The following chapters are the outgrowth of an enthusiasm for the work
of voice training, together with a deep personal interest in a large
number of conscientious young men and women who have gone out of my
studio into the world to engage in the responsible work of voice
teaching.
The desire to be of service to them has prompted me to put in permanent
form the principles on which I labored, more or less patiently, to
ground them during a course of three, four, or five years. The fact that
after having stood the "grind" for that length of time they are still
asking, not to say clamoring, for more, may, in a measure, justify the
decision to issue this book. It is not an arraignment of vocal teachers,
although there are occasional hints, public and private, which lead me
to believe that we are not altogether without sin. But if this be true
we take refuge in the belief that our iniquity is not inborn, but rather
is it the result of the educational methods of those immediately
preceding us. This at least shifts the responsibility.
Words are dangerous things, and are liable at any moment to start a
verbal conflagration difficult to control. Nowhere is this more likely
to occur than in a discussion of voice training.
From a rather wide acquaintance with what has been said on this subject
in the past hundred years, I feel perfectly safe in submitting the
proposition that the human mind can believe anything and be
conscientious in it.
Things which have the approval of ages emit the odor of sanctity, and
whoever scoffs does so at his peril. Charles Lamb was once criticised
for speaking disrespectfully of the equator, and a noted divine was
severely taken to task for making unkind remarks about hell. Humanity
insists that these time honored institutions be treated with due
respect. I have an equal respect for those who believe as I do and those
who do not; therefore if anything in this book is not in accord with
popular opinion it is a crack at the head of the idol rather than that
of the worshipper.
There is no legislative enactment in this great and free country to
prevent us from _believing_ anything we like, but there should be some
crumbs of comfort in the reflection that we cannot _know_ anything but
the truth. One may believe that eight and three are thirteen if it
please him, but he cannot know it because it is not true. Everything
that is true has for its basis certain facts, principles, laws, and
these are eternal and unchangeable. The instant the law governing any
particular thing becomes definitely known, that moment it becomes
undebatable. All argument is eliminated; but while we are searching for
these laws we are dealing largely in opinions, and here the offense
enters, for as Mr. Epictetus once said, "Men become offended at their
opinion of things, not at the things themselves." We can scarcely
imagine any one taking offense at the multiplication table, neither is
this interesting page from the arithmetic any longer considered a fit
subject for debate in polite society, but so far as we know this is the
only thing that is immune.
Our musical judgments, which are our opinions, are governed by our
experience; and with the growth of experience they ripen into solid
convictions. For many years I have had a conviction that voice training
is much simpler and less involved than it is generally considered. I am
convinced that far too much is made of the vocal mechanism, which under
normal conditions always responds automatically. Beautiful tone should
be the primary aim of all voice teaching, and more care should be given
to forming the student's tone concept than to that of teaching him how
to control his throat by direct effort. The controlling power of a right
idea is still much underestimated. The scientific plan of controlling
the voice by means of mechanical directions leaves untouched the one
thing which prevents its normal, automatic action, namely tension.
But, someone inquires, "If the student is singing with rigid throat and
tongue would you say nothing about it?" I would correct it, but not by
telling him to hold his tongue down. A relaxed tongue is always in the
right place, therefore all he needs to learn about the tongue is how to
relax it.
It has been hinted that he who subscribes to Dr. Fillebrown's declaration
that [A]"The process of singing is psychologic rather than physiologic"
has nothing tangible to work with. Now tone concept and musical feeling
are absolutely essential to singing, and they are definite entities to one
who has them. All musical temperaments must be vitalized. Imaginations
must be trained until they will burst into flame at the slightest poetic
suggestion. Musical natures are not fixed quantities. They are all subject
to the law of growth. Every vocal student is an example of the law of
evolution. Few people find it easy in the beginning to assume instantly a
state of intense emotion. These things are habits of mind which must be
developed, and they furnish the teacher with definite problems.
[A] _Resonance in Singing and Speaking_, by Thomas Fillebrown.
To repeat, _the tone is the thing_, and _how it sounds_ is what
determines whether it is right or wrong. And so we come back again to
the ear, which is the taste. Does it please the ear? If so, is the ear
reliable? Not always. If all teachers were trying for the same tone
quality there would be no need of further writing on the subject, but
they are not. On the contrary no two of them are trying for exactly the
same quality. Each one is trying to make the voice produce his idea of
tone quality, and the astounding thing about the human voice is that for
a time at least, it can approximate almost anything that is demanded of
it. If a voice is ruined, the ear of the teacher is directly
responsible. It is useless to try to place the blame elsewhere.
Truth is always simple. If it seems difficult it is due to our clumsy
way of stating it. Thought, like melodies, should run on the line of the
least resistance. In the following pages I have eschewed all mystifying
polysyllabic verbiage, and as Mark Twain once said, have "confined
myself to a categorical statement of facts unincumbered by an obscuring
accumulation of metaphor and allegory."
It is hoped that this book will be useful. It is offered as a guide
rather than as a reformer. It aims to point in the right direction, and
"do its bit" in emphasizing those things which are fundamental in voice
training. Whatever is true in it will reach and help those who need it.
Nothing more could be asked or desired.
[Illustration: (signed) D. A. Clippinger]
Kimball Hall, Chicago.
May, 1917.