A young French girl had just sung a group of songs in her own language
and had won acclaim from the distinguished company present. They admired
the rich quality of her voice, her easy, spontaneous tone production and
clear diction. A brilliant future was predicted for the young singer.
One critic of renown remarked: "It is a long time since I have heard a
voice so well placed and trained."
"And who is your teacher?" she was asked.
"It is Mr. Duval; I owe everything to him. He has really made my voice;
I have never had another teacher and all my success will be due to him,"
she answered.
We at once expressed a desire to meet Mr. Duval and hear from his own
lips how such results were attained.
A meeting was easily arranged and we arrived at the appointed hour, just
in time to hear one of the brilliant students of this American-French
singing master.
Mr. Duval is young, slim and lithe of figure, with sensitive, refined
features, which grow very animated as he speaks. He has a rich fund of
humor and an intensity of utterance that at once arrests the listener.
He came forward to greet the visitor with simple cordiality, saying he
was pleased we could hear one of his latest "finds."
The young tenor was at work on an air from _Tosca_. His rich, vibrant
voice, of large power and range and of real Caruso-like quality, poured
forth with free and natural emission. With what painstaking care this
wise teacher aided him to mold each tone, each phrase, till it attained
the desired effect. Being a singer himself, Mr. Duval is able to show
and demonstrate as well as explain. He does both with the utmost
clearness and with unfailing interest and enthusiasm. Indeed his
interest in each pupil in his charge is unstinted.
The lesson over, Mr. Duval came over to us. "There is a singer I shall
be proud of," he said. "Several years ago I taught him for a few months,
giving him the principles of voice placement and tone production. This
was in Europe. I had not seen him since then till recently, when
circumstances led him to New York. He never forgot what he had
previously learned with me. He now has a lesson every day and is a most
industrious worker. I believe he has a fortune in that voice. Next
season will see him launched, and he will surely make a sensation."
"Will you give some idea of the means by which you accomplish such
results?"
"The means are very simple and natural. So many students are set on the
wrong track by being told to do a multitude of things that are
unnecessary, even positively harmful. For instance, they are required to
sing scales on the vowels, A, E, I, O, U. I only use the vowel Ah, for
exercises, finding the others are not needed, especially excluding E and
U as injurious. Indeed one of the worst things a young voice can do is
to sing scales on E and U, for these contract the muscles of the lips.
Another injurious custom is to sing long, sustained tones in the
beginning. This I do not permit.
"After telling you the things I forbid, I must enlighten you as to our
plan of study.
"The secret of correct tone emission is entire relaxation of the lips. I
tell the pupil, the beginner, at the first lesson, to sing the vowel Ah
as loudly and as deeply as possible, thinking constantly of relaxed lips
and loose lower jaw. Ah is the most natural vowel and was used
exclusively in the old Italian school of Bel Canto. Long sustained tones
are too difficult. One should sing medium fast scales at first. If we
begin with the long sustained tone, the young singer is sure to hold the
voice in his throat, or if he lets go, a tremolo will result. Either a
throaty, stiff tone or a tremolo will result from practicing the single
sustained tone.
"Singing pianissimo in the beginning is another fallacy. This is one of
the most difficult accomplishments and should be reserved for a later
period of development.
"The young singer adds to scales various intervals, sung twice in a
breath, beginning, not at the extreme of the lower voice, but carried up
as high as he can comfortably reach. I believe in teaching high tones
early, and in showing the pupil how to produce the head voice. Not that
I am a high tone specialist," he added smiling, "for I do not sacrifice
any part of the voice to secure the upper notes. But after all it is the
high portion of the voice that requires the most study, and that is
where so many singers fail.
"The young student practices these first exercises, and others, two half
hours daily, at least two hours after eating, and comes to me three
times a week. I suggest she rest one day in each week, during which she
need not sing at all, but studies other subjects connected with her art.
As the weeks go by, the voice, through relaxed lips and throat and
careful training, grows richer and more plentiful. One can almost note
its development from day to day.