be necessary, after closing the muscles of the trachea or the œsophagus
for the first six movements, to continue doing so, as the next six
movements will ensue involuntarily. There may be several repetitions of
these twelve movements involuntarily or automatically following after
that; any special mode of breathing once assumed being apt to continue
indefinitely until another mode is inaugurated.
The same experiments may also be made by making _abdomen and thorax_
alternately _rigid_, or producing a state of rigidity through
mechanical pressure, in place of producing it with the muscles of
the œsophagus and the trachea. As this may appear simpler and "less
dangerous," there should be nothing to hinder any one from making these
experiments. The movements will not be as _pronounced_, however, in
the latter instance as they are in producing a _direct_ closure of the
trachea and the œsophagus.
There is a fourth mode of producing the same results, namely, through
the simple act of _continuously_ "thinking" of any particular part.
We may thus bring about a closure of the muscles of the trachea or
œsophagus, of thorax or abdomen, etc.; thought, which _precedes_ motion
for vocal utterance, _always_, as cause to effect, being the final
arbiter in all matters of respiration, unless the latter is of an
involuntary and simply functional character. While the act of breathing
for life pursues its even tenor, breathing for vocal utterance, though
of the same _order_, is subject to innumerable changes in conformity
with the sound, syllable, or word intended to be produced.
I am aware that there may be _apparent_ incongruities in some of the
preceding, and I presume there always will be. We can see things
only from our limited standpoint. I have undertaken to solve matters
supposed to be superhuman, or "of God," and hence _perfect_ in their
way, in a human, and therefore imperfect, manner. Our limitations
naturally extending to our power of observation, the duality of
our nature in matters of this kind does not permit us--I might say,
forbids us--arriving at _final_ conclusions. We can go as far as our
understanding permits us to go--beyond that, we may at most indulge in
speculation. I have limited myself to my limits, to what I could prove,
and have but rarely indulged in what I could not--in speculation.
NOTE.--Since the above was written Dr. G. E. Brewer, who in
conjunction with Dr. F. C. Ard, last month (March, 1899),
in New York, successfully performed the very rare operation
of laryngectomy, has told me that his patient had already
(after a month) commenced to speak again, though as yet only
in a monotonous whispering voice. She is doing so in spite of
the fact that every vestige of her larynx, which had been in
a diseased state, and which the doctor showed me, had been
removed. When I told the doctor this mysterious "new" voice
was that of the œsophagus and had always existed with his
patient, as it exists with every one else, and had always been
heard in conjunction with that of the trachea, he was greatly
astonished, though naturally incredulous, but said he would
investigate.
SONG, SINGERS, AND PHYSIOLOGY
We are incomprehensible and mysterious beings. We do not know whence we
come nor whither we go; we do not know what agencies guide and sustain
us--our end is a tragic one. While the soles of our feet closely
adhere to the ground, our heads are in touch with the most distant
stars. We exercise faculties to perfection whose origin and mode of
operation are unalterably hidden from our knowledge. We possess gifts
and talents which raise us above the plane of our ordinary existence
and inspire us with the belief that we are related to the divinity, are
part of the divinity. It has ever been man's aim to penetrate this
darkness, to learn to comprehend _himself_. The vocation of the singer
is one to which this knowledge is indispensable. In the fulness of his
organization endowed by nature with a divine gift, the singer's aim and
desire is to retain and perfect this gift.
The birds sing their same individual song throughout their career. Man,
however, sings the song of his soul; a song as endless and as varied as
his thoughts. Song with him is not a gift alone, but its exercise is a
study, an art. He must sing _knowingly_; he must ascertain the source
of his song and the reason why certain causes produce certain results.
Hence the necessity for a science of the voice.
The knowledge of the exercise of our faculties is dependent on the
knowledge of life and on that of the spirit, without whose aid no
transaction of life of any kind ever takes place. Despairing of his
ability to penetrate into the realms of the spirit, aspiring man has
ever resorted to that which was next at his command--matter. Hence
the effort throughout all of man's history to reach the soul by way
of the body. But body and mind, in alliance, have ever succeeded in
frustrating these efforts; in keeping the secret of their duality and
mutuality intact from the gaze of man. Yet singers are determined to
find out _something_ in relation to the _voice_ at least. Finding that
we cannot penetrate into the relation existing between mind and matter,
the effort is renewed in the most persistent manner to explain the life
and the spirit, whose essence and outcome is the voice, by examining
into the relation of matter to matter.
Our professor, having discarded the assistance of life and the spirit,
dabbles in matter pure and undefiled. This process our young students
are invited to attend. They carry their youth and their talent, their
high hopes and aspirations, into the dissecting-room, where the
spirit of the voice is supposed to reveal itself among the ghastliest
spectacles. If a person of ordinary good sense, but not acquainted
with these subjects, were to attend a lecture on the physiology of the
voice and then attend a singing-lesson based upon the knowledge thus
attained, he would be apt to remark: "Can this performance possibly
be meant to be in good faith? Is not this man taking advantage of the
credulity of this woman, who is giving him her hard-earned money, but
to find before long that she has been beggared, not only in purse, but
in voice and spirit as well; that she has not been benefited in any
sense, but sadly robbed and betrayed?"
The persistency with which the modern scientist attempts to hammer a
voice out of the larynx and surrounding material tissues and other
physical agencies is a cardinal sin against the holy "spirit." When he
uses this supposed knowledge for coining it into money at the expense
of trusting and aspiring singers, he commits a malpractice, for which
some day he will have to go to the penitentiary of his own conscience;
that is, if he is in possession of any. "Vocal bands, mucous membranes,
tissues, ligaments, muscles, hollow spaces, air-pressure,"--these are
the factors productive of the voice divine; matter, nought but matter;
not a spark of the divine afflatus, not a spark even of life.
Journals devoted to the voice are full of these things. I will quote
but a single instance. At the Music Teachers' National Convention, held
in New York, in June, 1898, a sensation was created by Dr. Frank E.
Miller (see _Werner's Magazine_ for August, 1898, page 490) saying:
"In other words, I wish to say that the action of the cavities
or hollow spaces is anterior and prior to the action of the
vocal bands in production of tone and tone-quality in our
organs of speech. _With this novel fact I announce an original
discovery._"
It is such _stuff_ as this that these people feed upon and believe
in as revelations of great moment. Yet Dr. Miller and his coadjutors
might sit before these cavities or hollow spaces till the end of time,
looking, observing, probing, measuring, weighing, and determining their
relation to the vocal bands and vice versa, and not a vestige of the
spirit of the voice would ever make its appearance. The last conundrum
of this kind, and it has special reference to my discoveries, is as
follows: "May not the disturbance of speech known as stammering or
stuttering be mainly a condition caused by the putting out of gear of
one air-chamber in its relationship to other air-chambers, whereby
the air-pressures during the speech-act are at war with one another,
resulting in the well-known manifestations?" (_Werner's Magazine_ for
September, 1898, page 59). Air-chambers and air-pressures again. I
protest against being made _particeps criminis_ in any such proceeding.
When we go back to the earliest recorded times and find traces of an
attempt at expression by means of crude signs or figures impressed
upon the clay, we can see more of the potentiality of a science (or
a civilization) arising therefrom than we can from the teachings of
the laryngoscopists, who claim that the voice can be evolved from the
relations of various forms of matter to one another, without even a
trace of the spirit accompanying them.
Not many years since audiences of intelligent persons were invited to
watch a dark tent in which two men were so closely tied together (as it
was supposed) that they could not possibly move a limb. From this tent
noises would arise as of the dragging of chains along the floor, bells
ringing, etc., interposed now and then by a chair being flung through
the air. All this was done by the "spirits." This was a proceeding not
unlike the one now going on in the materialistic school in connection
with the spirit of the voice. There is no more likelihood of the latter
arising from the dark tent of the matter they are investigating than of
a real spirit appearing in that other tent. The performance, besides,
is not as amusing, no chairs being flung, etc. The audience is looking
on gravely expectant, but all remains forever monotonously, solemnly,
ominously, and cadaverously silent and resultless.
The _living_ grain of corn a blind hen after much scratching succeeds
in digging out from beneath a barn-yard floor bears a closer
resemblance to life, and hence to the voice, than the relations a
professor of physiology scratches together out of the various parts
which he supposes make up the instrument of the voice. These attempts
are so contrary to reason and common sense that in any other science
their originators would be laughed to scorn for their pains.
The other great issue with physiologists in connection with the
voice is that of breathing. Clavicular breathing, costal breathing,
diaphragmatic breathing, etc.--these are some of the terms in common
use, and the "modes" of breathing commonly practised. Each of these
modes is supposed to be practised separately and at the will of the
performer. They are praised and recommended or condemned according
to the special view of the practitioner. Systems are based on these
special modes and schools arise therefrom. What one "school" practises
is condemned by another. And how could it be otherwise, _all_ being
wrong?
Being homogeneous entities, whose wholesome existence is based upon a
harmonious coöperation of all parts, we cannot practise breathing from
a special part without every other part more or less participating.
The act of breathing being our most vital performance, every other
part would suffer if it were confined to any special part. Our entire
system, therefore, must participate therein; the hemisphere of the
abdomen no less than that of the thorax; both hemispheres coöperating
with each other and with other streams introduced into our system
through the pores and every other opening in the body. For a moment,
and for an especial expression, one part may prevail over another; but
the true artist will always breathe in such a manner that after such an
effort all parts will again harmonize and balance one another. He will
have such control over his breathing powers that he can at any time
throw the balance of power into one direction; but he will never let
any one direction _continue_ to prevail over any other.
Every theory heretofore advanced in respect to our mode of breathing,
being based upon false premises, is wrong in the abstract, and
impossible of practical execution.
If I have expressed myself strongly, it is because I feel strongly
the injury which has been wrought by this so-called "science" of the
laryngoscopists. It has in thousands of instances hindered the natural
development of the voice, and has in many other directions done
incalculable harm; while it has in _no_ direction ever done any good.
It has oppressed the intellect, depressed the spirit, and suppressed
the soul of singers. Let me add but this: What would be the use of the
most scientifically constructed stove, filled with the most appropriate
fuel, if the flame were wanting to set fire to this fuel? Supposing the
laryngoscopists to comprehend the intricate construction of the stove
(the body), the highly sensitive and complicated apparatus of the fuel
(the instrument of the voice)--both of which, however, they are greatly
in the dark about--the flame would still be wanting to set fire to this
fuel and fill the stove with the holy glow of song. This flame (the
life, the spirit) they do not even pretend to be able to furnish. They
only give us the stove and the fuel, which remain forever dark, cold,
lifeless, inert.
To set myself up in judgment regarding these important issues, or to
place my judgment over that of so many eminent persons in the past
as well as the present, may appear to be a presumptuous, rash, bold,
and almost unwarranted undertaking. It is not my fault, however, that
there should be such utter confusion existing in these matters; that
no one should have ever succeeded in reducing this chaos to any kind
of order; that I am the heir, so to say, to this condition of affairs;
the trustee to this inheritance, who is to make use of it to the best
advantage of all that are interested.
Nor is it my fault that, not by dint of superior endowments, or any
other qualities of a superior order, but simply through the discovery
of the dual nature of the voice, I should have obtained an insight
into, a mastery over, these matters never before enjoyed by any man.
Yet there seems to be a disposition on the part of some persons to
throw blame on me for these facts; in place of furthering, to suppress,
this knowledge; in place of probing and investigating, to assume that
it is simply the outcome of a somewhat more than lively imagination.
It appears to me that this is partly done in the interest of the vast
literature on these subjects now in existence, which will become
obsolete and valueless as soon as the _truth_ in matters of the voice
has been established.
I dare say this simple fact, "We breathe and speak through the
œsophagus in conjunction with breathing and speaking through the
trachea," for _real_ knowledge, is worth all of the entire literature
on the voice, as a science, now in existence.
The science of the voice, as I understand and am trying to explain and
establish it, is one not so much of mechanical issues, though they
have their share in it, as one in which the spirit, this heretofore
unapproachable issue, performs the greatest and most vital part. It is
a question of life, and every issue and every agency governing life are
involved in it. How vast a science this science of the voice therefore
is, can be better imagined than at once fully comprehended. I am far
from being able to present it in all its aspects, but shall endeavor,
as I have already partly done, to continue to give a general outline of
it.
It will take time and patience for any one to acquire this knowledge,
but the reward will be more than commensurate. To superficially obtain
it from others is not sufficient; one must learn to know it of one's
own knowledge. It is an academic study, embracing many sciences. A
person must enter into it with his whole being if he wants to get hold
of the spirit thereof and be truly benefited thereby. He must identify
himself with this knowledge, must become part and parcel thereof, or it
must become part and parcel of him. When this is done, true teachers
of the voice will arise, for here is a chance for greatness to assert
itself. It will be death to all hackneyed knowledge and charlatanism.
When the true knowledge of the production of speech and song for
_every_ language has been established, when we have a real science
of the voice, the teacher comprehending these issues in their entire
latitude will be able to teach how to interpret Mozart, Schubert, and
Wagner, Rossini and Verdi, Gounod, and every other master in the tongue
and the spirit in which he has produced his works.
The genius for execution in the art of singing is with the Anglo-Saxon
race, but not for composition, for original conception. It may come,
but it is not with it now.
The desire of the singer naturally is to embrace the highest in her
or his repertoire. At present it is Wagner. But how can Wagner be
rendered without a comprehension of his genius as expressed through
his language? The genius of the master and the genius of the language
he wrote and composed in cannot be separated. They are soul and body
of one and the same entity. Without the comprehension of the genius of
the German language, of its idiomatic expression, it is not possible
to reproduce what Wagner meant to express by his work. To sing German
with an English tongue is an anomaly; it is still English in the real
sense of the word, and not German. It is an unnatural proceeding, and
therefore injurious to the vocal organs of the singer.
No one would expect a foreigner, for the delectation of a native-born
audience, to recite before it poetry in the latter's language, or a
native-born person to recite before it in a foreign tongue. In either
case such a person would fail. Why, then, song, this sister art and
accomplishment?
All these are questions which, though ever so reluctantly, artists
will have to face. It complicates their art, but it will also, when
understood, make it comparatively easy. Americans will then sing the
works of foreign masters with the same perfect ease that they do
those of their native composers, and so will persons of every other
nationality.
Who will be able to teach a foreign language so well as the natives
of each respective country? provided such persons have learned to
comprehend the difference between the mode of production of their
speech and that of their scholars. In that case only will a German
be able to teach an Anglo-Saxon his (the German) language for either
speech or song. It will be the same with every other nationality.
The teachers, as a class, are with me. They feel that the efforts
of the physiologists to aid them in their vocation are wrong and
misleading. They have no faith in the revelation of matter. They know
matter is inert, powerless for any purpose without the indwelling
of the spirit; that the spirit reigns over and controls _every_
manifestation of life; and that the voice in singing is one of the
highest manifestations thereof. They know that song comes from the
heart and the soul, while it uses the body for its instrument.
I have been told I must build up before tearing down; before destroying
the old I must put something better in its place. I think it a
praiseworthy undertaking, in itself, to destroy the false and the
harmful. Besides, we cannot erect a new building before the old one has
been removed.
As for this _new_ science, I am doing what I can to put it into
shape, to give a visible and tangible form to it as it has developed
in my mind. The world has been able to do without it so long, those
interested in these matters must have a little patience.
I specially appeal to the _young_ to devote themselves to these studies
and to thus become the precursors in the application of principles
which are destined to revolutionize the vocal science of the world; the
old being often too old to get out of lifelong practices, no matter how
erroneous. I appeal in like manner to the students of medicine, and to
those of every other branch of science, whose aim is the knowledge of
man in any of, and all, his relations.
[Illustration]
INDEX
Abdomen, 174, 198, 208
Abstract thought, 72
Accent, 178, 180
Æther, 91
Anapest, 167, 175
Anglo-Saxon race, 136
Animal magnetism, 14
Anode, 106
Antibacchius, 175
Atlas, 127
Autology, 56
Bacchius, 175
_Basic Law of Vocal Utterance_, 1, 6, 7
Bladder, 46
Blood, 65
Brain, 46
Breathing, 8, 93, 95, 159, 198, 214
Brinkerhoff, Mme. Clara, 6, 195
Bronchi, 8
Caryatides, 104
Cathode, 106
Centrifugal, 124, 130, 152
Centripetal, 124, 130, 152
Charlatanism, 12
Circulation of sound, 109
Climate, 135
Clothing, 78
Colonization, 140
Congenital deaf, 84
Consonants, 89
Dactylus, 164, 175
Dentistry, 132
Diaphragm, 80, 102, 203
Dissecting room, 211
Douglass, Frederick, 137
Drumhead, 74
Duality, 18
Emphasis, 161, 179
English-speaking peoples, 136
Evolution, 18
Expansion, 90
Expiration, 80, 200
Extirpation, 59
Foreigners, 134, 173, 194
Frænum linguæ, 42
Gadski, Johanna, 196
Generation, 107
German writers, 65
Gounod, 195
Gravitation, 107
Heidenhain, Mr., 14
Heine, 164, 204
Hemispheres, 88
Holmes, Dr. O. W., 12, 123
Huxley, 21
Hypnotism, 52
Iambic measure, 167
Idiomatic expression, 110, 113, 123, 143, 148
Idiom of the sea, 144;
of the forest, 146
Immigration, 134
Inspiration, 177, 200
Intonation, 161
Introspection, 4, 56, 68
Kidneys, 46
Laryngoscope, 50
Laryngoscopists, 215
Larynx, 9
Lungs, 46
Lunn, Mr., 167
Matter, 211, 218
Medicine, 220
Metre, 161, 172, 178
Miller, Dr., 212
Mind, 184
Motion, 89, 142, 151
Müller, Prof. Max, 99
Octave, 93
Œsophagus, 198, 208
Palimpsest, 96
Phonograph, 71, 88, 90
Point of gravitation, 101
Posterior surfaces, 68
"R" sound, 104
Race distinctions, 137
Reinforcement, 47
Religion, 17
Replica, 19, 42, 129
Rhythm, 68, 93, 160, 172, 178
Rigidity, 57, 59, 176, 208
Roentgen, Professor, 105
Rush, Dr., 48
Saxon words, 168
School of singing, 187
Science of the voice, 210
Sight, 183
Simple sounds, 66, 68, 88, 106
Singers, 210
Singing, 57, 158
Soft palate, 129
Soul, 184
Speech and song, 158
Spirit, 54, 211, 220
Spirits, 44
Spiritual cell, 148
Stammering, 97
Stuttering, 97
Surd, 89
Teachers, 13, 218, 219
Teeth, 132
Teutonic race, 206
Thorax, 174, 198, 208
Thought, 192
Timbre, 195
Tongue, 61, 101
Trachea, 198, 208
Trochaic measure, 165
Tuning, 157
Ureters, 47
Ventriloquism, 73
Virchow, Professor, 21
Viscera, 46
Vivisection, 51
Vocal science, 220
Vocal sounds, 67, 89
Voice of the œsophagus, 1;
falling, 175;
rising, 175;
whispering, 191
Von Buelow, 193
_Werner's Magazine_, 6, 7, 196, 212, 213
Will, 179, 184
Transcriber's Notes:
Simple spelling, grammar, and typographical errors were
silently corrected.
Anachronistic and non-standard spellings retained as printed.
Italics markup is enclosed in _underscores_.
Bold and underlined markup is enclosed in =equals=.