The Head Voice and Other Problems | Page 3

pure singing tone of the human voice that cannot
even be approximated by any other instrument. We have all heard

voices that were so beautiful that to hear one of them vocalize for half
an hour would be a musical feast. Such a voice is so full of feeling, so
vibrant with life and emotion that it moves one to the depths even if no
words are used. It is only natural that all singers should be eager to
possess such a voice, for it covers up a multitude of other musical
misdemeanors. While it does not take the place altogether of the
interpretative instinct, it does make the work of the singer much easier
by putting his audience in sympathy with him from the beginning, thus
to a considerable extent disarming criticism. The old Italians attached
so much importance to beautiful tone that they were willing to work
conscientiously for half a dozen years to obtain it. To the beautiful tone
they added a faultless technic. Altogether it required from five to eight
years to prepare and equip a singer for a career, but when he was thus
prepared he could do astounding things in the way of trills, roulades,
and cadenzas.
The stories of many of these singers have come down to us through the
musical histories, and the singing world has come to believe that the
teachers alone were responsible. Owing to her geographic location, her
climate, language, and racial characteristics Italy at one time furnished
most of the great singers of the world, and the world with its usual lack
of judgment and discrimination gave Italian teachers all of the credit.
That the best of the Italian teachers were as near right as it is humanly
possible to be, I have no doubt whatever, but along with the few singers
who became famous there were hundreds who worked equally hard but
were never heard of. A great voice is a gift of the creator, and the
greater the gift the less there is to be done by the teacher. But in
addition to what nature has done there is always much to be done by
the teacher, and the nature of the vocal instrument is such that its
training is a problem unique and peculiar. The voice can do so many
different things, produce so many different kinds of tone, in such a
variety of ways that the ability to determine which is right and which is
wrong becomes a matter of aesthetic judgment rather than scientific or
mechanical.
If the scale, power, quality, and compass of the human voice were
established as are those of the piano, the great problem in the training

of a singer would be much simplified, possibly eliminated; but the
singer must form the pitch, power, and quality of each tone as he uses it;
therefore in the training of a singer we are constantly facing what has
crystallized into the term =Voice Placing=.
This term has been used as a peg upon which to hang every whim,
fancy, formula, and vocal vagary that has floated through the human
mind in the last two centuries. It has furnished an excuse for inflicting
upon vocal students every possible product of the imagination, normal
and abnormal, disguised in the word =Method=, and the willingness
with which students submit themselves as subjects for experiment is
beyond belief. The more mysterious and abnormal the process the more
faith they have in its efficacy.
The nature of the vocal instrument, its wide range of possibilities, and
its intimate relation to the imagination make it a peculiarly fit subject
for experiment. The scientist has tried to analyze it, the mechanic has
tried to make it do a thousand things nature never intended it to do, the
reformer has tried to reform both, and the psychologist, nearest right of
all, has attempted to remove it from the realm of the material altogether.
There seems to be no way to stop this theorizing, and it doubtless will
continue until the general musical intelligence reaches such a point that
it automatically becomes impossible.
We are constantly hearing such remarks as "Mr. S knows how to place
the voice." "Mr. G does not." "Mr. B places the voice high." "Mr. R
does not place the voice high enough." "Mr. X is great at bringing the
tone forward," etc., etc. This goes on through a long list of fragments of
English difficult to explain even by those who use them.
Now voice placing means just one thing, not half a dozen. It means
learning to produce =beautiful tone=. When one can produce beautiful
tone throughout his vocal compass his voice is placed, and it is not
placed until he can. The injunction to place the voice invariably leaves
in the mind of the student