QUALITIES NEEDED
Next comes the question: What are the qualities which the vocal
aspirant, professional or amateur, should possess?
A famous teacher who was once asked this question made answer: “Voice!
Voice! Voice!” I agree, and in the case of the professional I should be
inclined to add also: “Work! Work! Work!” and then Faith, Hope, and
Charity. Without hard work nothing can be done, and the practice of
these three virtues will undoubtedly prevent one growing weary in his
effort to attain the highest success.
But the truth is, of course, that many other qualities besides voice and
industry are necessary here. There are, indeed, so many that I hardly
know which to name first.
Lamperti on this point used to say: “First there must be a voice and
good ear, but also an artistic soul and a musical disposition.” Further,
he used to insist upon sound judgment, deep conscientiousness in study,
and untiring industry.
Very necessary also are general intelligence and keen perception,
because no matter how good a teacher may be the greater part of the work
must be done through the brain of the student himself.
On the necessity of sound health it is hardly necessary to insist, while
good looks and a fine presence naturally go for much also, though these
are not absolutely indispensable, as many notable instances have gone to
show.
Then, in addition, there are those temperamental qualities which mean so
much: imagination and feeling, sympathy and insight, magnetism and
personality. Perhaps, indeed, next to voice and ear these are the most
important qualities of all. But unfortunately they cannot be acquired by
any amount of study.
How often has it not happened, indeed, that artists have been endowed in
all other respects but these! They may have the most beautiful voices,
they may sing with the most finished art, but for lack of these
incommunicable attributes of the soul they never attain the highest
places. They leave their audiences cold because they are cold
themselves.
These are artists of the type which Lamperti used to refer to as mere
“voice machines”--singers who, as Gounod once put it, are not artists at
all in the true sense of the word, but merely people who “play upon the
larynx,” achieving great results perhaps in the purely vocal and
mechanical sense, but never touching the hearts of their hearers for
lack of those elemental human qualities which are essential if this
result is to be attained.
Let the student do all in his power, therefore, to develop the higher
side of his nature. By the study of literature and art, by the reading
of fine poetry, by going to good plays, and in every other way let him
cultivate his imagination and give play to his finer sensibilities.
For though such qualities as I have referred to may not be acquired when
they are non-existent, they may be drawn out and developed if they are
merely latent; and in the case of members of the northern races
especially this is not infrequently the case.
Another quality of a different kind which is none the less very
valuable, indeed essential, is the power of self-criticism; and I attach
great importance also to having abundant faith in oneself. Even if it be
pushed to the point of vanity and conceit--as I am afraid it
occasionally is--this helps enormously when it is a case of withstanding
the jolts and jars almost inseparable from the practice of vocal art.