Caruso and Tetrazzini on the Art of Singing | Page 4

try to
develop a diaphragm expansion of five inches in two weeks.
Indeed, it is not the expansion that you are working for.
I have noticed this one peculiarity about young singers--if they have an
enormous development of the diaphragm they think they should be able
to sing, no matter what happens. A girl came to see me once whose
figure was really entirely out of proportion, the lower part of the lungs
having been pressed out quite beyond even artistic lines.
"You see, madam," she exclaimed, "I have studied breathing. Why, I
have such a strong diaphragm I can move the piano with it!" And she
did go right up to my piano and, pushing on this strong diaphragm of
hers, moved the piano a fraction of an inch from its place.
I was quite aghast. I had never met such an athletic singer. When I
asked her to let me hear her voice, however, a tiny stream of contralto
sound issued from those powerful lungs.

She had developed her breathing capacity, but when she sang she held
her breath back.
I have noticed that a great many people do this, and it is one of the
things that must be overcome in the very beginning of the study of
singing.
Certain young singers take in an enormous breath, stiffening every
muscle in order to hold the air, thus depriving their muscles of all
elasticity.
They will then shut off the throat and let only the smallest fraction of
air escape, just enough to make a sound. Too much inbreathing and too
violent an effort at inhaling will not help the singer at all.
People have said that they cannot see when I breathe. Well, they
certainly cannot say that I am ever short of breath even if I do try to
breathe invisibly. When I breathe I scarcely draw my diaphragm in at
all, but I feel the air fill my lungs and I feel my upper ribs expand.
In singing I always feel as if I were forcing my breath against my chest,
and, just as in the exercises according to Delsarte you will find the
chest leads in all physical movements, so in singing you should feel
this firm support of the chest of the highest as well as the lowest notes.
I have seen pupils, trying to master the art of breathing, holding
themselves as rigidly as drum majors.
Now this rigidity of the spinal column will in no way help you in the
emission of tone, nor will it increase the breath control. In fact, I don't
think it would even help you to stand up straight, although it would
certainly give one a stiff appearance and one far removed from grace.
A singer should stand freely and easily and should feel as if the chest
were leading, but should not feel constrained or stiff in any part of the
ribs or lungs.
From the minute the singer starts to emit a tone the supply of breath

must be emitted steadily from the chamber of air in the lungs. It must
never be held back once.
The immediate pressure of the air should be felt more against the chest.
I know of a great many singers who, when they come to very difficult
passages, put their hands on their chests, focusing their attention on this
one part of the mechanism of singing.
The audience, of course, thinks the prima donna's hand is raised to her
heart, when, as a matter of fact, the prima donna, with a difficult bit of
singing before her, is thinking of her technique and the foundation of
that technique--breath control.
This feeling of singing against the chest with the weight of air pressing
up against it is known as "breath support," and in Italian we have even
a better word, "apoggio," which is breath prop. The diaphragm in
English may be called the bellows of the lungs, but the apoggio is the
deep breath regulated by the diaphragm.
The attack of the sound must come from the apoggio, or breath prop. In
attacking the very highest notes it is essential, and no singer can really
get the high notes or vocal flexibility or strength of tone without the
attack coming from this seat of respiration.
In practicing the trill or staccato tones the pressure of the breath must
be felt even before the sound is heard. The beautiful, clear, bell-like
tones that die away into a soft piano are tones struck on the apoggio
and controlled by the steady soft pressure of the breath emitted through
a perfectly open throat, over a low tongue and resounding in the
cavities of the mouth or head.
Never for a moment sing without this apoggio, this breath prop. Its
development and its constant use