So many things enter into the great problem of interpretation in singing
that it is somewhat difficult to state definitely just what the young
singer should consider the most important. Generally speaking, the
following factors are of prime significance:
1. Natural Aptitude.
2. General Education and Culture.
3. Good Musical Training.
4. Accurate Vocal Training.
5. Familiarity with Traditions.
6. Freedom of Mind.
7. Good Health.
8. Life Experience.
9. Personal Magnetism--one of the most essential,--and
10. Idealism.
1. _Natural Aptitude._--You will notice that foremost consideration is
given to those broad general qualities without which all the technical
and musical training of the world is practically worthless. The success
of the art worker in all lines depends first upon the nature of the man
or woman. Technical training of the highest and best kind is essential,
but that which moves great audiences is not alone the mechanics of an
art, but rather the broad education, experience, ideals, culture, the
human sympathy and magnetism of the artist.
2. _The Value of Education and Culture._--I cannot emphasize too
strongly the value of a good general education and wide culture for the
singer. The day has passed when a pretty face or a well-rounded ankle
could be mistaken for art on the operatic stage. The public now demands
something more than the heroic looking young fellow who comes down to
the footlights with the assurance of youth and offers, for real vocal
art, a voice fresh but crudely trained, and a bungling interpretation.
Good education has often been responsible for the phenomenal success of
American singers in European opera houses. Before the last war, in
nearly all of the great operatic centers of the Continent, one found
Americans ranking with the greatest artists in Europe. This was a most
propitious condition, for it meant that American audiences have been
compelled to give the long-delayed recognition to our own singers, and
methods of general and vocal education.
In most cases the young people of America who aspire to operatic
triumphs come from a somewhat better class than singers do in Europe.
They have had, in most cases, better educational, cultural and home
advantages than the average European student. Their minds are trained to
study intelligently; they are acquainted with the history of the great
nations of the world; their tastes are cultivated, and they are filled
with the American energy which is one of the marvels of the centuries.
More than this, they have had a kind of moral uplift in their homes
which is of immense value to them. They have higher ideals in life, they
are more businesslike and they keep their purposes very clearly in view.
This has created jealousy in some European centers; but it is simply a
case of the survival of the fittest, and Europe was compelled to bow in
recognition of this. Vocal art in our own land is no longer to be
ignored, for our standards are as high as the highest in the world, and
we are educating a race of singers of which any country might be proud.
3. _Good Musical Training._--A thorough musical training--that is, a
training upon some musical instrument such as the piano--is extremely
desirable, but not absolutely essential; for the instrument called the
Human Voice can be played on as effectively as a violin. The singer who
is convinced of his ability, but who has not had such advantages in
early youth, should not be discouraged. He can acquire a thorough
knowledge of the essentials later on, but he will have to work very much
harder to get his knowledge--as I was obliged to do. Artistic ability is
by no means a certain quality. The famous art critic, Vassari, has
called our attention to the fact that one painter who produced wonderful
pictures had an exhaustive technical training, another arising at his
side who also achieved wonderful results had to secure them by means of
much bungling self-study. It is very hard to repress artistic ability.
As the Bible says: "Many waters cannot quench love." So it is with
music; if the ability is there, it will come to the front through fire
and water.
4. _Accurate and Rational Vocal Training._--I have added the word
rational for it seems a necessary term at a time when so much vocal
teaching is apparently in the hands of "faddists." There is only one way
to sing, that is _the right way_, the way that is founded upon natural
conditions. So much has been said in print about breathing, and placing
the voice, and resonance, that anything new might seem redundant at this
time. The whole thing in a nutshell is simply to make an effort to get
the breath under such excellent control that it will obey the will so
easily and fluently that the singer is almost unconscious of any means
he may employ to this end. This can come only through long practice and
careful observation. When the breath is once under proper control the
supply must be so adjusted that neither too much nor too little will be
applied to the larynx at one time. How to do this can be discovered only
by much practice and self-criticism. When the tone has been created it
must be reinforced and colored by passing through the mouth and nose,
and the latter is a very present help in time of vocal trouble. This
leads to a good tone on at least twenty-six steps and half-steps of the
scale and with twenty or more vowel sounds--no easy task by any means.
All this takes time, but there is no reason why it should take an
interminable amount of time. If good results are not forthcoming in from
nine months to a year, something is wrong with either the pupil or the
teacher.
The matter of securing vocal flexibility should not be postponed too
long, but may in many instances be taken up in conjunction with the
studies in tone production, after the first principles have been
learned. Thereafter one enters upon the endless and indescribably
interesting field of securing a repertoire. Only a teacher with wide
experience and intimacy with the best in the vocal literature of the
world can correctly grade and select pieces suitable to the
ever-changing needs of the pupil.
No matter how wonderful the flexibility of the voice, no matter how
powerful the tones, no matter how extensive the repertoire, the singer
will find all this worthless unless he possesses a voice that is
susceptible to the expression of every shade of mental and emotional
meaning which his intelligence, experience and general culture have
revealed to him in the work he is interpreting. At all times his voice
must be under control. Considered from the mechanical standpoint, the
voice resembles the violin, the breath, as it passes over the vocal
cords, corresponding to the bow and the resonance chambers corresponding
to the resonance chambers in the violin.
5. _Familiarity With Vocal Traditions._--We come to the matter of the
study of the traditional methods of interpreting vocal masterpieces. We
must, of course, study these traditions, but we must not be slaves to
them. In other words, we must know the past in order to interpret
masterpieces properly in the present. We must not, however, sacrifice
that great quality--individuality--for slavery to convention. If the
former Italian method of rendering certain arias was marred by the
tremolo of some famous singers, there is no good artistic reason why any
one should retain anything so hideous as a tremolo solely because it is
traditional.
There is a capital story of a young American singer who went to a
European opera house with all the characteristic individuality and
inquisitiveness of his people. In one opera the stage director told him
to go to the back of the stage before singing his principal number and
then walk straight down to the footlights and deliver the aria. "Why
must I go to the back first?" asked the young singer. The director was
amazed and blustered: "Why? Why, because the great Rubini did it that
way--he created the part; it is the tradition." But the young singer was
not satisfied, and finally found an old chorus man who had sung with
Rubini, and asked him whether the tradition was founded upon a custom of
the celebrated singer. "Yes," replied the chorus man, "da gretta Rubini
he granda man. He go waya back; then he comea front; then he sing. Ah,
grandissimo!" "But," persisted the young American, "_Why did he go to
the back before he sang?_" "Oh!" exclaimed the excited Italian; "Why he
go back? He go to spit!"
Farcical as this incident may seem, many musical traditions are founded
upon customs with quite as little musical or esthetic importance. Many
traditions are to-day quite as useless as the buttons on the sleeves of
our coats, although these very buttons were at one time employed by our
forefathers to fasten back the long cuffs. There are, however, certain
traditional methods of rendering great masterpieces, and particularly
those marked by the florid ornamentation of the days of Handel, Bach and
Haydn, which the singer must know. Unfortunately, many of these
traditions have not been preserved in print in connection with the
scores themselves, and the only way in which the young singer can
acquire a knowledge of them is through hearing authoritative artists, or
from teachers who have had wide and rich experience.
6. _Freedom of Mind._--Under ideal conditions the mind should be free
for music study and for public performance. This is not always possible;
and some artists under great mental pressure have done their best work
solely because they felt that the only way to bury sorrow and trouble
was to thrust themselves into their artistic life and thus forget the
pangs of misfortune. The student, however, should do everything possible
to have his mind free so that he can give his best to his work. One who
is wondering where the next penny is coming from is in a poor condition
to impress an audience. Nevertheless, if the real ability is there it is
bound to triumph over all obstacles.
7. _Good Health._--Good health is one of the great factors of success in
singing. Who needs a sounder mind than the artist? Good health comes
from good, sensible living. The singer must never forget that the
instrument he plays upon is a part of his body and that that instrument
depends for its musical excellence and general condition upon good
health. A $20,000 Stradivarius would be worthless if it were placed in a
tub of water; and a larynx that earns for its owner from $500 to $1,500
a night is equally valueless when saturated with the poisons that come
from intemperate or unwise living. Many of the singer's throat troubles
arise from an unhealthy condition of the stomach caused by excesses of
diet; but, aside from this, a disease localized in any other part of the
body affects the throat sympathetically and makes it difficult for the
singer to get good results. Recital work, with its long fatiguing
journeys on railroads, together with the other inconveniences of travel
and the responsibility and strain that come from knowing that one person
alone is to hold from 1,000 to 5,000 people interested for nearly two
hours, demands a very sound physical condition.
8. _Life Experience._--Culture does not come from the schoolroom alone.
The refining processes of life are long and varied. As the violin gains
in richness of tone and intrinsic value with age, so the singer's life
experience has an effect upon the character of his singing. He must have
seen life in its broadest sense, to place himself in touch with human
sympathy. To do this and still retain the freshness and sweetness of his
voice should be his great aim. The singer who lives a narrow and bigoted
existence rarely meets with wide popular approval. The public wants to
hear in a voice that wonderful something that tells them that it has
had opportunities to know and to understand the human side of song, not
giving parrot-like versions of some teacher's way of singing, but that
the understanding comes from the very center of the mind, heart and
soul. This is particularly true in the field of the song recital. Most
of the renowned recital singers of the last half century, including
Schumann-Heink, Sembrich, Wuellner, the Henschels and others, were
considerably past their youth when they made their greatest successes. A
painting fresh from the artist's brush is raw, hard and uninteresting,
till time, with its damp and dust, night and day, heat and cold, gives
the enriching touch which adds so wonderfully to the softness and beauty
of a picture. We singers are all living canvases. Time, and time only,
can give us those shades and tints which reveal living experience. The
young artist should hear many of the best singers, actors, and speakers,
should read many of the best books, should see many beautiful pictures
and wonderful buildings. But most of all, he should know and study many
people and learn of their joys and their sorrows, their successes and
their failures, their strength and their weaknesses, their loves and
their hates. In all art human life is reflected, and this is
particularly true in the case of vocal art. For years, in my youth, I
never failed to attend all of the musical events of consequence in my
native city. This was of immense value to me, since it gave me the means
of cultivating my own judgment of what was good or bad in singing. Do
not fear that you will become _blase_. If you have the right spirit
every musical event you attend will spur you on.
You may say that it is expensive to hear great singers, and that you can
only attend recitals and the opera occasionally. If this is really the
case you still have a means of hearing singers which you should not
neglect. I refer to the reproducing machines which have grown to be of
such importance in vocal education. Phonograph records are nothing short
of marvelous, and my earnestness in this cause is shown by the fact that
I have long advocated their employment in the public schools, and have
placed the matter before the educational authorities of New York. I
earnestly urge the music teachers of this country, who are working for
the real musical development of our children, to take this matter up in
all seriousness. I can assure them that their efforts will bring them
rich dividends in increased interest in musical work of their pupils,
and the forming of a musical public. But nothing but the classics of
song must be used. The time for the scorning of "high-brow" songs is
past, and music must help this country to rid itself of the vogue of the
"low-brow" and the "tough." Let singers strive to become educated
ornaments of their lofty profession.
9. _Personal Magnetism._--One of the most essential. The subject of
"personal magnetism" is ridiculed by some, of course, but rarely laughed
at by the artist who has experienced the astonishing phenomena in the
opera house or the concert room. Like electricity it is intangible,
indefinable, indescribable, but makes its existence known by
manifestations that are almost uncanny. If personal magnetism does not
exist, how then can we account for the fact that one pianist can sit
down to the instrument and play a certain piece, and that another
pianist could play the same piece with the same technical effect but
losing entirely the charm and attractiveness with which the first
pianist imbued the composition? Personal magnetism does not depend upon
personal beauty nor erudition nor even upon perfect health. Henry Irving
and Sarah Bernhardt were certainly not beautiful, but they held the
world of the theater in the palm of their hand. Some artists have really
been in the last stages of severe illness but have, nevertheless,
possessed the divine electric spark to inspire hundreds, as did the
hectic Chopin when he made his last famous visit to England and
Scotland.
Personal magnetism is not a kind of hypnotic influence to be found
solely in the concert hall or the theater. Most artists possess it to a
certain degree. Without this subtle and mysterious force, success with
the public never comes.
10. _Idealism._--Ideals are the flowers of youth. Only too often they
are not tenderly cared for, and the result is that many who have been on
the right track are turned in the direction of failure by materialism.
It is absolutely essential for the young singer to have high ideals.
Direct your efforts to the best in whatever branch of vocal art you
determine to undertake. Do not for a moment let mediocrity or the
substitution of artificial methods enter your vision. Holding to your
ideal will mean costly sacrifices to you; but all sacrifices are worth
while if one can realize one's ideal. The ideal is only another term for
Heaven to me. If we could all attain to the ideal, we would all be in a
kind of earthly Paradise. It has always seemed to me that when our Lord
said "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," he meant that it is at hand for
us to possess now; that is the _ideal_ in life.
[Illustration: DAME CLARA BUTT.]