Style in Singing | Page 3

first steps; he may consult an inferior or
incompetent professor, when so firmly established in the right path that

he cannot possibly be led astray.
It is a common belief that singing-teachers of reputation do not care to
occupy themselves with voice-production, or are unable to teach it.
This is a serious error. A competent professor of singing is as capable
of imparting the principles of this most important branch, as of
directing the more aesthetic studies of Style and Repertoire. All the
really great and illustrious singing-masters of the past preferred to
"form" the voices of their pupils. To continue and finish a predecessor's
work, or to erect a handsome and solid structure on defective
foundations, is always a difficult task; sometimes an impossible one.
Then, as regards the pupil, particularly one studying with a view to a
professional career, a defective preparatory training may eventually
mean serious material loss. The money and time spent on his vocal
education is, in his case, an investment, not an outlay; the investment
will be a poor one, should it be necessary later to devote further time
and expend more money to correct natural defects that ought to have
been corrected at the beginning of his studies, or to eradicate faults
acquired during their progress.
Furthermore, the purpose of some part of a singer's preliminary
education is to strengthen and fit the voice for the exacting demands of
a professional career. As the training of an athlete--rower, runner, boxer,
wrestler--not only perfects his technical skill, but also, by a process of
gradual development, enables him to endure the exceptional strain he
will eventually have to bear in a contest, so some of a singer's early
studies prepare his voice for the tax to which hereafter it will be
subjected. If those studies have been insufficient, or ill-directed, failure
awaits the debutant when he presents himself before the public in a
spacious theatre or concert-hall and strives, ineffectually, to dominate
the powerful sonorities of the large orchestras which are a necessity for
modern scores. A sound and judiciously graduated preparatory training,
in fact, is essential if the singer would avoid disappointment or a fiasco.
The vocal education of many students, however, is nowadays hurried
through with a haste that is equalled only by the celerity with which
such aspirants for lyric honours return to obscurity.

CHAPTER II
THE VALUE OF TECHNIQUE
Briefly defined, the singer's Technique may be said to consist
principally of the ability to govern the voice in its three phases of Pitch,
Colour, and Intensity. That is, he must be able to sing every note
throughout the compass of the voice (Pitch) in different qualities or
timbres (Colour), and with various degrees of power (Intensity). And
although the modern schools of composition for the voice do not
encourage the display of florid execution, a singer would be ill-advised
indeed to neglect this factor, on the plea that it has no longer any
practical application. No greater error is conceivable. Should an
instrumental virtuoso fail to acquire mastery of transcendental
difficulties, his performance of any piece would not be perfect: the
greater includes the less. A singer would be very short-sighted who did
not adopt an analogous line of reasoning. Without an appreciable
amount of agilita, the performance of modern music is laboured and
heavy; that of the classics, impossible. In fact, virtuosity, if properly
understood, is as indispensable to-day as ever it was. As much vocal
virtuosity is required to interpret successfully the music of Falstaff, in
Verdi's opera, as is necessary for Maometto Secondo or Semiramide by
Rossini. It is simply another form of virtuosity; that is all. The lyric
grace or dramatic intensity of many pages of Wagner's music-dramas
can be fully revealed only through a voice that has been rendered
supple by training, and responsive to the slightest suggestion of an
artistic temperament.
In short, virtuosity may have changed in form, but it is still one of the
cornerstones of the singer's art. An executive artist will spare no pains
to acquire perfect technical skill; for the metier, or mechanical elements
of any art, can be acquired, spontaneous though the results may
sometimes appear. Its primary use is, and should be, to serve as a
medium of interpretation. True, virtuosity is frequently a vehicle for
personal display, as, notably, in the operas of Cimarosa, Bellini,
Donizetti, and the earlier works of Rossini and Verdi. At its worst,
however, it is a practical demonstration of the fact that the executant,

vocal or instrumental, has completely mastered the mechanical
elements of his profession; that, to use the argot of the studios, "il
connait son metier" (he knows his trade).
Imperfect technique, indeed, is to be deprecated, if merely for the
reason that it may debar a singer from interpreting accurately the
composer's