The lost vocal art and its restoration, with practical exercises for the use of singers and teachers

Front matter

AND ITS RESTORATION WITH PRACTICAL EXERCISES FOR

THE USE OF SINGERS AND TEACHERS

WITH INTRODUCTION BY ~

Preface

**'The Lost Vocal Art ” has for its purpose the restoration of the vital principle in systems or methods of voice culture which formerly characterized the Old Italian Method. The science of psychology is shown to be the real science on which the old school actually stood, and on which all really successful schools of voice culture must stand.

The principles scientifically explained as psychological are the fundamental governing forces of all artistic vocal development worthy of the name. It is pointed out that the old methods, while having these principles in operation, were not fortified by the scientific explanation of the how and wherefore of the matter.

The Old Masters were not aware of the scientific soundness of their position. Controversialists had not arisen. Empirical instruction was the only kind that was recognized, or used, When the attempt was made to advance new systems of instruction based upon the science of physiology, the teachers and singers of the old school were led like lambs to the slaughter. They did not resist, thinking that they might benefit themselves

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8 PREFACE by such knowledge as was evolved from scientific research.

The danger of constructive work which not only took cognizance of but attempted directly to govern the physical parts involved, did not at first appear. It took time to show the extent of the evil. The glamour of the newly acquired knowledge obtained through analysis, together with the undoubted truth of the things that were said concerning the physiological phenomena, served to hoodwink the representatives of the true school. They themselves became willing victims of the erroneous doctrines. They thought they were to become wiser men—more proficient in their art than ever, by the knowledge of these great discoveries.

Thus the evil had its origin, and the discovery of the laryngoscope aided and abetted the threatened. downfall of correct principles—or their abandonment. Almost unwittingly the dependence upon the right principles gave place to dependence upon wrong principles.

What is known as the lost vocal art is shown to be nothing more nor less than the result of the loss or change of constructive principles which were formerly in use, and the resurrection of this lost art must come from the restoration of that true vital

PREFACE 9 principle made manifest in empirical instruction.

The ability of the master is determined by his ability not only to hear and judge correctly the voice of his pupils, but also to make them hear and correctly judge their own voices, and his skill must be further shown in the use of devices for the promotion of desired ends.

The physical activity which may be recommended as favorable means of development must not be confounded with the physiological principle. One is the assisting factor, and is general in principle—in recognition of the fact that physical elasticity renders the parts more capable of ready response to the demand of the will, directed toward the effect desired. The imagination and idealization of tone is placed before the action, this being the actual initiative.

This means concentrating the mind on tone desired and willing the effect, the process being in a measure subconscious and aided by physical activity. The other, the physiological principle, is the fixing of the mind upon and willing the specific activity of the process, or any part of it.

Although many attacks have been made upon scientific voice culture based upon physiology, due to the unfavorable results experienced by artists who have tried to proceed along these lines,

10 PREFACE nothing of a scientific nature has been offered to show that the statements concerning the physical facts are incorrect. The truth of the matter is that analytically the physiologists are for the most part correct. Their sore and grievous error is in the synthesis, not in the analysis, of voice. Up to the present time we have had in refutation merely the history of the rejection of scientific voice culture by artists of experience. They know that physiological scientific voice consideration in singing or method in teaching is practically not only of little use, but is generally destructive rather than constructive in the practical working-out.

The empirical instruction of the old school is now shown to have a firm scientific foundation on which to stand. The Old Masters builded better than they knew, but were not knowingly or wittingly supported by scientific truth.

The Moderns who are not familiar with the truth evolved from what we may term a latter-day science—owing to its comparatively recent development—should acquaint themselves with its teachings.

They will doubtless then realize that Apollo may now stand on the immortal pedestal designed by Nature—the science of psychology.

Tuer AvUTHOR.

Introduction

Ir is with great pleasure that I yield to the request of the author to write an introduction to his work, as I am entirely in sympathy with all he has to say concerning the importance of the psychological phase of the art of singing, as well as of the necessity for absolute mastery of the physical machinery by means of which we actually do sing. It is unnecessary for a man to know the names of the muscles of his legs and arms in order to be an athlete, but he must know how to use them to the best advantage. He must be taught by some one of experience in athletics how to get the best results with the least strain; and so it is with a singer. All birds are taught by their elders their language of song, as children are taught to speak, without specific instruction, in either case, in the mechanism of either song or speech.

Song, with human beings, is an extra sense; it is at least, an elaboration of the attribute of speech, of the gift of music, and of the sense of hearing, a combination of the three so intricate and so inti- 11 mate that it is no wonder that various modes of training have been resorted to in leading the armies of would-be singers, most of whom are totally unfitted for the task they find confronting them.

The successful singer is indeed a shining example of the theory of the survival of the fittest; and the wise master is one among ten thousand. These know, beyond all peradventure, that only those who can sing—who have naturally the combination of the many qualities that make a singer —should be permitted to study with a view to going before the public; and that very careful training of the voice in song and speech, with the best singers as models, and the watchful, conservative master as mentor, is absolutely indispensable to success.

Let the pupil look into the physiology of the throat if he so desires, but let him not think that this knowledge will enable him to sing, any more than that a runner should win a race because of his knowledge of the mechanism of his legs. The latter wins because he can run faster than his competitors, and knows better how to use his legs for haying trained them: and so it is with the singer. The voice and general musical ability must be of more than average excellence, and must be carefully trained if he would win in the severe competition of to-day ; and also it is imperative that the wise master guard the special sense that makes a singer, against the general lack of sense that so often mars him. Though the science of psychology may now be shown to be the basis of the work of the old Italian masters, I doubt if they would have called their mode of teaching “ psychological,” but it is well now so to distinguish it from the physiological method which is so productive of systems palpably erroneous, taught too often by those,. forsooth, who cannot sing! The writer was a pupil of the elder Lamperti, and of Vannucini—direct descendants of the great masters of their Italian past—also of Shakespeare, Lamperti’s principal English advocate, a man of fine intelligence, and of greater muscianship and wider experience before the public than most teachers among his contemporaries.

The secret of the so-called lost art of singing he sought in vain among the mazes of physiological science, and never did he place much reliance upon these puzzling questions. He tried to show his pupils not only how to master the physical by close attention to its obvious demands, but how to guide all so as to bring about the purest and most artistic vocal results by means of the exercise of that higher mental quality which our author denominates the psychological principle.

Shakespeare seldom trained pupils for the stage ; he taught them to sing. If they succeeded in oratorio, concert, or opera, it was because they knew how to sing, not because they were foisted upon the public and happened to succeed. He was heart and soul with the older Italians in discountenancing mediocrity. The lynx ears of Lamperti and of Shakespeare would not—could not—allow what they considered wrong in note or phrase, or ultimate inner sense to pass unchallenged.

Reliance upon the principles of physiology to correct physiological defects is, of course, essential; but the art of song is mental, and so is psychological in its higher development. When the body is in subjection to the mind, the will works its way with the world, and the spirit will hold sway over all things inanimate. By bringing to bear upon it the suavity of Italian vocal art, even the majestic roughness of the German tongue may be toned down without loss of strength and with positive gain of beauty. So obvious was this, some years ago, when Madame Cosima Wagner visited Covent Garden Opera, in London, that, after hearing a performance of her husband’s

** Lohengrin,’ sung by Mesdames Nordica and Schumann-Heink, the brothers Jean and Edouard de Reszke, and the writer, she exclaimed, “I have to-night, for the first time in my life, heard Wagner sung from a melodious standpoint! ” (““ vom Standpunkt melodieuxr.”’) And why was that? It may safely be said that it was because the artists named had all studied the art of singing so well, from such an artistic standpoint, that even the difficulties of Wagner became comparatively easy to them, and the psychology of their complex réles stood out triumphant over the material means of expression which so often prove a hindrance to the enjoyment of modern works. Let none suppose that such results, or such praise as Madame Wagner gave us, were to be obtained without long and arduous physical training; but let all be made aware that behind this must always be the extra, inner sense; the strong psychological undercurrent of the allinforming mind; for as long as the physical obtrudes itself, the manifestation of the higher quality will be hindered.

What is it that makes one violin better than another?—or, mayhap, superlatively good? The mind of its maker. What is it makes violin-playing good, bad, or indifferent, despite the excellence of the instrument? The mind of the performer. In the days when artists could not buy tubes of paint ready-made, but were obliged to mingle their own pigments to obtain the desired shades, the great Sir Joshua Reynolds, renowned for the richness of his tones, was asked by an admiring junior aspirant to his honors, “ Sir Joshua, what do you mix your colors with?” to which, like a flash, came the rejoinder from behind the great horn-rimmed spectacles, ‘“* With brains, sir, with brains.”

But “who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?” Who is there to make known to all the world the fact that Art, though long, is enduring; and to bring home to the unthinking the homily that Life is short and must be well used? 'To the merely physical and sensual, Art is nothing, and Life has no meaning. To the spiritual and the psychical, Art is of the things that bring the understanding of the possibility of eternal Life to the human race. Let not, then, the high gift of song be abused, but nurtured as coming to mortals, as it does, from a higher plane than is now recognized by those who would make of it merely a vehicle for sensuous enjoyment or for barter and trade.

NovemBer, 1913. Davip BIsPHAM.

Contents

THE PRESENT VOCAL SITUATION .....cccceecccc eee en The difficulties of the beginner—Necessary qualifications for a singer—The languages—The “Italian Method ”’—The charlatan vocal teacher and singing coach—The inefficiency of present day systems—The standardization of voice culture.

Tue RELAtion or PuysioLocy anp PsycHoLocy To Vocau PS Rete ee eM eEea lela ara sett t lL ateia sine ar teil steer euct othe The observation of phenomena—What physiology proves—Psychological influences—Memory, understanding, will power and vital force—The value of the old school—Empirical instruction—Meaning of well-known precepts—Psychology, the basis of the truly scientific school of voice culture—Physiology, the basis of the scientific school as eae understood.

PsycuonocicaL AND PurysioLocicaL Virws or VocaL ATER AA NTEN Gy Raster avelota eto} a lerielovalelalecehole|pistaleja/ciate’al sielsis.e;e\a1wiel¥'e Two points of view—Psychology as gpnlied to the art of singing—The hearing of one’s own voice—Idealism, mental conception, imagination and judgment of sounds produced—Discussion of psychology as the true basic principle—Criticism of the singing of to-day—Causes of failure—Scientific principle of the old school—Individuality of voices—The voice the vehicle of expression—The crying evil of the day—