The Singing Teacher's and Student's Library

by F.W. Wodell

There are some teachers and advanced students of singing who desire to become broadly educated musicians and vocalists. They take the position, and wisely, that it is desirable that the singer and the teacher of singing-inform himself as to the ideas of other workers in the same field. It is from such that the various musical journals of high grade and the publishers of books on singing having merit, as well as works on collateral subjects. such as harmony, counterpoint and composition, musical form, and esthetics, receive what patronage comes to them from the vocal profession.

Unfortunately, too many vocal teachers and singers are satisfied with a more or less complete knowledge of their special subject and of a particular presentation of that subject. Such take little interest in any other presentation, for instance, of the subject of voice production, or the art of singing, than the one they may happen to have made their own.

In an endeavor to be of some service to the first mentioned class of vocalists, we set forth the following paragraphs. If the teacher be making inquiry as to the works claiming to set forth the art of singing according to the principles of what is known as the Old Italian School, he may find something of interest in these, books:

THE OLD ITALIAN SCHOOL.

Francesco Lamperti - The Art of Singing. Translated by Griffith Published in 1890

This is called by Lamperti The Guida Elemcntare.

Francesco Lamperti - The Art of Singing. Translated by Walter Jekyll.

This work contains no music text, but places especial emphasis on the importance of acquiring breath control as the foundation of all good tone production. It is in a sense a presentation of the older Lampcrti's idea of the theory of tone production, and contains many wise observations concerning the art of singing.

G. B. Lamperti - The Technic of Bel Canto.

This work by a son of Francesco Lamperti is an attempt to furnish a text book of tone production according to the principles of the Old Italian School, and makes the acquirement of breath control fundamental. There are some special directions regarding the acquirement of what is known as "head voice" by women singers and also concerning the special and particular treatment of the upper tones of the tenor voice.

William Shakespeare - The Art of Singing.

This work was written by a gentleman who has for some time been a successful teacher of the art of singing in London. England. He was for a long time a pupil of the elder Lamperti, and put in his work (Part One), with some particularity, what he conceives to be the underlying principles of the Old Italian School of Singing. Here again emphasis is placed upon breath control as fundamental. A table of register divisions for every class of voice is included, but on this point (register) the teaching is, that with correct breath control and freedom of the vocal instrument, the question of register changes settles itself.

Parts two and three are mostly taken up with music text in the shape of technical exercises and vocalizes.

Martin Roeder - Fundamental Vocal Exercises.

This work contains some statements of the theory of tone production according to the Old Italian School, but is chiefly made up of exercises in music text.

Perley Dunn Aldrich - Vocal Economy.

This is a work based on the principles of breath control and freedom of the vocal instrument as fundamental to good tone production. There is no music text.

Leo Kofler - Art of Breathing.

This work goes very fully into the question of respiration - inhaling and exhaling - for singing. There are some exercises in music text, but the bulk of the book is given over to statements of the theory of tone production. Correct breathing is here again held to be fundamental to good tone production.

E. Davidson Palmer - The Rightly Produced Voice.

E. Davidson Palmer - The Training of Men's Voices, and The Manual of Voice Training.

Mr. Palmer has been the most prominent and active advocate of the theory that the so-called falsetto production is the true production for the man's voice, and that by the cultivation of that production, based upon deep breath control, the usual difficulties met with in the training of the upper tones of tenors and baritones, in particular, are avoided. His claim is that this voice can be demonstrated and developed so that it takes the place of what is ordinarily called the "chest" voice of the man, yet develops a breadth and richness in the middle and lower ranges which are superior to the so-called chest tones in every way, and at the same time enables the vocalist to sing from the bottom to the top of his compass with no change of quality and without the slightest unevenness of scale. At the same time this tone, developed from the so-called falsetto, is colorable and in every way suitable for purposes of interpretation in song. This idea of the training of the male voice has been adopted by quite a number of the most thoughtful instructors of singing in this country, yet there is still a very strong prejudice against any use of the so - called falsetto, and many clever instructors will still declare that nothing in the way of development of tonal force of good quality can be secured from its use.

BOOKS ON THE MALE VOICE.

A recent book by Dr. Edward G. Stubbs, of New York, called "The Adult Male Alto or Counter-Tcnor Voice." makes rather a strong case from the history of singing and voice training in favor of the theory of the use of the so-called falsetto or 'head voice in the training of men's voices. Dr. Stubbs very wisely says that, according to a widely followed principle, no tone that gives the singer absolutely no sense of effort in its production can rightly be said to be a bad tone, and the so-called falsetto certainly brings to the ordinary man singer as he ascends the scale and breaks into it, a sense of relief rather than of added strain. Dr. Stubbs gives, perhaps, as satisfactory an explanation as has appeared of the difficult}' which some voices experience in developing any breadth or force from the falsetto, when he points out that certain types of naturally high voices seem to exhibit a kind of falsetto or head tone which responds to training, and develops force and some breadth. While other tenor voices, not naturally of so light and high a caliber, find marked difficulty in developing the so-called falsetto tone and securing an even scale. Davidson Palmer doubtless would reply that the heavier voice had, in the nature of the case, gone farther in the direction of crude, forced production than the lighter voices, and would therefore be expected to be more unruly or less responsive, when an attempt was made to develop the light falsetto tone. The tendency would be to at once return to the conditions accompanying the incorrect, but powerful, forced tone belonging to what is usually called the "chest" register. To bring most satisfactory results he claims that the student who desires to change his production and place it upon the basis of the so-called falsetto, must abstain from using even the speaking voice at the ordinary, comparatively low pitch, but must use a lighter and much higher pitched voice in his ordinary speech. This is to assist in setting up the correct and unforced action of the vocal instrument in song.

FALSETTO TONES.

In this connection it may be pointed out that even among teachers who condemn any attempt to deal with, or use the so-called falsetto in the training of men's voices, there is> a constant endeavor to secure in the upper range of women's voices, particularly those of soprano* and mezzo sopranos, the exhibition and use of what is called "bead tone," which in its sensation, or lack of it, in the throat, on high pitches, seems to be closely analogous to the so-called falsetto or male head tone. These teachers, many of them in order to secure a greater freedom of the parts and consequently richer and fuller tone in the middle range of the woman's voice, having secured a fairly high head tone, will instruct the pupil to carry the quality and sensation thereof to as low a point in the range as is possible. This head tone will not sound unless the throat and adjacent parts are absolutely free from rigidity, and therefore it is held that if the singer, seizing upon the sensation and the quality accompanying this production, will hold herself to a continuation of the same down the scale, the result will be a perfect condition of the vocal instrument for good tone production as far down as the singer is able to carry this quality and sensation. In this way the throat becomes accustomed to assuming the correct conditions for good tone in the middle and low ranges. 1 his of itself, on the surface at least, would appear to be a good argument for the use of a similar process in dealing with the male voice.

Mr. Edwin Holland - Voice Production.

Some considerable time ago there was more or less discussion in a journal devoted in part to vocal matters as to whether the larynx should be held high, medium, or low, in the throat, or allowed to move up and down with the change of pitch. One Italian teacher of some prominence held strenuously to the low larynx idea. Mr. Holland is also an advocate of that position.

Charles Limn - The Philosophy of Voice.

Charles Limn - The Voice and its Training.

Thomas Kelly. S. J. - First Principles of Voice Production.

J. Barnard Bayless - Mind and Voice.

G. E. Thorp & William Nichol - Natural Use of the Voice.

Edmund J. Myer - The Voice From a Practical Standpoint.

Edmund J. Myer - Vocal Reinforcement.

Edmund J. Myer - Position and Action in Singing.

Edmund J. Myer - The Renaissance of the Vocal Art.

Thomas Chater - Scientific Voice.

CHARLES LUNN THEORIES.

Mr. Charles Lunn, sometime of Birmingham, England, later of London, has been the mo-t strenuous modern advocate of the theory of the control of the breath through the alleged approximation of the false vocal cord or bands. The claim is that through this approximation there i- formed in the throat a double valve which hold- back the breath automatically and that the will of the singer then has to be exerted, not to hold the breath, but to let go. to open the automatically acting throat valve which holds the breath for the singer. Others whose works are mentioned next below those of Mr. Limn have followed him with regard to this fundamental claim, though varying somewhat from his views with regard to other points concerning tone production. Mr. Lunn was a most aggressive controversialist and never wearied of lighting for his views. He claimed to1 have been one of the last representatives of the old Italian School, having received his training from an Italian master named Cattaneo.

The chief exponent in this country of this double valve idea with regard to the control of the singer's breath has been Mr. E. J. Myer, of New York. In the case of the authors mentioned, it seems to be fundamental, in order to secure approximation of the breath bands and consequently the formation of the double valve, that the upper chest shall be fully inflated and the breath, as they put it. squeezed or put under pressure in the chest. One or two anatomists have been quoted in support of the claim that the breath bands or false vocal cords can he sufficiently approximated so as to intercept and control the air from the singer's lungs. However, on the other side of the question is much testimony, including that of one of the most prominent anatomists and physiologists in New England to the effect that no one has yet been able to discover any muscles whereby such an approximation could be secured. Where doctors differ laymen must perforce withhold judgment. In this case, as in many others, whatever may or may not be the fact as to the control of breath through the approximation of the false cords, it is certain that the requirement of a high, well expanded chest exacted by this school is of a definite advantage in the production of tone of good quality and power, always provided that the so-called "squeezing" of the air in the chest and the high poise of the chest itself are not ever done so as to bring about the least rigidity of the parts involved. (Right of Reprint Reserved by the Author.)