Then when the student has her voice under complete control, it is safe
to take up the lyric repertoire of Mendelssohn, Old English Songs, etc.
How simple and charming they are! The works of the lighter French
composers, Hahn, Massenet, Chaminade, Gounod, and others. Then Handel,
Haydn, Mozart, Loewe, Schubert, Schumann and Brahms. Later the student
will continue with Strauss, Wolf, Reger, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Mousorgsky,
Borodin and Rachmaninoff. Then the modern French composers, Ravel,
Debussy, Georges, Koechlin, Hue, Chausson, and others. I leave French for
the last because it is, in many ways, more difficult for an
English-speaking person to sing. It is so full of complex and trying
vowels that it requires the utmost subtlety to overcome these
difficulties and still retain clarity in diction. For that reason the
student should have the advice of a native French coach.
When one has traveled this long road, then he is qualified to sing
English songs and ballads.