"The path of the sound, being formed of elastic and movable
parts, varies its dimensions and forms in endless ways, and
every modification--even the slightest--has a corresponding and
definite influence on the voice."
Garcia. _Hints on Singing_.
Vocal teachers are rated primarily on their ability as voice builders.
When students look for a teacher the first thing they want to know is:
"Can he build a voice?" His ability as an interpreter in most instances
is taken for granted. Why this is so is easily understood. There is a
moving appeal in the pure singing tone of the human voice that cannot
even be approximated by any other instrument. We have all heard voices
that were so beautiful that to hear one of them vocalize for half an
hour would be a musical feast. Such a voice is so full of feeling, so
vibrant with life and emotion that it moves one to the depths even if no
words are used. It is only natural that all singers should be eager to
possess such a voice, for it covers up a multitude of other musical
misdemeanors. While it does not take the place altogether of the
interpretative instinct, it does make the work of the singer much easier
by putting his audience in sympathy with him from the beginning, thus to
a considerable extent disarming criticism. The old Italians attached so
much importance to beautiful tone that they were willing to work
conscientiously for half a dozen years to obtain it. To the beautiful
tone they added a faultless technic. Altogether it required from five to
eight years to prepare and equip a singer for a career, but when he was
thus prepared he could do astounding things in the way of trills,
roulades, and cadenzas.
The stories of many of these singers have come down to us through the
musical histories, and the singing world has come to believe that the
teachers alone were responsible. Owing to her geographic location, her
climate, language, and racial characteristics Italy at one time
furnished most of the great singers of the world, and the world with its
usual lack of judgment and discrimination gave Italian teachers all of
the credit. That the best of the Italian teachers were as near right as
it is humanly possible to be, I have no doubt whatever, but along with
the few singers who became famous there were hundreds who worked equally
hard but were never heard of. A great voice is a gift of the creator,
and the greater the gift the less there is to be done by the teacher.
But in addition to what nature has done there is always much to be done
by the teacher, and the nature of the vocal instrument is such that its
training is a problem unique and peculiar. The voice can do so many
different things, produce so many different kinds of tone, in such a
variety of ways that the ability to determine which is right and which
is wrong becomes a matter of aesthetic judgment rather than scientific
or mechanical.
If the scale, power, quality, and compass of the human voice were
established as are those of the piano, the great problem in the training
of a singer would be much simplified, possibly eliminated; but the
singer must form the pitch, power, and quality of each tone as he uses
it; therefore in the training of a singer we are constantly facing what
has crystallized into the term =Voice Placing=.
This term has been used as a peg upon which to hang every whim, fancy,
formula, and vocal vagary that has floated through the human mind in the
last two centuries. It has furnished an excuse for inflicting upon vocal
students every possible product of the imagination, normal and abnormal,
disguised in the word =Method=, and the willingness with which students
submit themselves as subjects for experiment is beyond belief. The more
mysterious and abnormal the process the more faith they have in its
efficacy.
The nature of the vocal instrument, its wide range of possibilities, and
its intimate relation to the imagination make it a peculiarly fit
subject for experiment. The scientist has tried to analyze it, the
mechanic has tried to make it do a thousand things nature never intended
it to do, the reformer has tried to reform both, and the psychologist,
nearest right of all, has attempted to remove it from the realm of the
material altogether. There seems to be no way to stop this theorizing,
and it doubtless will continue until the general musical intelligence
reaches such a point that it automatically becomes impossible.
We are constantly hearing such remarks as "Mr. S knows how to place the
voice." "Mr. G does not." "Mr. B places the voice high." "Mr. R does not
place the voice high enough." "Mr. X is great at bringing the tone
forward," etc., etc. This goes on through a long list of fragments of
English difficult to explain even by those who use them.
Now voice placing means just one thing, not half a dozen. It means
learning to produce =beautiful tone=. When one can produce beautiful
tone throughout his vocal compass his voice is placed, and it is not
placed until he can. The injunction to _place the voice_ invariably
leaves in the mind of the student the idea that he must direct the tone
to some particular point, in fact he is often urged to do so, whereas
the truth is that when the tone is properly produced there is no thought
of trying to put it anywhere. It seems to sing itself. There is a well
established belief among students that the tone must be consciously
directed to the point where it is supposed to focus. This belief is
intimately associated with another equally erroneous, that the only way
to tell whether a tone is good or bad, right or wrong, is by the way it
feels. A tone is something to hear. It makes its appeal to the ear, and
why one should rely on the sense of feeling to tell whether it sounds
right or wrong is something difficult to understand.
Further, explicit directions are given for the action and control of
everything involved in making tone except the mind of the student. The
larynx seems to be particularly vulnerable and is subject to continuous
attack. One says it should be held low throughout the compass. Another
says it should rise as the pitch rises, and still another, that it
should drop as the pitch rises. Instructions of this kind do not
enlighten, they mystify.
If there be any one thing upon which voice teachers theoretically agree
it is "free throat". Even those who argue for a fixed larynx agree to
this, notwithstanding it is a physical impossibility to hold the larynx
in a fixed position throughout the compass without a considerable amount
of rigidity. It is like believing in Infinite Love and eternal
punishment at the same time.
When the larynx is free it will not and should not be in the same
position at all times. It will be a little lower for somber tones than
for bright tones. It will be a little higher for the vowel e than for oo
or o, but the adjustments will be _automatic_, never conscious. It
cannot be too often reiterated that every part of the vocal mechanism
must act automatically, and it is not properly controlled until it does.
The soft palate also comes in for its share of instruction. I was once
taught to raise it until the uvula disappeared. Later I was taught to
relax it. Both of these movements of the soft palate were expected to
result in a beautiful tone. Now if two things which are directly opposed
to each other are equal to the same thing, then there is no use in
bothering our heads further with logic.
Such directions I believe to be of doubtful value, if not irrelevant. We
must learn that _an idea has definite form_, and that when the mechanism
is free, that is, plastic, the idea molds it into a corresponding form
and the expression becomes a perfect picture of the idea. This is what
is meant by indirect control, involuntary, automatic action.
One could write indefinitely on the peculiarities of voice training, the
unique suggestions made, the mechanical instructions given, the
unbelievable things students are made to do with lips, tongue and larynx
as a necessary preparation to voice production. In this as in everything
else there are extremists. Some have such an exquisite sense of detail
that they never get beyond it. At the other extreme are those who trust
everything to take care of itself. Both overlook the most important
thing, namely, how the voice sounds.
It requires much time, study and experience to learn that voice training
is simple. It is a fact that truth is naturally, inherently simple. Its
mastery lies in removing those things which seem to make it difficult
and complex. Training the voice, this so called "voice placing," is
simple and easy when one has risen above that overwhelming amount of
fiction, falsity, and fallacy that has accumulated around it, obscuring
the truth and causing many well intentioned teachers to follow theories
and vagaries that have no foundation in fact, and which lead both
teacher and pupil astray. If there is any truth applicable to voice
training it has an underlying principle, for truth is the operation of
principle. If we start wrong we shall end wrong. If we start right and
continue according to principle we shall reach the desired goal.
=Voice training has its starting point, its basis, its foundation, in
beautiful tone.= This should be the aim of both teacher and pupil from
the beginning. To produce something beautiful is the aim of all artistic
activity. Beautiful tone, as Whistler said of all art, has its origin in
absolute truth. That which is not beautiful cannot possibly be true, for
real nature, which is the expression of Infinite Mind, is always
perfect, and no perfect thing can be ugly, discordant, or inharmonious.
The imperfection we see is the result of our own imperfect understanding
of the real universe.
A _tone is something to hear_, and =hearing is mental=. An old French
anatomist once said: "The eye sees what it is looking for, and it is
looking only for what it has in mind." The same is true of the ear. We
hear the tone mentally before we sing it, and we should hear it as
distinctly as if it were sung by another. A tone first of all is a
mental product, and its pitch, power, and quality are definite mental
entities. When we wish to convey this tone to another we do it through
the sound producing instrument which nature has provided for this
purpose.
That everything exists first as idea has been the teaching of the
philosophers for ages. That the idea is the controlling, governing force
is equally well understood. Therefore, inasmuch as the aim of all voice
building is to produce beautiful tone we must start with the right idea
of tone. This is where the first and greatest difficulty appears. To
most people a tone is intangible and difficult to define. One will
rarely find a student that can formulate anything approaching a
definition of a musical tone and I fancy many teachers would find it far
from easy. Unless one has a grasp of the psychology of voice, and a
great many have not, he will begin to work with what he can see. Here
enters the long dreary mechanical grind that eventually ruins the temper
of both teacher and student, and results in nothing but mechanical
singing, instead of a joyous, inspiring musical performance.
In studying the pure singing tone we find the following: It is _smooth_,
_steady_, _firm_, _rich_, _resonant_, _sympathetic_. We shall also find
that all of its qualities and attributes are mental. It must contain the
element of freedom (mental), firmness (mental), security (mental),
sympathy (mental), enthusiasm, sentiment, joy, compassion, pity, love,
sorrow (all mental). These are all qualities of the singing tone. They
are not intangible. On the contrary, to the one who has them they are
definite and are the things he works for from the beginning. They are
basic and fundamental. All are combined in what I call _tone concept_,
which is another word for musical ear, or musical taste. This tone
concept is by far the most important thing in voice training. The
student will not sing a tone better than the one he conceives mentally,
therefore the mental concept of tone, or tone concept must be the basis
of voice placing.
This tone concept, or mental picture of tone qualities controls the
vocal instrument by indirection. True tone color does not come as the
result of trying by some physical process to make the tone light or
dark, but _from the automatic response to musical concept or feeling_.
In leaving this subject I wish to pay my respects to that company of
cheerful sinners--the open throat propagandists. I was taught in my
youth that the punishment for a sin committed ignorantly was none the
less pungent and penetrating, and I trust that in administering justice
to these offenders the powers will be prompt, punctilious and
persevering. It is a worthy activity.
No mistake of greater magnitude was ever made since voice training began
than that of holding the throat open by direct effort. It never resulted
in a tone a real musician's ear could endure, nevertheless during the
latter part of the nineteenth century and even the early part of the
twentieth it was made such an integral part of voice culture that it
seemed to be incorporated in the law of heredity, and vocal students,
even before they were commanded, would try to make a large cavity in the
back of the throat. I believe however, that there is much less of this
than formerly. Vocal teachers are beginning to see that the one
important thing is a free throat and that when this is gained the
response of the mechanism to the mental demand is automatic and
unerring.