(_With acknowledgments to "The Musical Herald."_)
_I THINK I am a tenor, but after taking lessons continuously for six
years from sixteen different masters I am still in doubt, and what is
more, I am not quite certain whether I want to be. Did not somebody once
say that a tenor was not a man but a disease? I am a healthy normal
subject, and recently won the lawn-tennis singles at our local
tournament. What puzzles me is my upper register. After reaching the top
A, if I relax the wind pressure and slant the voice in a slightly
backward direction towards the nasal cavities, I can produce a full rich
B flat, or even C, with the greatest ease. My family do not like it, but
family criticism is seldom satisfactory. Can you tell me whether this is
a legitimate use of my vocal resources or not; also, whether the
resinous quality of my voice is likely to be affected by my wearing
stand-up collars of more than 2-1/2 inches in height? I have read
somewhere that starched linen is a bad conductor of sound._--MARIO
JUNIOR.
ANSWER.--It is hard to tell whether you are a tenor or a forced-up
baritone without hearing or seeing you. Tenors are generally short,
stubby men with brief necks, while baritones are for the most part tall,
spare and long-necked. It was HANS VON BÜLOW who said that a tenor was a
disease, but he was a pianist and a conductor. Do not "grouse" if you
can sing tenor parts and yet retain the volume and virility of a
baritone. JEAN DE RESZKE began as a baritone and is said to have earned
£20,000 a year. The nasal tone that you speak of, when it approximates
to the whinnying of a horse or, better still, the trumpeting of an
infuriated rogue elephant, is a most valuable asset, but should be used
with moderation in the family circle. Do not say "resinous"; "resonant"
is probably the word you mean. High stand-up collars are certainly to be
avoided, as they constrict the Adam's apple and muffle the tone of the
voice. A soft turn-down collar, such as those supplied by Pope Bros., is
greatly to be preferred and imparts a romantic and semi-Byronic
appearance highly desirable in an artist.
_I am a railway porter with a good bass voice, and having read that the
great Russian singer who has been appearing at Drury Lane began life in
that position and is now paid at the rate of £400 a night, I am anxious
to follow his example, if I can obtain adequate guarantees of
success._--CLAPHAM JUNCTION.
ANSWER.--It is always dangerous to generalise from exceptional
individual cases. Are you over six feet high, and have you corn-coloured
hair and blue yes, like CHALIAPINE? Again, Russian railway porters are
in the habit of shouting the names of stations, not only in a loud
voice, but with scrupulously clear articulation. Do not rashly abandon
your career on the railway on the off-chance of a vocal Bonanza.
Remember the words of the poet:--
O, ever since the world began,
There never was and never can
Be such a very useful man
As the railway porter!
_My voice is of good compass and volume, but it is lacking in the "rich
fruity tone" which, according to popular novelists, is indispensable to
the exertion of a magnetic influence on the hearer. Is it possible by
diet to remedy this deficiency?_--CONTRALTO.
ANSWER.--The use of an emollient diet is recommended by some authorities
with a view to improving and enriching vocal tone. You might try a
course of Carlsbad plums, Devonshire cream, and peach-fed Colorado ham.
But it is easy to overdo the plummy tone, which is apt to become
cloying.
_Kindly explain the following terms taken from an article on SCRIABINE
which recently appeared in a leading daily paper: Psychical
conjunctivitis; Katzenjammer; Cephaloedematous; Hokusai; Asininity. What
is the difference between the portamento and "scooping"? Why do opera
singers show such a marked tendency to embonpoint? Am I wrong in
preferring the cornet to any other wind instrument?_--ANXIOUS ASPIRANT.
ANSWER.--This is not a general information bureau, but we will do our
best. (1) Conjunctivitis is properly a disease of the eyes; "psychical
conjunctivitis" would be a sort of mental squint. "Katzenjammer" is the
German for "hot coppers." "Cephaloedematous" is not in the New Oxford
Dictionary, but apparently applies to a sufferer from swelled head.
HOKUSAI was a Japanese artist, and "asininity" is the special quality of
the writer of the article from which you have taken these words. (2)
"Scooping" is the vulgarisation of the portamento, (3) Operatic singers
grow stout because they drink stout; also because much singing
tends to expand the larynx, pharynx and thorax, as well as the
basilico-thaumaturgic cavities of the medulla oblongata. (4) There is
nothing criminal in preferring the cornet to any other wind instrument.
Many pious people prefer MARIE CORELLI to MILTON.
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