The Psychology of Singing | Page 8

to this position.
A wide variety of breathing exercises are in use, but these do not
require detailed description. Any one of the prescribed systems of
breathing can easily be adopted, and the student of singing seldom
encounters any difficulty on this point. Still most teachers attach great
importance to the acquirement of the correct manner of breathing.
Toneless mechanical exercises are generally given, by which the
student is expected to master the muscular movements before applying
in singing the system advocated by the teacher. These exercises are
usually combined with those for breath-control, and they are described
under that head.
Breath-Control
Very early in the development of Vocal Science the management of the
breath began to receive attention. Mannstein,[2] writing in 1834, says:
"The air in expiration must stream from the chest slowly and without
shock. The air must flow from the chest with the tone." In a footnote he
adds: "In order to acquire this economy of the breath, students were
required to practise daily, without singing, to take and to hold back the
breath as long as possible." Mannstein does not mention the muscular
action involved in this exercise.
[Note 2: Die grosse italienische Gesangschule. Dresden, 1834.]
This subject is also touched upon by Garcia. In the first edition of his
École de Garcia, 1847, Chap. IV, p. 14, he says: "The mechanism of
expiration consists of a gentle pressure on the lungs charged with air,
operated by the thorax and the diaphragm. The shock of the chest, the
sudden falling of the ribs, and the quick relaxing of the diaphragm
cause the air to escape instantly.... If, while the lungs are filled with air,
the ribs are allowed to fall, and the diaphragm to rise, the lungs
instantly give up the inspired air, like a pressed sponge. It is necessary
therefore to allow the ribs to fall and the diaphragm to relax only so
much as is required to sustain the tones." It may be questioned whether
Garcia had in mind the doctrine of breath-control as this is understood

to-day. Very little attention was paid, at any rate, in the vocal
instruction of that day, to the mechanical actions of breath-control; the
great majority of teachers probably had never heard of this principle.
As a definite principle of Vocal Science, breath-control was first
formulated by Dr. Mandl, in his Die Gesundheitslehre der Stimme,
Brunswick, 1876. From that time on, this doctrine has been very
generally recognized as the fundamental principle of correct singing.
Practically every scientific writer on the voice since then states
breath-control as one of the basic principles of Vocal Science. The
most influential published work in popularizing the doctrine of
breath-control was probably the book written jointly by Lennox
Browne and Emil Behnke, Voice, Song, and Speech, London, 1883.
This doctrine is of so much importance in Vocal Science and in modern
methods of instruction as to require a detailed explanation. The theory
of breath-control may be stated as follows:[3]
"In ordinary breathing the air is expelled from the lungs quietly, but
rapidly; at no point of the breathing apparatus does the expired breath
meet with resistance. In singing, on the contrary, the expiratory
pressure is much more powerful, yet the expiration must be much
slower. Furthermore, all the expired breath must be converted into tone,
and the singer must have perfect control over the strength and the speed
of the expiration. This requires that the air be held back at some point.
The action of holding back the breath must not be performed by the
muscles which close the glottis, for all the muscles of the larynx are
very small and weak in comparison with the powerful muscles of
expiration. The glottis-closing muscles are too weak to oppose their
action to the force of a powerful expiration. If the vocal cords are called
upon to withstand a strong breath pressure, they are seriously strained,
and their proper action is rendered impossible. In the same way, if the
throat be narrowed at any point above the larynx, so as to present a
passage small enough to hold back a powerful expiration, the entire
vocal mechanism is strained and forced out of its proper adjustment.
The singer must have perfect control of the breath, and at the same time
relieve the larynx and throat of all pressure and strain. To obtain this

control the singer must govern the expiration by means of the muscles
of inspiration. When the lungs are filled the inspiratory muscles are not
to be relaxed as in ordinary breathing, but are to be held on tension
throughout the action of expiration. Whatever pressure is exerted by the
expiratory muscles must be almost counterbalanced by the opposed
action of the muscles of inspiration. The more powerful the blast, the
greater must be the