Style in Singing | Page 6

canvas by Veronese, Rubens, or Delacroix.
"Last of all is the velvety voice. This is worthless if not allied with one of the three others. In order that a velvety voice may possess value it must be reinforced (doublee) with 'metal.' A velvety voice is merely one of cotton."[1]
[Footnote 1: These admirably expressed views illustrate and exemplify the principles I laid down in a conference (Paris, 1902) on Voice-Production (Pose de la Voix), wherein I demonstrated the possibility of acquiring, by the aid of the resonating cavities, a greater sonority, more in conformity with the demands and necessities of present-day music.]
It may be of interest to notice that the quality which in France is designated "timbre," is called by the Italians "metallo di voce," or, "metal of the voice." Those who heard Madame Sarah Bernhardt fifteen or twenty years ago will readily understand why her countless friends and admirers always spoke of her matchless organ as "la voix d'or."
The late Sims Reeves, the famous tenor, was a perfect master of all varieties and shades of vocal colour, and displayed his mastery with certainty and unfailing effect in the different fields of Oratorio and Opera. In the recitative "Deeper and deeper still," with its subsequent aria "Waft her, angels, through the skies" [Handel], he ranged through the entire gamut of tone-colour. As Edgardo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, he launched the "Maladetta" phrase of the curse with a voice that was almost "white" with frenzied rage; while the pathetic sombre quality he employed in the "Fra poco a me ricovero" fitly accorded with the despairing mood and gloomy surroundings of the hapless Edgardo.
Some singers control but two colours or timbres--the very clear (open) and the very sombre (closed), which they exaggerate. In reality, however, the gradations between them can be made infinite by the artist who is in possession of the secret--especially if he has the ability to combine Colour with Intensity.
An illustration of this is found in the example cited in the opening paragraph of the present work:--"For now is Christ risen." Not only did Mme. Tietjens make a gradual crescendo from the first note to the climax, but the tonal colours were also subtly graduated from a comparatively sombre quality to one of the utmost clearness and brilliance.
[Music: As sung by Mme. Tietjens
For now is Christ risen, for now is Christ risen from the dead.]
As contrasting examples in which the two principal colours may be employed effectively, I may cite the Bacchic air, "O vin, dissipe la tristesse," and the pensive monologue, "Etre, ou ne pas etre," both from the opera Hamlet, by Ambroise Thomas. The forced, unnatural quality of the first calls for the use of a clear, open, brilliant timbre.
[Music:
O vin, dissipe la tristesse Qui pese sur mon coeur! A moi les reves de l'ivresse, Et le rire moqueur!]
But for the second, "To be, or not to be":
[Music:
Etre, ou ne pas etre! o mystere! Mourir! dormir, dormir!]
a sombre, closed timbre is necessary. The opening recitative of Vanderdecken in Der fliegende Hollaender by Wagner would be absurd, and utterly out of harmony with the character and his surroundings, if sung in the open timbre. Perhaps I ought to explain that "open" (voix claire, Fr.), and "closed" (voix sombre, Fr.), are technical terms, of which the equivalents are accepted in all countries where the art of singing is cultivated; terms that apply to quality of tone, not to the physical process by which these effects are produced. Such a mistake is not infrequently made by vocal physiologists who are not practical musicians or singing-teachers. Nor must the term "clear timbre" be understood to mean the "white voice" ("voix blanche," or "voce bianca"); this, like the guttural timbre, being only occasionally employed for the expression of some violent passion, such as hate.
Like the admirable paintings of Eugene Carriere, for instance his masterly portrait of Paul Verlaine, a song, sometimes an entire role, may be worked out in monochrome; though the gradations of tint are numerous, they are consistently kept within their preconceived colour-scheme. Some few exceptional singers, like Jean-Baptiste Faure or Maurice Renaud, have this gift of many shades of the one colour in their singing of certain roles. The colour is determined by the psychological character of the personage portrayed; a gay, reckless Don Giovanni calls for a brighter colouring throughout than that necessitated by the music allotted to a gloomy Vanderdecken or an embittered and vengeful Rigoletto. One may, therefore, formulate the following rule: The general character of the composition will decide the tonal colour appropriate for its general interpretation; the colouring necessary for its component phrases will be determined by the particular sentiment embodied in them. Emotions like sorrow, fear, despair, will find fitting expression in the sombre quality of voice, graduated in accordance with the intensity of