The old Italians began with quite young pupils, commonly when they
were in their ninth or tenth year. The great demands which were
then made in regard to the technical culture of the voice required
a long time for instruction, usually five or six years. The
extraordinary fulness and power of tone possessed by the earlier
artists could be acquired only by persevering and adequate practice
of the vocal organ, taken while in the process of growth. Those
singers, men and women, whose voices have been celebrated for their
fulness and strength of tone, such as _Catalani_, _Perini_, &c.,
sang in their fifth year, under the careful oversight of persons
musically cultivated. In childhood the impulse to imitation is
strongest, the vocal organs are more tender and pliant than in
adults; and hence, when care is taken to avoid fatiguing and
straining the voice, children learn much easier and better than
grown persons. They are also preserved by early and correct singing
from the many bad habits with which the teacher has to contend in
adults. That special skill and care are required in a teacher who
has in charge the voices of children, there can be no question. But
unhappily, no regard is paid to this consideration in the system of
teaching singing in the schools, universally introduced in France,
Germany, and Switzerland. To any teacher who can sing at all,
or play on any instrument, the tender voices of children are
entrusted, and he allows them to sing together in chorus, satisfied
if the tones are not grossly false and the time is kept, paying no
regard to the formation of the voice. Now it is well known that
even practised singers avoid singing much in chorus, considering it
injurious to the voice. Although schooled and educated voices can
endure a much greater strain than children's voices, yet children
are often, without any understanding, required to sing loud, in
order “to bring out the voice.” In such a way of singing it is
simply impossible that every separate voice should be attended to,
even were the teacher competent to attend to it; while it often
happens that at the most critical age, while the vocal organs are
being developed, children sing with all the strength they can
command. Boys, however, in whom the larynx at a certain period
undergoes an entire transformation, reach only with difficulty the
higher soprano or contralto tones, but are not assigned a lower
part until, perceiving themselves the impossibility of singing
in this way, they beg the teacher for the change, often too late,
unhappily, to prevent an irreparable injury. Moderate singing,
without exertion, and, above all things, within the natural limits
of the voice and its registers, would even during the period of
growth be as little hurtful as speaking, laughing, or any other
of the exercises which cannot be forbidden to the vocal organs.
But it is wiser not to allow boys to sing at all while the larynx
is undergoing its change.
The plan of introducing into schools instruction in singing, so
excellent in itself theoretically, tends, by the way in which
it is carried out in practice, to lessen the number of voices
susceptible of artistic culture, without any compensation in an
awakened feeling and understanding of music. In the palmy days
of the art of singing there was no instruction given in singing
in the schools, but there were instead numerous schools for
singing, where children were trained into artists by the most
skilful teachers, and whence proceeded good singers, male and
female, in great numbers.
The numerous vocal music Unions and _Männerchöre_, as such,
contribute as little as school singing to the elevation and
improvement of the vocal art, the sole object of which is to
cultivate the individual voice for artistic singing. Considered
as a means of moral culture, the rise and increasing prevalence
of chorus singing among all orders of the people merit commendation
and aid, but not in the interest of the art of song.
Apart from this school instruction, now becoming so popular,
people commonly venture to entrust their sons and daughters,
but not until they are quite grown, to a singing master to be
educated. But then it is expected that he shall, in the shortest
time possible, often in the space of a few months, advance them
so far that they shall be able to sing with applause before
company.
Such is the case in Germany, and in a much higher degree in
America, while in the various conservatories of Europe there is
now required a period of from four to seven years for education
in the art of singing. In the Conservatory of Milan, which is
now held to be the best school for our art, pupils are admitted
only upon the condition that they will remain seven years.
Thus, while every instrument, if anything is to be made out
of it, demands years of practice, to the human voice alone is
time denied, simply because, I suppose, almost every one has
a somewhat natural aptitude for singing.
The greatest fault, however, is to be found in the present mode of
teaching singing, which is so superficial that people have become
accustomed to overlook the possibility of changing a voice and
rendering it beautiful. For the most part instruction begins where
and with what it should end; the aim is, paying only passing
attention to the timbre and the formation of tone (_Tonbildung_),
to teach the pupil to sing certain favorite pieces with the due
execution, and to see that the breath is taken at the right places
and that the tone is not too impure. But the human voice is
susceptible of much higher culture than any instrument. And it
requires more gifts and far more study to become a true and
distinguished artist in singing than are necessary to the mastery
of other instruments. It would most assuredly contribute to the
advancement and elevation of the vocal art, if gifted children,
as it often happened in former times, were early instructed in
singing with the requisite care and skill. Thus, educated for
their art, and giving to it their best powers, they would be able
to satisfy far higher demands and attain to quite another and
higher artistic perfection than we are wont now-a-days to find
anywhere among our vocal artists. Such children would then, at
the age at which at present instruction in singing begins, have
already mastered all technical difficulties and be able to apply
themselves chiefly to the æsthetic cultivation of their art. With
young girls especially, whose vocal organs do not change so much
as those of boys, the earliest possible beginning of instruction
would be in the highest degree advantageous. It is owing only to
the unnatural, overstrained method of studying the art of singing
now prevalent that a principle recognized and applied in the
learning of all other arts, and even in all the other branches
of music, has universal prejudice against it.