stengel1 ,i think she can sing4 ,sing she did2 and ,epstein was not long in determining that she should follow the career of the singer4 ,her other teachers were ,victor ,rokitansky1 ,richard ,lewy and ,g4 ,b4 ,lamperti and a few months with the elder ,francesco ,lamperti4 ,her debut was made in ,athens in #ahgg1 in ,i ,puritani4 ,thereafter she toured all of the ,european art centers with invariable success4 ,her first ,american appearance was in #ahhc4 ,she came again in #ahih and for years sang with immense success in all parts of ,america4 ,america has since become her home1 where she has devoted much time to teaching4 ,illustration3 ,,mme4 ,,marcella ,,sembrich4 7,c7 ,dupont4 ,,how ,,fortunes ,,are ,,wasted ,,in ,,vocal ,,education ,,mme4 ,,marcella ,,sembrich ,,every ,,one ,,who ,,can ,,should ,,learn ,,to ,,sing ,few accomplishments are more delight-giving than that of being able to sing4 ,i would most enthusiastically advise anyone possessing a fair voice to have it trained by some reliable singing teacher4 ,european peoples appreciate the great privilege of being able to sing for their own amusement1 and the pleasure they get from their singing societies is inspiring4 ,if ,americans took more time for the development of accomplishments of this kind their journey through life would be far more enjoyable and perhaps more profitable4 ,i believe that all should understand the art of singing1 if only to become amateurs4 ,that music makes the soul more beautiful ,i have not the least doubt4 ,because some musicians have led questionable lives does not prove the contrary4 ,what might these men have been had they not been under the benign influence of music8 ,one has only to watch people who are under the magic spell of beautiful music to understand what a power it has for the good4 ,i believe that good vocal music should be a part of all progressive educational work4 ,the more music we have1 the more beautiful this world will be1 the more kindly people will feel toward each other and the more life will be worth living4 ,,wrong ,,to ,,encourage ,,voiceless ,,aspirants ,but when ,i say that everyone who possesses a voice should learn to sing ,i do not by any means wish to convey the idea that anyone who desires may become a great singer4 ,that is a privilege that is given to but a very few fortunate people4 ,so many things go together to make a great singer that the one who gives advice should be very circumspect in encouraging young people to undertake a professional career--especially an operatic career4 ,giving advice under any conditions is often thankless4 ,i have been appealed to by hundreds of girls who have wanted me to hear them sing4 ,i have always told them what seemed to me the truth1 but ,i have been so dismayed at the manner in which this has been received that ,i hesitate greatly before hearing aspiring singers4 ,it is the same way with the teachers4 ,i know that some teachers are blamed for taking voiceless pupils1 but the pupils are more often to blame than the teacher4 ,i have known pupils who have been discouraged by several good teachers to persist until they finally found a teacher who would take them4 ,most teachers are conscientious--often too conscientious for their pocketbooks4 ,if a representative teacher or a prominent singer advises you not to attempt a public career you should thank him1 as he is doubtless trying to save you from years of miserable failure4 ,it is a very serious matter for the pupil1 and one that should be given almost sacred consideration by those who have the pupil's welfare at heart4 ,wise1 indeed1 is the young singer who can so estimate her talents that she will start along the right path4 ,there are many positions which are desirable and laudable which can be ably filled by competent singers4 ,if you have limitations which will prevent your ever reaching that will-o'-the-wisp known as fame1 do not waste money trying to achieve what is obviously out of your reach4 ,if you can fill the position of soloist in a small choir creditably1 do so and be contented4 ,don't aspire for operatic heights if you are hopelessly shackled by a lack of natural qualifications4 ,it is a serious error to start vocal instruction too early4 ,i do not believe that the girl's musical education should commence earlier than at the age of sixteen4 ,it is true that in the cases of some very healthy girls no very great damage may be done1 but it is a risk ,i certainly would not advise4 ,much money and time are wasted upon voice training of girls under the age of sixteen4 ,if the girl is destined for a great career she will have the comprehension1 the grasp1 the insight that will lead her to learn very rapidly4 ,some people can take in the whole meaning of a picture at a glance2 others are obliged to regard the picture for hours to see the same points of artistic interest4 ,quick comprehension is a great asset1 and the girl who is of the right sort will lose nothing by waiting until she reaches the above age4 ,,piano ,,or ,,violin ,,study ,,advisable ,,for ,,all ,,singers ,ambition1 faithfulness to ideals and energy are the only hopes left open to the singer who is not gifted with a wonderfully beautiful natural voice4 ,it is true that some singers of great intelligence and great energy have been able to achieve wide fame with natural voices that under other conditions would only attract local notice4 ,these singers deserve great credit for their efforts4 ,while the training of the voice may be deferred to the age of sixteen1 the early years should by no means be wasted4 ,the general education of the child1 the fortification of the health and the study of music through the medium of some instrument are most important4 ,the young girl who commences voice study with the ability to play either the violin or the piano has an enormous advantage over the young girl who has had no musical training4 ,i found the piano training of my youth of greatest value1 and through the study of the violin ,i learned certain secrets that ,i later applied to respiration and phrasing4 ,although my voice was naturally flexible1 ,i have no doubt that the study of these instruments assisted in intonation and execution in a manner that ,i cannot over-estimate4 ,a beautiful voice is not so great a gift1 unless its possessor knows how to employ it to advantage4 ,the musical training that one receives from the study of an instrument is of greatest value4 ,consequently1 ,i advise parents who hope to make their children singers to give them the advantage of a thorough musical training in either violin study or the piano4 ,much wasted money and many blasted ambitions can be spared by such a course4 ,a ,,good ,,general ,,education ,,of ,,vast ,,importance ,the singer whose general education has been neglected is in a most unfortunate plight4 ,and by general education ,i do not mean only those academic studies that people learn in schools4 ,the imagination must be stimulated1 the heartfelt love for the poetical must be cultivated1 and above all things the love for nature and mankind must be developed4 ,i can take the greatest joy in a walk through a great forest4 ,it is an education to me to be with nature4 ,unfortunately1 only too many ,americans go rushing through life neglecting those things which make life worth living4 ,,musical ,,advance ,,in ,,america ,there has been a most marvelous advance in this respect1 however1 in ,america4 ,not only in nature love but in art it has been my pleasure to watch a wonderful growth4 ,when ,i first came here in #ahhc things were entirely different in many respects4 ,now the great operatic novelties of ,europe are presented here in magnificent style1 and often before they are heard in many ,european capitals4 ,in this respect ,america to-day ranks with the best in the world4 ,will you not kindly permit me to digress for a moment and say to the music lovers of ,america that ,i appreciate in the deepest manner the great kindnesses that have been shown to me everywhere8 ,for this reason1 ,i know that my criticisms1 if they may be called such1 will be received as they are intended4 ,the singer should make a serious study of languages4 ,french1 ,german1 ,english and ,italian are the most necessary ones4 ,i include ,english as ,i am convinced that it is only a matter of a short time when a school of opera written by ,english-speaking composers will arise4 ,the great educational and musical advance in ,america is an indication of this4 ,as for voice exercises1 ,i have always been of the opinion that it is better to leave that matter entirely to the discretion of the teacher4 ,there can be no universal voice exercise that will apply to all cases4 ,again1 it is more a matter of how the exercise is sung than the exercise itself4 ,the simplest exercise can become valuable in the hands of the great teacher4 ,i have no faith in the teachers who make each and every pupil go through one and the same set of exercises in the same way4 ,the voice teacher is like the physician4 ,he must originate and prescribe certain remedies to suit certain cases4 ,much money is wasted by trying to do without a good teacher4 ,if the pupil really has a great voice and the requisite talent1 it is economical to take her to the best teacher obtainable4 ,american women have wonderful voices4 ,moreover1 they have great energy1 talent and temperament4 ,their accomplishments in the operatic world are matters of present musical history4 ,with such splendid effort and such generosity1 it is easy to prophesy a great future for musical ,america4 ,this is the land of great accomplishments4 ,with time ,americans will give more attention to the cultivation of details in art1 they will acquire more repose perhaps1 and then the tremendous energy which has done so much to make the country what it is will be a great factor in establishing a school of music in the new world which will rank with the greatest of all times4 ,,mme4 ,,ernestine ,,schumann-,,heink ,,biographical ,mme4 ,ernestine ,schumann-,heink 7nee ,roessler7 was born near the city of ,prague1 ,july #ae1 #ahfa4 ,she relates that her father was a ,czech and her mother was of ,italian extraction4 ,she was educated in ,ursuline ,convent and studied singing with ,mme4 ,marietta von ,leclair in ,graz4 ,her first appearance was at the age of #ae1 when she is reported to have taken a solo part in a performance of the ,beethoven ,ninth ,symphony1 at an important concert in ,graz4 ,her operatic debut was made at the ,royal ,opera1 ,dresden1 in ,trovatore4 ,there she studied under ,krebs and ,franz ,wuellner4 ,it is impossible to detail ,mme4 ,schumann-,heink's operatic successes here1 since her numerous appearances at the leading operatic houses of the world have been followed by such triumphs that she is admittedly the greatest contralto soloist of her time4 ,at ,bayreuth1 ,covent ,garden1 and at the ,metropolitan her appearances have drawn multitudes4 ,in concert she proved one of the greatest of all singers of art songs4 ,in #aije she became an ,american citizen1 her enthusiasm for this country leading her to name one of her sons ,george ,washington4 ,during the great war 7in which four of her sons served with the ,american colors7 she toured incessantly from camp to camp1 giving her services for the entertainment of the soldiers and winning countless admirers in this way4 ,her glorious voice extends from ,d on the third line of the bass clef to ,c on the second leger line above the treble clef4 ,illustration3 ,,mme4 ,,ernestine ,,schumann-,,heink4 ,,keeping ,,the ,,voice ,,in ,,prime ,,condition ,,mme4 ,,ernestine ,,schumann-,,heink ,,the ,,artist',s ,,responsibility ,would you have me give the secret of my success at the very outstart8 ,it is very simple and centers around this subject of the artist's responsibility to the audience4 ,my secret is absolute devotion to the audience4 ,i love my audiences4 ,they are all my friends4 ,i feel a bond with them the moment ,i step before them4 ,whether ,i am singing in blase ,new ,york or before an audience of farmer folk in some ,western ,chautauqua1 my attitude toward my audience is quite the same4 ,i take the same care and thought with every audience4 ,this even extends to my dress4 ,the singer1 who wears an elaborate gown before a ,metropolitan audience and wears some worn-out old rag of a thing when singing at some rural festival1 shows that she has not the proper respect in her mind4 ,respect is everything4 ,therefore it is necessary for me to have my voice in the best of condition every day of the year4 ,it is my duty to my audience4 ,the woman who comes to a country ,chautauqua and brings her baby with her and perchance nurses the little one during the concert gets a great deal closer to my heart than the stiff-backed aristocrat who has just left a ,pekingese spaniel outside of the opera house door in a #fjjj4jj limousine4 ,that little country woman expects to hear the singer at her best4 ,therefore1 ,i practice just as carefully on the day of the ,chautauqua concert as ,i would if ,i were to sing ,ortrud the same night at the ,metropolitan in ,new ,york4 ,american audiences are becoming more and more discriminating4 ,likewise they are more and more responsive4 ,as an ,american citizen1 ,i am devoted to all the ideals of the new world4 ,they have accepted me in the most whole-souled manner and ,i am grateful to the land of my adoption4 ,,the ,,advantage ,,of ,,an ,,early ,,training ,whether or not the voice keeps in prime condition to-day depends largely upon the early training of the singer4 ,if that training is a good one1 a sound one1 a sensible one1 the voice will1 with regular practice1 keep in good condition for a remarkably long time4 ,the trouble is that the average student is too impatient in these days to take time for a sufficient training4 ,the voice at the outstart must be trained lightly and carefully4 ,there must not be the least strain4 ,i believe that at the beginning two lessons a week should be sufficient4 ,the lessons should not be longer than one-half an hour and the home practice should not exceed at the start fifty minutes a day4 ,even then the practice should be divided into two periods4 ,the young singer should practice mezza voce1 which simply means nothing more or less than half voice4 ,never practice with full voice unless singing under the direction of a well-schooled teacher with years of practical singing experience4 ,it is easy enough to shout4 ,some of the singers in modern opera seem to employ a kind of megaphone method4 ,they stand stock still on the stage and bawl out the phrases as though they were announcing trains in a railroad terminal4 ,such singers disappear in a few years4 ,their voices seem torn to shreds4 ,the reason is that they have not given sufficient attention to bel canto in their early training4 ,they seem to forget that voice must first of all be beautiful4 ,bel canto1--beautiful singing1--not the singing of meaningless ,italian phrases1 as so many insist1 but the glorious bel canto which ,bach1 ,haydn and ,mozart demand1--a bel canto that cultivates the musical taste1 disciplines the voice and trains the singer technically to do great things4 ,please understand that ,i am not disparaging the good and beautiful in ,italian masterpieces4 ,the musician will know what ,i mean4 ,the singer can gain little1 however1 from music that intellectually and vocally is better suited to a parrot than a human being4 ,some of the older singers made bel canto such an art that people came to hear them for their voices alone1 and not for their intellectual or emotional interpretations of a role4 ,perhaps you never heard ,patti in her prime4 ,ah6 ,patti--the wonderful ,adelina with the glorious golden voice4 ,it was she who made me ambitious to study breathing until it became an art4 ,to hear her as she trippingly left the stage in ,verdi's ,traviata singing runs with ease and finish that other singers slur or stumble over1--ah6 that was an art6 ,illustration3 musical notation3 ,ex4 #a il mio pen sier1 il mio pen-sier il mio pen-sier4 ,volumes have been written on breathing and volumes more could be written4 ,this is not the place to discuss the singer's great fundamental need4 ,need ,i say more than that ,i practice deep breathing every day of my life8 ,,the ,,age ,,for ,,starting ,it is my opinion that no girl who wishes to keep her voice in the prime of condition all the time in after years should start to study much earlier than seventeen or eighteen years of age4 ,in the case of a man ,i do not believe that he should start until he is past twenty or even twenty-two4 ,i know that this is contrary to what many singers think1 but the period of mutation in both sexes is a much slower process than most teachers realize1 and ,i have given this matter a great deal of serious thought4 ,,let ,,everybody ,,sing6 ,can ,i digress long enough to say that ,i think that everybody should sing8 ,that is1 they should learn to sing under a good singing instructor4 ,this does not mean that they should look forward toward a professional career4 ,god forbid6 ,there are enough half-baked singers in the world now who are striving to become professionals4 ,but the public should know that singing is the healthiest kind of exercise imaginable4 ,when one sings properly one exercises nearly all of the important muscles of the torso4 ,the circulation of the blood is improved1 the digestion bettered1 the heart promoted to healthy action--in fact1 everything is bettered4 ,singers as a rule are notoriously healthy and often very long lived4 ,the new movement for community singing in the open air is a magnificent one4 ,let everybody sing6 ,a great singing teacher with a reputation as big as ,napoleon's or ,george ,washington's is not needed4 ,there are thousands and thousands of unknown teachers who are most excellent4 ,often the advice or the instruction is very much the same4 ,what difference does it make whether ,i buy ,castile soap in a huge ,broadway store or a little country store1 if the soap is the same8 ,many people hesitate to study because they can not study with a great teacher4 ,nonsense6 ,pick out some sensible1 well-drilled teacher and then use your own good judgment to guide yourself4 ,remember that ,schumann-,heink did not study with a world-famed teacher4 ,whoever hears of ,marietta von ,leclair in these days8 ,yet ,i do not think that ,i could have done any more with my voice if ,i had had every famous teacher from ,niccolo ,antonio ,porpora down to the present day4 ,the individual singer must have ideals1 and then leave nothing undone to attain those ideals4 ,one of my ideals was to be able to sing pianissimo with the kind of resonance that makes it carry up to the farthest gallery4 ,that is one of the most difficult things ,i had to learn1 and ,i attained it only after years of faithful practice4 ,,the ,,singer',s ,,daily ,,routine ,to keep the voice in prime condition the singer's first consideration is physical and mental health4 ,if the body or the mind is over-taxed singing becomes an impossibility4 ,it is amazing what the healthy body and the busy mind can really stand4 ,i take but three weeks' vacation during the year and find that ,i am a great deal better for it4 ,long terms of enforced indolence do not mean rest4 ,the real artist is happiest when at work1 and ,i want to work4 ,fortunately ,i am never at loss for opportunity4 ,the ambitious vocal student can benefit as much by studying a good book on hygiene or the conservation of the health as from a book on the art of singing4 ,first of all comes diet4 ,americans as a rule eat far too much4 ,why do some of the good churchgoing people raise such an incessant row about over-drinking when they constantly injure themselves quite as much by over-eating8 ,what difference does it make whether you ruin your stomach1 liver or kidneys by too much alcohol or too much roast beef8 ,one vice is as bad as another4 ,the singer must live upon a light diet4 ,a heavy diet is by no means necessary to keep up a robust physique4 ,i am rarely ill1 am exceedingly strong in every way1 and yet eat very little indeed4 ,i find that my voice is in the best of condition when ,i eat very moderately4 ,my digestion is a serious matter with me1 and ,i take every precaution to see that it is not congested in any way4 ,this is most important to the singer4 ,here is an average menu for my days when ,i am on tour3 ,,breakfast ,two or more glasses of ,cold ,water 7not ice water7 ,ham and ,eggs ,coffee ,toast4 ,,mid-,,day ,,dinner ,soup ,some ,meat ,order ,a ,vegetable ,plenty of ,salad ,fruit4 ,,supper ,a ,sandwich ,fruit4 ,such a menu ,i find ample for the heaviest kind of professional work4 ,if ,i eat more1 my work may deteriorate1 and ,i know it4 ,fresh air1 sunshine1 sufficient rest and daily baths in tepid water night and morning are a part of my regular routine4 ,i lay special stress upon the baths4 ,nothing invigorates the singer as much as this4 ,avoid very cold baths1 but see to it that you have a good reaction after each bath4 ,there is nothing like such a routine as this to avoid colds4 ,if you have a cold try the same remedies to try to get rid of it4 ,to me1 one day at ,atlantic ,city is better for a cold than all the medicine ,i can take4 ,i call ,atlantic ,city my cold doctor4 ,of course1 there are many other shore resorts that may be just as helpful1 but when ,i can do so ,i always make a bee line for ,atlantic ,city the moment ,i feel a serious cold on the way4 ,sensible singers know now that they must avoid alcohol1 even in limited quantities1 if they desire to be in the prime of condition and keep the voice for a long1 long time4 ,champagne particularly is poison to the singer just before singing4 ,it seems to irritate the throat and make good vocal work impossible4 ,i am sorry for the singer who feels that some spur like champagne or a cup of strong coffee is desirable before going upon the stage4 ,it amuses me to hear girls say1 ,i would give anything to be a great singer2 and then go and lace themselves until they look like ,jersey mosquitoes4 ,the breath is the motive power of the voice4 ,without it under intelligent control nothing can be accomplished4 ,one might as well try to run an automobile without gasoline as sing without breath4 ,how can a girl breathe when she has squeezed her lungs to one-half their normal size8 ,,preparation ,,for ,,heavy ,,roles ,the voice can never be kept in prime condition if it is obliged to carry a load that it has not been prepared to carry4 ,most voices that wear out are voices that have been overburdened4 ,either the singer does not know how to sing or the role is too heavy4 ,i think that ,i may be forgiven for pointing out that ,i have repeatedly sung the heaviest and most exacting roles in opera4 ,my voice would have been shattered years ago if ,i had not prepared myself for these roles and sung them properly4 ,a man may be able to carry a load of fifty pounds for miles if he carries it on his back1 but he will not be able to carry it a quarter of a mile if he holds it out at arm's length from the body1 with one arm4 ,does this not make the point clear8 ,some roles demand maturity4 ,it is suicidal for the young singer to attempt them4 ,the composer and the conductor naturally think only of the effect at the performance4 ,the singer's welfare with them is a secondary consideration4 ,i have sung under the great composers and conductors1 from ,richard ,wagner to ,richard ,strauss4 ,some of the ,strauss roles are even more strenuous than those of ,wagner4 ,they call for great energy as well as great vocal ability4 ,young singers essay these heavy roles and the voices go to pieces4 ,why not wait a little while8 ,why not be patient8 ,the singer is haunted by the delusion that success can only come to her if she sings great roles4 ,if she can not ape ,melba in ,traviata1 ,emma ,eames as ,elizabeth in ,tannhaeuser or ,geraldine ,farrar in ,butterfly1 she pouts and refuses to do anything4 ,offer her a small part and she sneers at it4 ,ha6 ,ha6 ,all my earliest successes were made in the smallest kinds of parts4 ,i realized that ,i had only a little to do and only very little time to do it in4 ,consequently1 ,i gave myself heart and soul to that part4 ,it must be done so artistically1 so intelligently1 so beautifully that it would command success4 ,imagine the roles of ,erda and ,norna1 and ,marie in ,flying ,dutchman4 ,they are so small that they can hardly be seen4 ,yet these roles were my first door to success and fame4 ,wagner did not think of them as little things4 ,he was a real master and knew that in every art-work a small part is just as important as a great part4 ,it is a part of a beautiful whole4 ,don't turn up your nose at little things4 ,take every opportunity1 and treat it as though it were the greatest thing in your life4 ,it pays4 ,everything that amounts to anything in my entire career has come through struggle4 ,at first a horrible struggle with poverty4 ,no girl student in a hall bedroom to-day 7and my heart goes out to them now7 endures more than ,i went through4 ,it was work1 work1 work1 from morning to night1 with domestic cares and worries enough all the time to drive a woman mad4 ,keep up your spirits1 girls4 ,if you have the right kind of fight in you1 success will surely come4 ,never think of discouragement1 no matter what happens4 ,keep working every day and always hoping4 ,it will come out all right if you have the gift and the perseverance4 ,compulsion is the greatest element in the vocalist's success4 ,poverty has a knout in its hand driving you on4 ,well1 let it1--and remember that under that knout you will travel twice as fast as the rich girl possibly can with her fifty-horse-power automobile4 ,keep true to the best4 ,muss--,i ,,must1 ,i will1 the mere necessity is a help not a hindrance1 if you have the right stuff in you4 ,learn to depend upon yourself1 and know that when you have something that the public wants it will not be slow in running after you4 ,don't ask for help4 ,i never had any help4 ,tell that to the aspiring geese who think that ,i have some magic power whereby ,i can help a mediocre singer to success by the mere twist of the hand4 ,,daily ,,exercises ,,of ,a ,,prima ,,donna ,illustration3 musical notation ,daily vocal exercises are the daily bread of the singer4 ,they should be practiced just as regularly as one sits down to the table to eat1 or as one washes one's teeth or as one bathes4 ,as a rule the average professional singer does not resort to complicated exercises and great care is taken to avoid strain4 ,it is perfectly easy for me1 a contralto1 to sing ,c in alt but do you suppose ,i sing it in my daily exercises8 ,it is one of the extreme notes in my range and it might be a strain4 ,consequently ,i avoid it4 ,i also sing most of my exercises mezza voce4 ,there should always be periods of intermission between practice4 ,i often go about my routine work while on tour1 walking up and down the room1 packing my trunk1 etc41 and practicing gently at the same time4 ,i enjoy it and it makes my work lighter4 ,of course ,i take great pains to practice carefully4 ,my exercises are for the most part simple scales1 arpeggios or trills4 ,for instance1 ,i will start with the following3 ,illustration3 musical notation ,this ,i sing in middle voice and very softly4 ,thereby ,i do not become tired and ,i don't bother the neighborhood4 ,if ,i sang this in the big1 full lower tones and sang loud1 my voice would be fatigued rather than benefited and the neighbors would hate me4 ,this ,i continue up to ,d or ,e flat4 ,illustration3 musical notation ,above this ,i invariably use what is termed the head tone4 ,female singers should always begin the head tone on this degree of the staff and not on ,f and ,f1 as is sometimes recommended4 ,i always use the ,italian vowel ah in my exercises4 ,it seems best to me4 ,i know that oo and ue are recommended for contraltos1 but ,i have long had the firm conviction that one should first perfect the natural vocal color through securing good tones by means of the most open vowel4 ,after this is done the voice may be further colored by the judicious employment of other vowels4 ,sopranos1 for instance1 can help their head tones by singing ee 7,italian i74 ,i know nothing better for acquiring a flexible tone than to sing trills like the following3 ,illustration3 musical notation and at the same time preserve a gentle1 smiling expression4 ,smile naturally1 as though you were genuinely amused at something1--smile until your upper teeth are uncovered4 ,then1 try these exercises with the vowel ah4 ,don't be afraid of getting a trivial1 colorless tone4 ,it is easy enough to make the tone sombre by willing it so1 when the occasion demands4 ,you will be amazed what this smiling1 genial1 liebenswuerdig expression will do to relieve stiffness and help you in placing your voice right4 ,the old ,italians knew about it and advocated it strongly4 ,there is nothing like it to keep the voice youthful1 fresh and in the prime of condition4 ,,the ,,singer ,,must ,,relax ,probably more voices are ruined by strain than through any other cause4 ,the singer must relax all the time4 ,this does not mean flabbiness4 ,it does not mean that the singer should collapse before singing4 ,relaxation in the singer's sense is a delicious condition of buoyancy1 of lightness1 of freedom1 of ease and entire lack of tightening in any part4 ,when ,i relax ,i feel as though every atom in my body were floating in space4 ,there is not one single little nerve on tension4 ,the singer must be particularly careful when approaching a climax in a great work of art4 ,then the tendency to tighten up is at its greatest4 ,this must be anticipated4 ,take such a case as the following passage from the famous aria from ,saint-,saens' ,samson et ,delila1 ,mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix4 ,the climax is obviously on the words ,ah6--verse moi4 ,the climax is the note marked by a star 7f on the top line74 ,illustration3 musical notation3 ,reponds a ma ten-dres-se1 ,re-ponds a ma ten-dress-s6 ,ah6--ver-se-moi--ver-se-moi44 l-i-vres-se6 ,when ,i am singing the last notes of the previous phrase to the word tendresse1 anyone who has observed me closely will notice that ,i instinctively let my shoulders drop1--that the facial muscles become relaxed as when one is about to smile or about to yawn4 ,i am then relaxing to meet the great melodic climax and meet it in such a manner that ,i will have abundant reserve force after it has been sung4 ,when one has to sing before an audience of five or six thousand people such a climax is immensely important and it requires great balance to meet it and triumph in it4 ,,antonio ,,scotti ,,biographical ,antonio ,scotti was born at ,naples1 ,jan4 #be1 #ahff1 and did much of his vocal study there with ,mme4 ,trifari ,paganini4 ,his debut was made at the ,teatro ,reale1 in the ,island of ,malta1 in #ahhi4 ,the opera was ,martha4 ,after touring the ,italian opera houses he spent seven seasons in ,south ,america at a time when the interest in grand opera on that continent was developing tremendously4 ,he then toured ,spain and ,russia with great success and made his debut at ,covent ,garden1 ,london1 in #ahii4 ,his success was so great that he was immediately engaged for the ,metropolitan in ,new ,york1 where he has sung every season since that time4 ,his most successful roles have been in ,la ,tosca1 ,la ,boheme1 ,i ,pagliacci1 ,carmen1 ,falstaff1 ,l',oracolo and ,otello4 ,his voice is a rich and powerful baritone4 ,he is considered one of the finest actors among the grand opera singers4 ,during recent years he has toured with an opera company of his own1 making many successful appearances in some of the smaller as well as the larger ,american cities4 ,illustration3 ,,portrait ,,of ,,antonio ,,scotti ,,in ,,the ,,costume ,,of ,,his ,,most ,,famous ,,role1 ,,scarpia1 ,,in ,,la ,,tosca1 ,,by ,,puccini4 ,,italian ,,opera ,,in ,,america ,,antonio ,,scotti ,so closely identified is ,italy with all that pertains to opera1 that the question of the future of ,italian opera in ,america is one that interests me immensely4 ,it has been my privilege to devote a number of the best years of my life to singing in ,italian opera in this wonderful country1 and one cannot help noticing1 first of all1 the almost indescribable advance that ,america has made along all lines4 ,it is so marvelous that those who reside continually in this country do not stop to consider it4 ,musicians of ,europe who have never visited ,america can form no conception of it1 and when they once have had an opportunity to observe musical conditions in ,america1 the great opera houses1 the music schools1 the theatres and the bustling1 hustling activity1 together with the extraordinary casts of world-famous operatic stars presented in our leading cities1 they are amazed in the extreme4 ,it is very gratifying for me to realize that the operatic compositions of my countrymen must play a very important part in the operatic future of ,america4 ,it has always seemed to me that there is far more variety in the works of the modern ,italian composers than in those of other nations4 ,almost all of the later ,german operas bear the unmistakable stamp of ,wagner4 ,those which do not1 show decided ,italian influences4 ,the operas of ,mozart are largely founded on ,italian models1 although they show a marvelous genius peculiar to the great master who created them4 ,,operatic ,,tendencies ,the ,italian opera of the future will without doubt follow the lead of ,verdi1 that is1 the later works of ,verdi4 ,to me ,falstaff seems the most remarkable of all ,italian operas4 ,the public is not well enough acquainted with this work to demand it with the same force that they demand some of the more popular works of ,verdi4 ,verdi was always melodious4 ,his compositions are a beautiful lace-work of melodies4 ,it has seemed to me that some of the ,italian operatic composers who have been strongly influenced by ,wagner have made the mistake of supposing that ,wagner was not a master of melody4 ,consequently they have sacrificed their ,italian birthright of melody for all kinds of cacophony4 ,wagner was really wonderfully melodious4 ,some of his melodies are among the most beautiful ever conceived4 ,i do not refer only to the melodies such as ,oh1 ,thou ,sublime ,evening ,star of ,tannhaeuser or the ,bridal ,march of ,lohengrin1 but also to the inexhaustible fund of melodies that one may find in most every one of his astonishing works4 ,true1 these melodies are different in type from most melodies of ,italian origin1 but they are none the less melodies1 and beautiful ones4 ,verdi's later operas contain such melodies and he is the model which the young composers of ,italy will doubtless follow4 ,puccini1 ,mascagni1 ,leoncavallo1 and others1 have written works rich in melody and yet not wanting in dramatic charm1 orchestral accompaniment and musicianly treatment4 ,,opera ,,the ,,natural ,,genius ,,of ,,italy',s ,,composers ,when the ,italian student leaves the conservatory1 in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred his ambitions are solely along the line of operatic composition4 ,this seems his natural bent or mould4 ,of course he has written small fugues and perhaps even symphonies1 but in the majority of instances these have been mere academic exercises4 ,i regret that this is the case1 and heartily wish that we had more ,bossis1 ,martuccis and ,sgambattis1 but1 again1 would it not be a great mistake to try to make a symphonist out of an operatic composer8 ,in the case of ,perosi ,i often regret that he is a priest and therefore cannot write for the theatre1 because ,i earnestly believe that notwithstanding his success as a composer of religious music1 his natural bent is for the theatre or the opera4 ,,the ,,composers ,,of ,,to-,,day ,of the great ,italian opera composers of to-day1 ,i feel that ,puccini is1 perhaps1 the greatest because he has a deeper and more intimate appreciation of theatrical values4 ,every note that ,puccini writes smells of the paint and canvas behind the proscenium arch4 ,he seems to know just what kind of music will go best with a certain series of words in order to bring out the dramatic meaning4 ,this is in no sense a depreciation of the fine things that ,mascagni1 ,leoncavallo and others have done4 ,it is simply my personal estimate of ,puccini's worth as an operatic composer4 ,personally1 ,i like ,madama ,butterfly better than any other ,italian opera written in recent years4 ,aside from ,falstaff1 my own best role is probably in ,la ,tosca4 ,the two most popular ,italian operas of to-day are without doubt ,aida and ,madama ,butterfly4 ,that is1 these operas draw the greatest audiences at present4 ,it is gratifying to note a very much unified and catholic taste throughout the entire country4 ,that is to say1 in ,chicago1 ,san ,francisco1 ,boston and ,philadelphia one finds the public taste very similar4 ,this indicates that the great musical advance in recent years in ,america has not been confined to one or two eastern cities4 ,,the ,,influence ,,of ,,the ,,star ,,system ,it is often regretable that the reputation of the singer draws bigger audiences in ,america than the work to be performed4 ,american people go to hear some particular singer and not to hear the work of the composer4 ,in other countries this is not so invariably the rule4 ,it is a condition that may be overcome in time in ,america4 ,it often happens that remarkably good performances are missed by the public who are only drawn to the opera house when some great operatic celebrity sings4 ,the intrinsic beauties of the opera itself should have much to do with controlling its presentation4 ,in all cases at present the ,italian opera seems in preponderance1 but this cannot be said to be a result of the engagement of casts composed exclusively of ,italian singers4 ,in our ,american opera houses many singers of many different nationalities are engaged in singing in ,italian opera4 ,personally1 ,i am opposed to operas being sung in any tongue but that in which the opera was originally written4 ,if ,i am not mistaken1 the ,covent ,garden ,opera ,house and the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house are the only two opera houses in the world where this system is followed4 ,no one can realize what ,i mean until he has heard a ,wagner opera presented in ,french1 a tongue that seems absolutely unfitted for the music of ,wagner4 ,,the ,,possible ,,influence ,,of ,,strauss ,,and ,,debussy ,i do not feel that either ,strauss or ,debussy will have an influence upon the music of the coming ,italian composers similar to that which the music of ,wagner had upon ,verdi and his followers4 ,personally1 ,i admire them very much1 but they seem unvocal1 and ,italy is nothing if not vocal4 ,to me ,pelleas and ,melisande would be quite as interesting if it were acted in pantomime with the orchestral accompaniment4 ,the voice parts1 to my way of thinking1 could almost be dispensed with4 ,the piece is a beautiful dream1 and the story so evident that it could almost be played as an opera without words4 ,but vocal it certainly is not1 and the opportunities of the singer are decidedly limited4 ,strauss1 also1 does not even treat the voice with the scant consideration bestowed upon it in some of the extreme passages of the ,wagner operas4 ,occasionally the singer has an opportunity1 but it cannot be denied that to the actor and the orchestra falls the lion's share of the work4 ,,operatic ,,centers ,,in ,,italy ,americans seem to think that the only really great operatic center of ,italy is ,milan4 ,this is doubtless due to the celebrity of the famous opera house1 ,la ,scala1 and to the fact that the great publishing house of ,ricordi is located there1 but it is by no means indicative of the true condition4 ,the fact is that the appreciation of opera is often greater outside of ,milan than in the city4 ,in ,naples1 ,rome and ,florence opera is given on a grand scale1 and many other ,italian cities possess fine theaters and fine operatic companies4 ,the ,san ,carlos ,company1 at ,naples1 is usually exceptionally good1 and the opera house itself is a most excellent one4 ,the greatest musical industry centers around ,milan owing1 as we have said1 to the publishing interests in that city4 ,if an ,italian composer wants to produce one of his works he usually makes arrangements with his publisher4 ,this1 of course1 brings him at once to ,milan in most cases4 ,,more ,,new ,,operas ,,should ,,be ,,produced ,it is1 of course1 difficult to gain an audience for a new work1 but this is largely the fault of the public4 ,the managers are usually willing and glad to bring out novelties if the public can be found to appreciate them4 ,madama ,butterfly is a novelty1 but it leaped into immediate and enormous appreciation4 ,would that we could find a number like it6 ,madama ,butterfly's success has been largely due to the fact that the work bears the direct evidences of inspiration4 ,i was with ,puccini in ,london when he saw for the first time ,john ,luther ,long's story1 dramatized by a ,belasco1 produced in the form of a one-act play4 ,he had a number of librettos under consideration at that time1 but he cast them all aside at once4 ,i never knew ,puccini to be more excited4 ,the story of the little ,japanese piece was on his mind all the time4 ,he could not seem to get away from it4 ,it was in this white heat of inspiration that the piece was moulded4 ,operas do not come out of the nowhere4 ,they are born of the artistic enthusiasm and intellectual exuberance of the trained composer4 ,,america',s ,,musical ,,future ,one of the marvelous conditions of music in this country is that the opera1 the concert1 the oratorio and the recital all seem to meet with equal appreciation4 ,the fact that most students of music in this land play the piano has opened the avenues leading to an appreciation of orchestral scores4 ,in the case of opera the condition was quite different4 ,the appreciation of operatic music demands the voice of the trained artist and this could not be brought to the home until the sound reproducing machine had been perfected4 ,the great increase in the interest in opera in recent years is doubtless due to the fact that thousands and thousands of those instruments are in use in as many homes and music studios4 ,it is far past the toy stage1 and is a genuine factor in the art development and musical education of ,america4 ,at first the sound reproducing machine met with tremendous opposition owing to the fact that bad instruments and poorer records had prejudiced the public1 but now they have reached a condition whereby the voice is reflected with astonishing veracity4 ,the improvements ,i have observed during the past years have seemed altogether wonderful to me4 ,the thought that half a century hence the voices of our great singers of to-day may be heard in the homes of all countries of the globe gives a sense of satisfaction to the singer1 since it gives a permanence to his art which was inconceivable twenty-five years ago4 ,illustration3 ,,henri ,,scott4 ,,henri ,,scott ,,biographical ,henri ,scott was born at ,coatesville1 ,pa41 ,april #h1 #ahgf4 ,he was intended for a business career but became interested in music1 at first in an amateur way1 in ,philadelphia4 ,encouraged by local successes he went to study voice with ,oscar ,saenger1 remaining with him for upward of eleven years4 ,he was fortunate in making appearances with the ,philadelphia ,operatic ,society1 a remarkable amateur organization giving performances of grand opera on a large scale4 ,with this organization he made his first stage appearances as ,ramphis in ,aida1 in #ahig4 ,he had his passage booked for ,europe1 where he was assured many fine appearances1 when he accidentally met ,oscar ,hammerstein1 who engaged him for five years4 ,under this manager he made his professional debut as ,ramphis at the ,manhattan ,opera ,house in ,new ,york1 in #aiji4 ,hammerstein1 a year thereafter1 terminated his ,new ,york performances by selling out to the ,metropolitan ,opera ,company4 ,mr4 ,scott then went to ,rome1 where he made his first appearance in ,faust1 with great success4 ,he was immediately engaged for the ,chicago ,opera ,company where1 during three years1 he sang some thirty-five different roles4 ,in #aiaa he was engaged as a leading basso by the ,metropolitan1 where he remained for many seasons4 ,he has sung on tour with the ,thomas ,orchestra1 with ,caruso and at many famous festivals4 ,he has appeared with success in over one hundred cities in the ,united ,states and ,canada4 ,in response to many offers he went into vaudeville1 where he has sung to hundreds of thousands of ,americans1 with immense success4 ,mr4 ,scott is therefore in a position to speak of this new and interesting phase of bringing musical masterpieces to the masses4 ,,the ,,singer',s ,,larger ,,musical ,,public ,,henri ,,scott ,like every ,american1 ,i resent the epithet1 the masses1 because ,i have always considered myself a part of that mysterious unbounded organization of people to which all democratic ,americans feel that they belong4 ,one who is not a member of the masses in ,america is perforce a snob and a prig4 ,possibly one of the reasons why our republic has survived so many years is that all true ,americans are aristocratic1 not in the attitude of ,i am as good as everyone1 but yet human enough to feel deep in their hearts1 ,any good citizen is as good as ,i4 ,,why ,,grand ,,opera ,,is ,,expensive ,music in ,america should be the property of everybody4 ,the talking machines come near making it that1 if one may judge from the sounds that come from half the homes at night4 ,but the people want to hear the best music from living performers in the flesh4 ,at the same time1 comparatively1 very few can pay from two to twenty dollars a seat to hear great opera and great singers4 ,the reason why grand opera costs so much is that the really fine voices1 with trained operatic experience1 are very1 very few2 and1 since only a few performances are given a year1 the price must be high4 ,it is simply the law of supply and demand4 ,there are1 in ,america1 two large grand opera companies and half a dozen traveling ones1 some of them very excellent4 ,there are probably twenty large symphony orchestras and at least one hundred oratorio societies of size4 ,to say that these bodies and others purveying good music1 reach more than five million auditors a year would possibly be a generous figure4 ,but five million is not one-twentieth of the population of ,america4 ,what about the nineteen-twentieths8 ,on the other hand1 there are in ,america between two and three thousand good vaudeville and moving picture houses where the best music in some form is heard not once or twice a week for a short season1 but several times each day4 ,some of the moving picture houses have orchestras of thirty-five to eighty men1 selected from musicians of the finest ability1 many of whom have played in some of the greatest orchestras of the world4 ,these orchestras and the talking machines are doing more to bring good music to the public than all the larger organizations1 if we consider the subject from a standpoint of numbers4 ,a ,,revolution ,,in ,,taste ,the whole character of the entertainments in moving picture and vaudeville theaters has been revolutionized4 ,the buildings are veritable temples of art4 ,the class of the entertainment is constantly improving in response to a demand which the business instincts of the managers cannot fail to recognize4 ,the situation is simply this3 ,the ,american people1 with their wonderful thirst for self-betterment1 which has brought about the prodigious success of the educational papers1 the schools and the ,chautauquas1 like to have the beautiful things in art served to them with inspiriting amusement4 ,we1 as a people1 have been becoming more and more refined in our tastes4 ,we want better and better things1 not merely in music1 but in everything4 ,in my boyhood there were thousands of families in fair circumstances who would endure having the most awful chromos upon their walls4 ,these have for the most part entirely disappeared except in the homes of the newest aliens4 ,it is true that much of our music is pretty raw in the popular field2 but even in this it is getting better slowly and surely4 ,if in recent years there has been a revolution in the popular taste for vaudeville1 ,b4 ,f4 ,keith was the ,washington of that revolution4 ,he understood the human demand for clean entertainment1 with plenty of healthy fun and an artistic background4 ,he knew the public call for the best music and instilled his convictions in his able followers4 ,mr4 ,keith's attitude was responsible for the signs which one formerly saw in the dressing rooms of good vaudeville theaters1 which read3 ---------------------------------------- ---------- ,profanity of any kind1 objectionable or suggestive remarks1 are forbidden in this theater4 ,offenders are liable to have the curtain rung down upon them during such an act4 ---------------------------------------- ---------- ,fortunately these signs have now disappeared1 as the actors have been so disciplined that they know that a coarse remark would injure them with the management4 ,vaudeville is on a far higher basis than much so-called comic opera4 ,some acts are paid exceedingly large sums4 ,sarah ,bernhardt received #gjjj4jj a week2 ,calve1 ,bispham1 ,kocian1 ,carolina ,white and ,marguerite ,sylvia1 accordingly4 ,dorothy ,jordan1 ,bessie ,abbott1 ,rosa ,ponselle1 ,orville ,harold and the recent ,indian sensation at the ,metropolitan1 ,chief ,caupolican1 actually had their beginnings in vaudeville4 ,in other words1 vaudeville was the stepping-stone to grand opera4 ,,singing ,,for ,,millions ,success in this new field depends upon personality as well as art4 ,it also develops personality4 ,it is no place for a stick4 ,the singer must at all times be in human touch with the audience4 ,the lofty individuals who are thinking far more about themselves than about the songs they are singing have no place here4 ,the task is infinitely more difficult than grand opera4 ,it is far more difficult than recital or oratorio singing4 ,there can be no sham1 no pose4 ,the songs must please or the audience will let one know it in a second4 ,the wear and tear upon the voice is much less than in opera4 ,during the week ,i sing in all three and one-half hours 7not counting rehearsals74 ,when ,i am singing ,mephistopheles in ,faust ,i am in a theater at least six hours--the make-up alone requires at least one and one-half hours4 ,then time is demanded for rehearsals with the company and with various coaches4 ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,putting ,,it ,,over ,thus the vaudeville singer who is genuinely interested in the progress of his art has ample time to study new songs and new roles4 ,in the jargon of vaudeville1 everything is based upon whether the singer is able to put the number over4 ,this is a far more serious matter than one thinks4 ,the audience is made up of the great public--the common people1 ,god bless them4 ,there is not the select gathering of musically cultured people that one finds in ,carnegie ,hall or the ,auditorium4 ,therefore1 in singing music that is admittedly a musical masterpiece1 one must select only those works which may be interpreted with a broad human appeal4 ,one is far closer to his fellow-man in vaudeville than in grand opera1 because the emotions of the auditors are more responsive4 ,it is intensely gratifying to know that these people want real art4 ,my greatest success has been in ,lieurance's ,indian songs and in excerpts from grand opera4 ,upon one occasion my number was followed by that of a very popular comedienne whose performance was known to be of the farcical1 rip-roaring type which vaudeville audiences were supposed to like above all things4 ,it was my pleasure to be recalled1 even after the curtain had ascended upon her performance1 and to be compelled to give another song as an encore4 ,the preference of the vaudeville audience for really good music has been indicated to me time and again4 ,but it is not merely the good music that draws3 the music must be interpreted properly4 ,much excellent music is ruined in vaudeville by ridiculous renditions4 ,,how ,,to ,,get ,,an ,,engagement ,singers have asked me time and again how to get an engagement4 ,the first thing is to be sure that you have something to sell that is really worth while4 ,think of how many people are willing to pay to hear you sing6 ,the more that they are willing to pay1 the more valuable you are to the managers who buy your services4 ,therefore reputation1 of course1 is an important point to the manager4 ,an unknown singer can not hope to get the same fee as the celebrated singer no matter how fine the voice or the art4 ,mr4 ,e4 ,falber and ,mr4 ,martin ,beck1 who have been responsible for a great many of the engagements of great artists in vaudeville and who are great believers in fine music in vaudeville1 have1 through their high position in business1 helped hundreds4 ,but they can not help anyone who has nothing to sell4 ,the home office of the big vaudeville exchange is at ,forty-seventh and ,broadway1 ,n4,y41 and it is one of the busiest places in the great city4 ,even at that1 it has always been a mystery to me just how the thousands of numbers are arranged so that there will be as little loss as possible for the performers2 for it must be remembered that the vaudeville artists buy their own stage clothes and scenery1 attend to their transportation and pay all their own expenses2 unless they can afford the luxury of a personal manager who knows how to do these things just a little better4 ,the singer looking for an engagement must in some way do something to gain some kind of recognition4 ,perhaps it may come from the fact that the manager of the local theater in her town has heard her sing1 or some well-known singer is interested in her and is willing to write a letter of introduction to someone influential in headquarters4 ,with the enormous demands made upon the time of the powers that be1 it is hardly fair to expect them to hear anyone and everyone4 ,with such a letter or such an introduction1 arrange for an audition at the headquarters in ,new ,york4 ,remember all the time that if you have anything really worth while to sell the managers are just as anxious to hear you as you are to be heard4 ,there is no occasion for nervousness4 ,,excellent ,,conditions ,sometimes the managers are badly mistaken4 ,it is common gossip that a very celebrated opera singer sought a vaudeville engagement and was turned down because of the lack of the musical experience of the manager1 and because she was unknown4 ,if he wanted her to-day his figure would have to be several thousand dollars a week4 ,the average vaudeville theater in ,america is far better for the singer1 in many ways1 than many of the opera houses4 ,in fact the vaudeville theaters are new2 while the opera houses are old1 and often sadly run down and out of date4 ,possibly the finest vaudeville theater in ,america is in ,providence1 ,r4 ,i41 and was built by ,e4 ,f4 ,albee4 ,it is palatial in every aspect1 built as strong and substantial as a fort1 and yet as elegant as a mansion4 ,it is much easier to sing in these modern theaters made of stone and concrete than in many of the old-fashioned opera houses4 ,indeed1 some of the vaudeville audiences often hear a singer at far better advantage than in the opera house4 ,the singer who realizes the wonderful artistic opportunities provided in reaching such immense numbers of people1 who will understand that he must sing up to the larger humanity rather than thinking that he must sing down to a mob1 who will work to do better vocal and interpretative thinking at every successive performance1 will lose nothing by singing in vaudeville and may gain an army of friends and admirers he could not otherwise possibly acquire4 ,,emma ,,thursby ,,biographical ,emma ,thursby was born in ,brooklyn1 ,n4 ,y41 and studied singing with ,julius ,meyers1 ,achille ,errani1 ,mme4 ,rudersdorf1 ,lamperti 7elder71 ,san ,giovanni and finally with ,maurice ,strakosch4 ,she began her career as a church singer in ,new ,york and throngs went to different ,new ,york churches to hear her exquisitely mellow and beautiful voice4 ,for many years she was the soprano of the famous ,plymouth ,church when ,henry ,ward ,beecher was the pastor4 ,her voice became so famous that she went on a tour with ,maurice ,strakosch for seven years1 in ,europe and ,america1 everywhere meeting with sensational success4 ,later she toured with the ,gilmore ,band and with the ,thomas ,orchestra4 ,she became as popular in ,london and in ,paris as in ,new ,york4 ,her fame became so great that she finally made a tour of the world1 appearing with great success even in ,china and ,japan4 ,illustration3 ,,emma ,,thursby4 ,,singing ,,in ,,concert ,,and ,,what ,,it ,,means ,,emma ,,thursby ,although conditions have changed very greatly since ,i was last regularly engaged in making concert tours1 the change has been rather one of advantage to young singers than one to their disadvantage4 ,the enormous advance in musical taste can only be expressed by the word startling4 ,for while we have apparently a vast amount of worthless music being continually inoculated into our unsuspecting public1 we have1 nevertheless1 a corresponding cultivation of the love for good music which contributes much to the support of the concert singer of the present day4 ,the old time lyceum has almost disappeared1 but the high-class song recital has taken its place and recitals that would have been barely possible years ago are now frequently given with greatest financial and artistic success4 ,schumann1 ,franz1 ,strauss1 ,grieg and ,mac,dowell have conquered the field formerly held by the vapid and meaningless compositions of brainless composers who wrote solely to amuse or to appeal to morbid sentimentality4 ,the conditions of travel1 also1 have been greatly improved4 ,it is now possible to go about in railroad cars and stop at hotels1 and at the same time experience very little inconvenience and discomfort4 ,this makes the career of the concert artist a far more desirable one than in former years4 ,uninviting hotels1 frigid cars1 poorly prepared meals and the lack of privacy were scarcely the best things to stimulate a high degree of musical inspiration4 ,,health ,nevertheless1 the girl who would be successful in concert must either possess or acquire good health as her first and all-essential asset4 ,notwithstanding the marvelous improvement in traveling facilities and accommodations1 the nervous strain of public performance is not lessened1 and it not infrequently happens that these very facilities enable the avaricious manager to crowd in more concerts and recitals than in former years1 with the consequent strain upon the vitality of the singer4 ,of course1 the singer must also possess the foundation for a good natural voice1 a sense of hearing capable of being trained to the keenest perception of pitch1 quality1 rhythm and metre1 an attractive personality1 a bright mind1 a good general education and an artistic temperament--a very extraordinary list1 ,i grant you1 but we must remember that the public pays out its money to hear extraordinary people and the would-be singer who does not possess qualifications of this description had better sincerely solicit the advice of some experienced1 unbiased teacher or singer before putting forth upon the musical seas in a bark which must meet with certain destruction in weathering the first storm4 ,the teacher who consciously advises a singer to undertake a public career and at the same time knows that such a career would very likely be a failure is beneath the recognition of any honest man or woman4 ,,the ,,singer',s ,,early ,,training ,the education of the singer should not commence too early1 if we mean by education the training of the voice4 ,if you discover that a child has a very remarkable voice1 ear and musical intelligence you had better let the voice alone and give your attention to the general musical education of the child along the lines of that received by ,madame ,sembrich1 who is a fine violinist and pianist4 ,so few are the teachers who know anything whatever about the child-voice1 or who can treat it with any degree of safety1 that it is far better to leave it alone than to tamper with it4 ,encourage the child to sing softly1 sweetly and naturally1 much as in free fluent conversation1 telling him to form the habit of speaking his tones forward on the lips rather than in the throat4 ,if you have among your acquaintances some musician or singer of indisputable ability and impeccable honor who can give you disinterested advice have the child go to this friend now and then to ascertain whether any bad and unnatural habits are being formed4 ,of course we have the famous cases of ,patti and others1 who seem to have sung from infancy4 ,i have no recollection of the time when ,i first commenced to sing4 ,i have always sung and gloried in my singing4 ,see to it that your musical child has a good general education4 ,this does not necessarily mean a college or university training4 ,in fact1 the amount of music study a singer has to accomplish in these days makes the higher academic training apparently impossible4 ,however1 with the great musical advance there has come a demand for higher and better ordered intellectual work among singers4 ,this condition is becoming more and more imperative every day4 ,at the same time you must remember also that nothing should be undertaken that might in any way be liable to undermine or impair the child's health4 ,,when ,,to ,,begin ,,training ,the time to begin training depends upon the maturity of the voice and the individual1 considered together with the physical condition of the pupil4 ,some girls are ready to start voice work at sixteen1 while others are not really in condition until a somewhat older age4 ,here again comes the necessity for the teacher of judgment and experience4 ,a teacher who might in any way be influenced by the necessity for securing a pupil or a fee should be avoided as one avoids the shyster lawyer4 ,starting vocal instruction too early has been the precipice over which many a promising career has been dashed to early oblivion4 ,in choosing a teacher ,i hardly know what to say1 in these days of myriad methods and endless claims4 ,the greatest teachers ,i have known have been men and women of great simplicity and directness4 ,the perpetrator of the complicated system is normally the creator of vocal failures4 ,the secret of singing is at once a marvelous mystery and again an open secret to those who have realized its simplicity4 ,it cannot be altogether written1 nor can it be imparted by words alone4 ,imitation undoubtedly plays an important part1 but it is not everything4 ,the teacher must be one who has actually realized the great truths which underlie the best1 simplest and most natural methods of securing results and who must possess the wonderful power of exactly communicating these principles to the pupil4 ,a good teacher is far rarer than a good singer4 ,singers are often poor teachers1 as they destroy the individuality of the pupil by demanding arbitrary imitation4 ,a teacher can only be judged by results1 and the pupil should never permit herself to be deluded by advertisements and claims a teacher is unable to substantiate with successful pupils4 ,,habits ,,of ,,speech1 ,,poise ,,and ,,thinking ,one of the deep foundation piers of all educational effort is the inculcation of habits4 ,the most successful voice teacher is the one who is most happy in developing habits of correct singing4 ,these habits must be watched with the persistence1 perseverance and affectionate care of the scientist4 ,the teacher must realize that the single lapse or violation of a habit may mean the ruin of weeks or months of hard work4 ,one of the most necessary habits a teacher should form is that of speaking with ease1 naturalness and vocal charm4 ,many of our ,american girls speak with indescribable harshness1 slovenliness and shrillness4 ,this is a severe tax upon the sensibilities of a musical person and ,i know of countless people who suffer acute annoyance from this source4 ,vowels are emitted with a nasal twang or a throaty growl that seem at times most unpardonable noises when coming from a pretty face4 ,consonants are juggled and mangled until the words are very difficult to comprehend4 ,our girls are improving in this respect1 but there is still cause for grievous complaint among voice teachers1 who find in this one of their most formidable obstacles4 ,another common natural fault1 which is particularly offensive to me1 is that of an objectionable bodily poise4 ,i have found throughout my entire career that bodily poise in concert work is of paramount importance1 but ,i seem to have great difficulty in sufficiently impressing this great truth upon young ladies who would be singers4 ,the noted ,parisian teacher1 ,sbriglia1 is said to require one entire year to build up and fortify the chest4 ,i have always felt that the best poise is that in which the shoulders are held well back1 although not in a stiff or strained position1 the upper part of the body leaning forward gently and naturally and the whole frame balanced by a sense of relaxation and ease4 ,in this position the natural equilibrium is not taxed1 and a peculiar sensation of non-constraint seems to be noticeable1 particularly over the entire area of the front of the torso4 ,this position suggests ease and an absence of that military rigidity which is so fatal to all good vocal effort4 ,it also permits of a freer movement of the abdominal walls1 as well as the intercostal muscles1 and is thus conducive to the most natural breathing4 ,too much anatomical explanation is liable to confuse the young singer1 and if the matter of breathing can be assisted by poise1 just so much is gained4 ,another important habit that the teacher should see to at the start is that of correct thinking4 ,most vocal beginners are poor thinkers and fail to realize the vast importance of the mind in all voice work4 ,unless the teacher has the power of inspiring the pupil to a realization of the great fact that nothing is accomplished in the throat that has not been previously performed in the mind1 the path will be a difficult one4 ,during the process of singing the throat and the auxiliary vocal process of breathing are really a part of the brain1 or1 more specifically1 the mind or soul4 ,the body is never more than an instrument4 ,without the performer it is as voiceless as the piano of ,richard ,wagner standing in all its solitary silence at ,wahnfried--a mute monument of the marvelous thoughts which once rang from its vibrating wires to all parts of the civilized world4 ,we really sing with that which leaves the body after death4 ,it is in the cultivation of this mystery of mysteries1 the soul1 that most singers fail4 ,the mental ideal is1 after all1 that which makes the singer4 ,patti possessed this ideal as a child1 and with it the wonderful bodily qualifications which made her immortal4 ,but it requires work to overcome vocal deficiencies1 and ,patti as a child was known to have been a ceaseless worker and thinker1 always trying to bring her little body up to the high aesthetic appreciation of the best artistic interpretation of a given passage4 ,,maurice ,,strakosch',s ,,ten ,,vocal ,,commandments ,it was from ,maurice ,strakosch that ,i learned of the methods pursued by ,patti in her daily work1 and although ,strakosch was not a teacher in the commercial sense of the word1 as he had comparatively few pupils1 he was nevertheless a very fine musician1 and there is no doubt that ,patti owed a great deal to his careful and insistent regime and instruction4 ,although our relation was that of impresario and artist1 ,i cannot be grateful enough to him for the advice and instruction ,i received from him4 ,the technical exercises he employed were exceedingly simple and he gave more attention to how they were sung than to the exercises themselves4 ,i know of no more effective set of exercises than ,strakosch's ten daily exercises4 ,they were sung to the different vowels1 principally to the vowel ah1 as in father4 ,notwithstanding their great simplicity ,strakosch gave the greatest possible attention and time to them4 ,patti used these exercises1 which he called his ,ten ,commandments for the ,singer1 daily1 and there can be little doubt that the extraordinary preservation of her voice is the result of these simple means4 ,i have used them for years with exceptional results in all cases4 ,however1 if the singer has any idea that the mere practice of these exercises to the different vowel sounds will inevitably bring success she is greatly mistaken4 ,these exercises are only valuable when used with vowels correctly and naturally placed1 and that means1 in some cases1 years of the most careful and painstaking work4 ,following are the famous ,ten ,vocal ,commandments1 as used by ,adelina ,patti and several great singers in their daily work4 ,note their simplicity and gradual increase in difficulty4 ,they are to be transposed at the teacher's discretion to suit the range of the voice and are to be used with the different vowels4 ,illustration3 ,i1 musical notation ,illustration3 ,,ii1 musical notation ,illustration3 ,,iii1 musical notation ,illustration3 ,,iv1 musical notation ,illustration3 ,v1 musical notation ,illustration3 ,,vi1 musical notation ,illustration3 ,,vii1 musical notation ,illustration3 ,,viii1 musical notation ,illustration3 ,,ix1 musical notation ,illustration3 ,x1 musical notation ,the concert singer of the present day must have linguistic attainments far greater than those in demand some years ago4 ,she is required to sing in ,english1 ,french1 ,german1 ,italian and some singers are now attempting the interpretation of songs in ,slavic and other tongues4 ,not only do we have to consider arias and passages from the great oratorios and operas as a part of the present-day repertoire1 but the song of the ,lied type has come to have a valuable significance in all concert work4 ,many songs intended for the chamber and the salon are now included in programs of concerts and recitals given in our largest auditoriums4 ,only a very few numbers are in themselves songs written for the concert hall4 ,most of the numbers now sung at song concerts are really transplanted from either the stage or the chamber4 ,this makes the position of the concert singer an extremely difficult one4 ,without the dramatic accessories of the opera house or the intimacy of the home circle1 she is expected to achieve results varying from the cry of the ,valkyries1 in ,die ,walkuere1 to the frail fragrance of ,franz' ,es hat die ,rose sich beklagt4 ,i do not wonder that ,mme4 ,schumann-,heink and others have declared that there is nothing more difficult or exhausting than concert singing4 ,the enormous fees paid to great concert singers are not surprising when we consider how very few must be the people who can ever hope to attain great heights in this work4 ,illustration3 ,,reinald ,,werrenrath4 7,c7 ,mishkin4 ,,reinald ,,werrenrath ,,biographical ,reinald ,werrenrath was born in ,brooklyn1 ,n4 ,y41 ,august #g1 #ahhc4 ,his father1 ,george ,werrenrath1 was a distinguished singer1 and his mother 7nee ,aretta ,camp7 is the daughter of ,henry ,camp1 who was for many years musical director of ,plymouth ,church during the ministry there of ,henry ,ward ,beecher4 ,george ,werrenrath was a ,dane1 with an unusually rich tenor voice1 trained by the best teachers of his time in ,germany1 ,italy1 ,france and ,england4 ,during his engagement as leading tenor in the ,royal ,opera ,house in ,wiesbaden1 he left ,germany by the advice of ,adelina ,patti1 eventually going to ,england with ,maurice ,strakosch1 who was then his coach4 ,in ,london ,werrenrath had a fine career1 and there was formed a warm and ultimate friendship with ,charles ,gounod1 with whom he studied and toured in concerts through ,england and ,belgium4 ,george ,werrenrath came to ,new ,york in #ahgf1 by the influence of ,mme4 ,antoinette ,sterling and of the well-known ,dane1 ,general ,c4 ,t4 ,christensen4 ,he immediately became well known by his appearance with the ,theodore ,thomas ,orchestra1 as well as by his engagement at ,plymouth ,church1 where he was soloist for seven years4 ,he was probably the first artist to give song-recitals in the ,united ,states1 while his performances in opera are still cherished in the memories of those people who can look back on some of the fine representations given under the baton of ,adolph ,neuendorf1 at the old ,academy of ,music1 which made the way for the later work at the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house4 ,his interpretation of ,lohengrin was adjudged most wonderfully poetical4 ,reinald ,werrenrath studied first with his father4 ,at the ,boys' ,high ,school and at ,new ,york ,university he was leader of musical affairs throughout the eight years spent in those schools4 ,he studied violin with ,carl ,venth for four years1 and had as his vocal teachers ,dr4 ,carl ,dufft1 ,frank ,king ,clark1 ,dr4 ,arthur ,mees1 ,percy ,rector ,stephens and ,victor ,maurel1 giving especial credit for his voice training to years of study with ,mr4 ,stephens whose vocal teaching ideas he sketches in part in the following4 ,he has appeared with immense success in concert and oratorio in all parts of the ,united ,states4 ,his talking machine records have been in great demand for years1 and his voice is known to thousands who have never seen him4 ,his operatic debut was in ,pagliacci1 as ,silvio1 in the ,metropolitan ,opera ,house1 ,february #ai1 #aiai1 where he later had specially fine success as ,valentine in ,faust and as the ,toreador in ,carmen4 ,,new ,,aspects ,,of ,,the ,,art ,,of ,,singing ,,in ,,america ,,reinald ,,werrenrath ,every now and then someone asks me whether ,america is really becoming musical4 ,all ,i can say is that a year ago ,i1 with my accompanist1 traveled over #fa1jjj miles1 touching every part of this country and1 during that eight months1 singing almost nightly when the transit facilities would permit1 found everywhere the very greatest enthusiasm for the very best music4 ,of course1 ,americans want some numbers on the program with the so-called human element2 but at the same time they court the best in vocal art and seem never to get enough of it4 ,all of my instruction has been received in ,america4 ,all of my teachers1 with the exception of my father and ,victor ,maurel1 were born in ,america2 so ,i may be called very much of an ,american product4 ,just why ,americans should ever have been obsessed with the idea that it was impossible to teach voice successfully on this side of the ,atlantic is hard to tell4 ,i have a suspicion that many like the adventure of foreign travel far more than the labor of study4 ,probably ninety-five per cent4 of the pupils who went over did so for the fascinating experience of living in a ,european environment rather than for the downright purpose of coming back great artists4 ,therefore1 we should not blame the ,european teachers altogether for the countless failures that have floated back to us almost on every tide4 ,i have recently heard a report that many of the highest-priced and most efficient voice teachers in ,italy are ,americans who have ,italianized their names4 ,certainly the most successful voice teachers in ,berlin were ,george ,ferguson and ,frank ,king ,clark1 who was at the top of the list also in ,paris when he was there4 ,the ,american singer should remember in these days that1 first of all1 he must sing in ,america and in the ,english language more than in any other4 ,i am not one of those who decry singing in foreign languages4 ,certain songs1 it is true1 cannot be translated so that their meaning can be completely understood in ,english2 yet1 if the reader will think for a moment1 how is the ,american auditor to understand a single thought of a poem in a language of which he knows nothing8 ,the ,italian is a glorious language for the singer1 and with it ,english cannot be compared1 with its thirty-one vowel sounds and its many coughing1 sputtering consonants4 ,training in ,italian solfeggios is very fine for creating a free1 flowing style4 ,many of the ,italian teachers were obsessed with the idea of the big tone4 ,the audiences fired back volleys of ,bravos6 and ,da ,capos when the tenor took off his plumed hat1 stood on his toes and howled a high ,c4 ,that was part of his stock in trade4 ,naturally1 he forced his voice1 and most of the men singers quit at the age of fifty4 ,i hope to be in my prime at that time1 as my voice seems to grow better each year4 ,battistini1 who was born in #aheg1 is an exception4 ,his voice1 ,i am told1 is remarkably preserved4 ,,climatic ,,conditions ,a ,,serious ,,handicap ,climatic conditions in many parts of ,america prove a serious handicap to the singer4 ,at the same time1 according to the law of the survival of the fittest1 ,american singers must take care of themselves much better than the ,italians1 for instance4 ,the salubrious1 balmy climate of most of ,italy is ideal for the throat4 ,on our ,eastern seaboard ,i find that fifty per cent4 of my audiences in winter seem to have colds and bronchitis4 ,the singer who is obliged to tour must1 of course1 take every possible precaution against catching cold2 and that means becoming infected from exposure to colds when the system is run down4 ,i attempt to avoid colds by securing plenty of outdoor exercise4 ,i always walk to my hotel and to the station when ,i have time2 and ,i walk as much as ,i can during the day4 ,when ,i am not singing ,i immediately start to play--to fish1 swim or hunt in the woods if ,i can make an opportunity4 ,,operatic ,,study ,in one respect ,europe is unquestionably superior to ,america for the vocal student4 ,the student who wants to sing in opera will find in ,europe ten opportunities for gaining experience to one here4 ,while we have a few more opera companies than twenty-five years ago1 it is still a great task to secure even an opening4 ,americans1 outside of the great cities1 do not seem to be especially inclined toward opera4 ,they will accept a little of it when it is given to them by a superb company like the ,metropolitan4 ,in ,new ,york we find a public more cosmopolitan than in any other city of the world1 with the possible exception of ,london4 ,in immediate ancestry it is more ,european than ,american1 and naturally opera becomes a great public demand4 ,seats sell at fabulous prices and the houses are crowded4 ,next comes opera at popular prices2 and we have one or two very good companies giving that with success4 ,then there is the opera in ,america's other cosmopolitan center1 ,chicago1 where many world-famed artists appear4 ,after that1 opera in ,america is hardly worth mentioning4 ,what chance has the student8 ,only one who for years has been uniformed in a black dress suit and backed into the curve of the grand piano in a recital hall can know what it means to get out on the operatic stage1 in those fantastic clothes1 walk around1 act1 sing and at the same time watch the conductor with his ninety men4 ,only he can know what the difference between singing in concert and on the operatic stage really is4 ,yet old opera singers who enter the recital field invariably say that it is far harder to get up alone in a large hall and become the whole performance1 aided and abetted only by an able accompanist1 than it is to sing in opera4 ,the recital has the effect of preserving the fineness of many operatic voices4 ,modern opera has ruined dozens of fine vocal organs because of the tremendous strain made upon them and the tendency to neglect vocal art for dramatic impression4 ,if there were more of the better singing in opera1 such as one hears from ,mr4 ,caruso1 there would be less comment upon opera as a bastard art4 ,operatic work is very exhilarating4 ,the difference between concert and opera for the singer is that between oatmeal porridge and an old vintage champagne4 ,there is no time at the ,metropolitan for raw singers4 ,the works in the repertoire must be known so well in the singing and the acting that they may be put on perfectly with the least possible rehearsals4 ,therefore1 the singer has no time for routine4 ,the lack of a foreign name will keep no ,american singer out of the ,metropolitan2 but the lack of the ability to save the company hundreds of dollars through needless waits at rehearsals will4 ,,natural ,,methods ,,of ,,singing ,certainly no country in recent years has produced so many corking good singers as ,america4 ,our voices are fresh1 virile1 pure and rich2 when the teaching is right4 ,our singers are for the most part finely educated and know how to interpret the texts intelligently4 ,mr4 ,w4 ,j4 ,henderson1 the eminent ,new ,york critic1 in his ,art of ,singing1 gave the following definition1 which my former teacher1 the late ,dr4 ,carl ,dufft1 endorsed very highly3 ,singing is the expression of a text by means of tones made by the human voice4 ,more and more the truth of this comes to me4 ,singing is not merely vocalizing but always a means of communication in which the artist must convey the message of the two great minds of the poet and the composer to his fellow man4 ,in this the voice must be as natural as possible1 as human as possible1 and not merely a sugary tone4 ,the ,german1 the ,frenchman1 the ,englishman and the ,american strive first for an intelligent interpretation of the text4 ,the ,italian thinks of tone first and the text afterward1 except in the modern ,italian school of realistic singing4 ,for this one must consider the voice normally and sensibly4 ,i owe my treatment of my voice largely to ,mr4 ,stephens1 with whom ,i have studied for the last eight years1 taking a lesson every day ,i am in ,new ,york4 ,this is advisable1 ,i believe1 because no matter how well one may think one sings1 another trained mind with other ears may detect defects that might lead to serious difficulties later4 ,his methods are difficult to describe2 but a few main principles may be very interesting to vocalists4 ,my daily work in practice is commenced by stretching exercises1 in which ,i aim to free the muscles covering the upper part of the abdomen and the intercostal muscles at the side and back--all by stretching upward and writhing around1 as it were1 so that there cannot possibly be any constriction4 ,then1 with my elbows bent and my fists over my head1 ,i stretch the muscles over my shoulders and shoulder blades4 ,finally1 ,i rotate my head upward and around1 so that the muscles of the neck are freed and become very easy and flexible4 ,while ,i am finishing with the last exercise ,i begin speaking in a fairly moderate tone such vowel combinations as ,,oh-,,ah1 ,,oh-,,ah1 ,,ee-,,ay1 ,,ee-,,ay1 ,,ee-,,ay-,,ee-,,ay-,,ee-,,ay1 etc4 ,while doing this ,i walk about the room so that there will not be any suggestion of stiltedness or vocal or muscular interference4 ,at first this is done without the addition of any attempted nasal resonance4 ,gradually nasal resonance is introduced with different spoken vowels1 while at the same time every effort is made to preserve ease and flexibility of the entire body4 ,then1 when it seems as though the right vocal quality is coming1 pitch is introduced at the most convenient range and exercises with pitch are taken through the range of the voice4 ,the whole idea is to make the tones as natural and free and pure as possible with the least effort4 ,i am opposed to the old idea of tone placing1 in which the pupil toed a mark1 set the throat at some prescribed angle1 adjusted the tongue in some approved design1 and then1 gripped like the unfortunate victim in the old-fashioned photographer's irons1 attempted to sing a sustained tone or a rapid scale4 ,what was the result--consciousness and stiltedness and1 as a rule1 a tired throat and a ruined singer4 ,these ideas may seem revolutionary to many4 ,they are only a few of ,mr4 ,stephens' very numerous devices2 but for many years they have been of more benefit than anything else in keeping me vocally fit4 ,we in the ,new ,world should be on the outlook for advance along all lines4 ,our ,american composers have held far too close to ,european ideals and done too little real thinking for themselves4 ,our vocal teachers and1 for that matter1 teachers in all branches of musical art in ,america have been most progressive in devising new ways and better methods4 ,there will never be an ,american method of singing because we are too wise not to realize that every pupil needs different and special treatment4 ,what is fine for one might be injurious to the next one4 ,illustration3 ,,evan ,,williams4 ,,evan ,,williams ,,biographical ,evan ,williams1 as his name suggests1 was of ,welsh ancestry1 although born in ,trumbull ,county1 ,ohio1 ,sept4 #g1 #ahfg4 ,as a boy his singing attracted the attention of his friends and neighbors4 ,when a young man he went to ,mme4 ,louise von ,fielitsen1 in ,cleveland1 and studied under her for four years4 ,at the end of this time it became necessary for him to earn money immediately1 as he had married at the age of twenty4 ,accordingly he went with the ,primrose and ,west minstrels for one season4 ,everywhere he appeared his voice attracted enthusiastic attention4 ,this aroused his ambition and in #ahid he went to ,new ,york where he was engaged at ,all ,angels ,church at a yearly salary of #ajjj4jj4 ,six months later the ,marble ,collegiate ,church took him over at #aejj4jj which was shortly raised to #bjjj4jj4 ,in #ahif he appeared at the ,worcester ,festival with great success and then went to ,new ,york to study with ,james ,sauvage for three years4 ,notwithstanding his long terms of instruction with teachers of high reputation1 ,mr4 ,williams felt that he had still much to learn1 as he would find himself singing finely one night and so badly on the next that he would resolve never to sing again4 ,accordingly he studied with ,meehan for three years more4 ,then he retired from the concert stage for three years in order to improve himself4 ,deciding to appear in public again he went to ,london where he sang for three years with popular success4 ,however1 he was still dissatisfied with his voice4 ,mr4 ,williams' personal narrative tells how he got his voice back4 ,his death1 ,may #bd1 #aiah1 prevented him from carrying out his project to become a teacher and thus introduce his discoveries4 ,the following1 therefore1 becomes of interesting historical significance4 ,,how ,i ,,regained ,a ,,lost ,,voice ,,evan ,,williams ,there is nothing so disquieting to the singer as the feeling that his voice1 upon which his artistic hopes1 to say nothing of his livelihood1 depend1 is not a reliable organ1 but a fickle thing which to-day may be in splendid condition but to-morrow may be gone4 ,time and again ,i have been driven to the verge of desperation by my own voice4 ,while ,i am grateful to all of my excellent teachers for the many valuable things they taught me1 ,i had a strong feeling that there was something which ,i must know and which only ,i myself could find out for myself4 ,after a very wide experience here and in ,england ,i found myself with so little confidence in my ability to produce uniformly excellent results when on the concert stage1 that ,i retired to ,akron1 ,ohio1 resolving to spend the rest of my life in teaching4 ,there ,i remained for four years1 thinking out the great problem that confronted me4 ,it is only during the last year that ,i have become convinced that ,i have solved it4 ,my musical work has made me well-to-do and ,i want now to give my ideas to the world so that others may profit if they find them valuable4 ,i have nothing to sell--but ,i trust that ,i can put into words1 without inventing a new and bewildering nomenclature1 something that will prove of practical assistance to young singers as it has been to me4 ,,an ,,indisputable ,,record ,in #aijh ,i left ,akron and resolved to try to reinstate myself in ,new ,york as a singer4 ,i also made talking machine records1 only to find that seldom could ,i make a record at the first attempt that was up to the very high standard maintained by the company in the case of all records placed upon the market for sale4 ,this meant a great waste of my time and the company's material and services4 ,it naturally set me thinking4 ,if ,i could do it one time--why couldn't ,i do it all the time8 ,there was no contradicting the talking machine record4 ,the machine records the slightest blemish as well as the most perfect tone4 ,there was no getting away from the fact that sometimes my singing was far from what ,i wished it to be4 ,the strange thing about it all was that my singing did not seem to depend upon the physical condition or feeling of my throat4 ,some days when my throat felt at its very best the records would come back in a way that ,i was ashamed of4 ,it is a strange feeling to hear one's own voice from the talking machine4 ,it sounds quite differently from the impression one gets while singing4 ,i began to ponder1 why were some of my records poor and others good8 ,after deep thought for a very long period of time1 ,i commenced to make certain postulates which ,i believe ,i have since proved 7to my own satisfaction at least7 to be reasonable and true4 ,they not only resulted in an improvement in my voice1 but they enabled me to do at command what ,i had previously been able to do only occasionally4 ,they are3 ,i4 ,tone creates its own support4 ,,ii4 ,much of the time spent in elaborate breathing exercises 7while excellent for the health and valuable to the singer1 in a way7 do not produce the results that are expected4 ,,iii4 ,the singer's first studies should be with his brain and ear1 rather than through an attempt at muscular control of the breathing muscles4 ,,iv4 ,vocal resonance can be developed through a proper understanding of tone color 7vocal timbre71 so that uniformly excellent production of tones will result4 ,,tone ,,creates ,,its ,,own ,,support ,the first two postulates can be discussed as one4 ,tone creates its own support4 ,how does a bird learn to sing8 ,how does the animal learn to cry8 ,how does the lion learn to roar8 ,or the donkey learn to bray8 ,by practicing breathing exercises8 ,most certainly not4 ,i have known many1 many singers with splendid voices who have never heard of breathing exercises4 ,go out into the ,welsh mining districts and listen to the voices4 ,they learn to breathe by learning how to sing1 and by singing4 ,these men have lungs that the average vocal student would give a fortune to possess4 ,by singing correctly they acquire all the lung control that any vocal composition could demand4 ,as a matter of fact1 one does not need such a huge amount of breath to sing4 ,the average singer uses entirely too much4 ,a goose has lungs ten times as large as a nightingale but that doesn't make the goose's song lovely to listen to4 ,i have known men with lungs big enough to work a blast furnace who yet had little bits of voices1 so small that they were ridiculous4 ,it would be better for most vocal students to emit the breath for five seconds before attacking the tone4 ,one of the reasons for much vocal forcing is too much breath4 ,maybe ,i haven't thought about these things6 ,i have spent hours in silence making up my mind4 ,it is my firm conviction that the average person 7entirely without instruction in breathing of a special kind7 has enough breath to sing any phrase one might be called upon to sing4 ,i think1 without question1 that teachers and singers have all been working their heads off to develop strength in the wrong direction4 ,mind you--this is not a sermon against breathing4 ,i believe in plenty of breathing exercises for the sake of one's health4 ,a ,,good ,,position ,singers study breathing as though they were trying to learn how to push out the voice or pull it out by suction4 ,by standing in a sensible position with the chest high 7but not forced up7 the lung capacity of the average individual is quite surprising4 ,a good position can be secured through the old ,delsarte exercise which is as follows3 ,i4 ,stand on the balls of your feet1 heels just touching the floor4 ,,ii4 ,hold your arms at your side in a relaxed condition4 ,,iii4 ,move your arms forward until they form an angle of forty-five degrees with the body4 ,press the palms down until the chest is up comfortably4 ,,iv4 ,now let your arms drop back without letting your chest fall4 ,feel a sense of ease and freedom over the whole body4 ,breathe naturally and deeply4 ,in other words1 to poise the breath1 stand erect1 at attention4 ,most people when called to this attention posture stiffen themselves so that they are in a position of resistance4 ,when ,i say attention1--,i mean the position in which you have alertness but at the same time complete freedom1--when you can freely smile1 sigh1 scowl and sneer1--the attention that will permit expansion of the chest with every change of mood4 ,then1 open the mouth without inhaling4 ,let the breath out for five seconds1 close the mouth and inhale through the nostrils4 ,i keep the fact that ,i breathe into the lungs through the nostrils before me all the time4 ,again open the mouth without allowing the air to pass in4 ,practice this until a comfortable stretch is felt in the flesh of the face1 the top of the head1 the back1 the chest and the abdomen4 ,if you stretch violently you will not experience this feeling4 ,,sensations ,i fully realize that much of what ,i have said will not be in accord with what is preached1 practiced and taught by many vocal teachers and ,i cannot attempt to reply to any critics4 ,i merely know what sensations and experiences ,i have had after a lifetime of practical work in a profession which has brought me a fortune4 ,furthermore ,i know that anything anyone might say on the subject of the human voice would be at variance with the opinions of others4 ,there is probably no subject in human ken in which there is such a marked difference of opinion4 ,i can merely try to describe my own sensations and vocal experiences4 ,in trying to represent the course of the sensation ,i experience in producing a good tone1 ,i have employed the following illustration4 ,imagine two pieces of whip cord4 ,tie the ends together4 ,place the knot immediately under the upper lip directly beneath the center bone of the nose1 run the strings straight back for an inch1 then up over the cheek bones1 then down around the uvula1 thence down the large cords inside the neck4 ,at a point in the center between the shoulders the cords would split in order to let one set go down the back and the other toward the chest1 meeting again under the arm-pits1 thence down the short ribs1 thence down and joining in another knot slightly back of the pelvic bone4 ,laugh1 if you will1 but this is actually the sensation ,i have repeatedly felt in producing what the talking machine has shown to be a good tone4 ,remember that there were plenty to laugh at ,columbus1 ,gallileo and even ,darius ,green of the ,flying ,machine4 ,stand in attention as directed1 with the body responsive and the mind sensitive to physical impressions4 ,when opening the mouth without taking in air a slight stretch will be experienced along the whole track ,i have described4 ,the poise felt in this position is what permitted ,bob ,fitzsimmons to strike a deadly blow with a two-inch stroke4 ,it is the responsive poise with which ,i sing both loud and soft tones4 ,furthermore1 ,i do not believe in an absolutely relaxed lower jaw as though it had been broken4 ,who could sing with a broken jaw8--and a broken jaw would represent ideal relaxation4 ,the jaw should be slightly stretched but never strained4 ,i think that the word relaxation1 as used by most teachers and as understood by most students1 is responsible for more ruined voices than all other terms used in vocal teaching4 ,i have talked this matter over with numberless great singers who are constantly before the public1 and their very singing is the best contradiction of this4 ,when you hold your hand out freely before you what is it that keeps it from falling at your side8 ,that same condition controls the jaw4 ,find it3 it is not relaxation4 ,if you would be a perfect singer find the juggler who is balancing a feather4 ,imagine yourself poised on the top of that feather1 and sing without falling off4 ,,contrasting ,,timbres ,,that ,,lead ,,to ,a ,,beautiful ,,tone ,,when ,,combined ,we shall now seek to illustrate two contrasting qualities of tones1 between which lies that quality which ,i sought for so long4 ,the desired quality is not a compromise1 but seems to be located half way between two extremes1 and may best be brought to the attention of the reader by describing the extremes4 ,the first is a dark quality of tone4 ,to get this1 place the tips of the second fingers on the sides of the voice box 7,adam's apple7 and make a dark almost breathy sound1 using u as in the word hum4 ,do this without any signs of strain4 ,allow the sound to float up into the mouth and nose4 ,to many there will also be a sensation as though the sound were also floating down into the lungs 7into both lungs74 ,do not make any conscious effort to force the sound or place it in any particular location4 ,the sound will do it of its own accord if you do not strain4 ,while the sound is being made1 there will be a slight upward pulling of the voice box1 a slight tugging at the voice box4 ,this1 of course1 occurs automatically1 and there should be no attempt to control it or promote it4 ,it is nature at work4 ,the tongue1 while making this sound1 should be limp1 with the tip resting on the lower front teeth4 ,all along it is necessary to caution the singer not to strive to do artificial things4 ,therefore do not poke or stick the tip of your tongue against the front teeth4 ,if your tongue is not strained it will rest there naturally4 ,work at this exercise until you can fill the mouth and nose 7and also seemingly the chest7 with a rich1 smooth1 well-controlled1 well-modulated dark sound and do it easily1--with slight effort4 ,do not try to hold the sound in the throat4 ,the second sound we shall experiment with is the extreme antithesis of the first sound4 ,its resonance is high and it is bright in every sense4 ,place the fingers on the joints just in front and above holes in the ears4 ,open the mouth without inhaling and make the sound of e as in when4 ,as the dark sound described before cannot be made too dark this sound cannot be made too strident4 ,it is the extreme from the rumble of the drum to the piercing rasp of the file4 ,i have called it the animal sound1 and in calling it strident1 please do not infer that the nose1 or any part of the mouth or soft palate1 should be pinched to make it nasal1 in the restricted sense of that term4 ,when ,i sing this tone it is accompanied with a sensation as though the tone were being reflected downward from the voice box over to each side of the chest just in front of the arm-pits and then downward into the abdomen4 ,here the great danger arises that the unskilled student will try to produce this sensation1 whereas the fact of the matter is that the sensation is the accompaniment of the properly produced tone and cannot be made artificially4 ,don't work for the sensation1 work for the tone that produces such a sensation4 ,at the same time the tone has a sensation of upward reflection1 as though it arose at the back of the voice box and separated there1 passed up behind the jaws to the points where your fingers are resting1 entering the mouth from above1 as it were from a point just between the hard and soft palates1 and becoming one sound in the mouth4 ,the uvula and part of the soft palate should be associated with the dark sound4 ,the hard palate and part of the soft palate should be associated with the strident tone4 ,,the ,,tongue ,,position ,in making the strident sound the tongue should rest in the same position as for the dark sound4 ,the dark tone never changes and is the basic sound which gives fullness1 foundation1 depth to the ultimate tone4 ,without it all voices are thin and unsubstantial4 ,the nearer the singer gets to this the nearer he approaches the great vibrating base upon which the world is founded4 ,remember that the dark tone never changes4 ,it is the background1 the canvas upon which the singer paints his infinite moods by means of different vowels1 emotions1 and the tone colors which are derived in numberless modifications from the strident tone4 ,another simile may bring the subject nearer to the reader student4 ,imagine the dark tone and all the sensations in different parts of the body as a kind of atmosphere or gas which requires to be set on fire by the electric spark of the strident tone4 ,the dark tone is all necessary1 but it is useless unless it is properly electrified by the strident tone4 ,a ,,practical ,,step ,how shall we utilize what we have learned1 so that the student may convince himself that herein ties the truth which1 properly understood and sensibly applied1 will lead to a means of improving his tone4 ,if the foregoing has been carefully read and understood1 the following exercise to get the tone which results from a combination of the dark and the strident is simple4 ,i4 ,stand erect as directed4 ,,ii4 ,open the mouth without inhaling4 ,,iii4 ,produce the dark tone 7u as in hum74 ,,iv4 ,close the mouth and allow the air to pass in and out of the nostrils for a few seconds4 ,v4 ,open the mouth without inhaling4 ,,vi4 ,make the strident sound 7e as in when74 ,,vii4 ,close the mouth and let the air pass in and out of nostrils a few seconds4 ,,viii4 ,open the mouth without inhaling4 ,,ix4 ,sing the vowel ,ah as in father in such a manner that it is a combination of the dark tone and the strident tone4 ,x4 ,do this in such a way that all of the breathy disagreeable features of the dark tone disappear but its foundation features remain to give it fullness and roundness1 while all of the disagreeable features of the strident tone disappear although its color-giving1 light-giving1 life-giving characteristics are retained to give the combination-tone richness and sweetness4 ,a beautiful result is inevitable1 if the principle is properly understood4 ,i have tried this with many people who have sung but little before in their lives and who were not conscious of having interesting voices4 ,without a long course of vocal lessons or anything of the sort they have been able to produce in a short time--a very few minutes--a tone that would be admired by any critic4 ,a ,,comfortable ,,pitch ,it is to be assumed that the student will1 in these experiments1 take the pitch in his voice which is most comfortable4 ,having mastered the combination tone on ,ah at any pitch1 it will be easy to try other pitches and other vowels4 ,ah is the natural vowel1 but having secured the know how through a correct production of ,ah the same results may be attained with any other vowel produced in a similar way4 ,e as in see has of course more of the strident quality1 the high1 bright quality and ,,oo as in moon more of the dark1 but even these extreme tones may be so placed that they become enriched through the employment of resonance of all those parts of the mouth1 nose and body which may be brought naturally to reinforce them4 ,,ping ,i have never met a singer who was not looking for ping or what is called brightness4 ,most voices are hopelessly dead1 and therefore lack sweetness4 ,the voices are filled with night--black hollow gloomy night or else they are as strident as the caterwauling of a ,tom ,cat4 ,the happy mean between the extremes is the area in which the singer's greatest results are attained4 ,think of your tone1 always4 ,the breath will then take care of itself4 ,if the tone has a tremulo1 or sounds stuffy or sounds weak1 you have not apportioned the right amount of breath to it1 but you are not going to gain this information by thinking of the breath but by thinking of the tone4 ,,let ,,your ,,own ,,ears ,,convince ,,you ,now1 that is all there is to it4 ,i am not striving to found a method or anything of the sort2 but ,i have seen students waste years on what is called voice placing and not come to anything like the same result that will come after the accomplishment of this simple matter4 ,try it out with your own voice4 ,you will see in a short time what it will do4 ,your own ears will convince you1 to say nothing of the ears of your friends4 ,all ,i know is that after ,i discovered this1 it was possible for me to employ it and make records with so small a percentage of discard that ,i have been surprised4 ,it remains for the intelligent teachers to apply such knowledge to a systematic vocal course of exercises1 studies and songs1 which will help the pupil to progress most rapidly4 ,don't think that ,i am pretending to tell all that there is to vocal culture in an hour4 ,it is a great and important study upon which ,i have spent a lifetime4 ,however1 as ,i said before1 ,i have nothing to sell and ,i am only too happy to give this information which has cost me so many hours of thought to crystallize4 ,typographical errors corrected by the transcriber of this etext3 ,talmadge,talmage ,artious,artibus citadalcitadel ,wohltemperites,wohltemperiertes liebenswurdigliebenswuerdig ,delibes,delibes ,words not changed3 unforgetable1 skilful1 ,beyreuth1 marvelous