WHO SHOULD TEACH VOICE CULTURE AND HOW
Before illustrating the essentials of our vocal method, we wish
to make an explicit statement. We do not believe that any method
of singing, no matter how simple, clear, and complete it may be,
is by itself an efficient medium for voice culture. Students
must be taught by competent teachers who alone, through their
knowledge and experience, can guarantee that the work of the
pupils is correct and progressive. Thus we do believe in
teachers, but our belief is conditional.
This method of voice culture has been built on a faithful
interpretation of the natural principles which governed the
singing of Enrico Caruso, a most valuable example and medium of
comparison for students. It will reveal to them how correct, and
how close to natural laws our method is, and how to safeguard
the physiological rules of voice production advocated in this
book. The strongest followers of this method, however, should be
the free-minded and unprejudiced singing teachers, those who
believe in evolution, in progress, and are earnestly concerned
about the restoration of the art of singing. We stated that we
believe in teachers, but our belief is conditional; we make
reservations about their mission and their methods of practicing
the important profession of teaching.
According to our conception, teachers must be the guides and
advisers in the solution of the many problems related to voice,
and in the application of the natural laws governing it. We do
not believe in teachers as creators or builders of voices. There
should no longer be room for such charlatans in an epoch in
which science controls most of human efficiency and progress.
We do not believe in those instructors who claim that they can
benefit pupils by a few weeks of teaching. This is only a
commercial exploitation, vastly different from the important
profession of teaching the truth about voice culture. As a
matter of fact, nobody but Nature can create, make, or build the
physiological product of the vocal apparatus—the voice—and
nobody can efficiently assist students in their education except
by years of constant work in the pursuit of good vocal results,
and by mutual understanding.
The art of singing cannot be taught to any one, unless the sense
of music, and the call for singing, naturally exist in his soul
and blood. To be sure, we owe to nature alone the genius for
song. We inherit it with our disposition, enthusiasm, and
natural sentiment for singing. The great number of natural
singers found among the masses of certain gifted races, who
never received any vocal instruction, is the most striking
evidence of this. Yet, although a natural gift, our singing may
not be correct. The mechanism of voice production, which when
correct is the fundamental guarantee not only for good singing,
but for the preservation of the vocal organs, may be improperly
performed. That is the reason the vocal education must be
intrusted to experienced teachers who can insure the proper
production of the voice, thus guaranteeing the required
resistance of the vocal apparatus for an extended career.
The first duty of the teacher is to ascertain how near to
natural is the singing of his pupil, and whether or not he
observes the correct rules of voice production. He must then
direct the pupil’s voice in its full, natural form, through a
progressive development, avoiding any attempt to change it by
artificial and complicated technicalities.
The singing teacher must keep the beginner’s mind free from
poisonous theories about the breath support, the artificial
division of the voice into registers, and the training of the
diaphragm and intercostal muscles (the strength of which must
result from years of singing and not from an unnatural
development). All these conventional suggestions bear the stamp
of scientific doctrines but in reality are banal ideas, opposed
to the true physiological rules of voice production. Though they
seem important to the elaborate makeup of teaching, in reality
they add nothing useful to the learning of pupils, and in many
instances prove harmful. The piano teacher does not ask his
pupils to familiarize themselves with the physiology of their
fingers, nor does he teach them physical maneuvers for
developing their muscles. Pupils are not expected to know about
doctrines; they must sing by inspiration, free from any
artificial influence. The teacher, as a guarantee that his
method is correct, must be acquainted with the physiology of the
vocal apparatus in general, which calls also for a corresponding
knowledge of the anatomy of the vocal organs. It is quite
unnecessary for the pupil to know any of this, unless he is
interested in making a more profound study of the voice from a
scientific point of view. The conventional nomenclature which is
so boldly flaunted to impress inexperienced beginners in singing
schools is most often founded on arbitrary or imaginary beliefs,
and must be condemned. The singing teacher must be thoroughly
acquainted with the science of voice for the sake of his pupils,
and not merely to make a pompous display or superficial
doctrines for vain or commercial purposes.
The singing teacher, capable of judging how near to natural laws
is the production of his pupil’s voice, will respect its natural
production and confine his teaching to a purely guiding
influence, leaving the gradual development of the voice to its
progressive training. The teacher who aids the pupil in
developing his voice, embellishing its quality, extending its
range, and perfecting his style of musical phrasing, taking
particular care to avoid exaggerated and sensational effects,
sets him on the right road for securing a proper and artistic
style of singing, thus fulfilling his important mission most
efficiently.
When the pupil’s voice has certain set faults—either natural or
acquired—due to an erroneous voice production, then another
responsibility, of more vital importance, is thrust upon the
teacher.
The means of correcting voices which have deviated from their
natural course, of working on deformed material, deteriorated by
incorrect functions of the vocal apparatus, is a problem which
schools of teaching have thus far struggled in vain to solve. It
is evident that they must resort to different methods.
In reference to this subject there is a perplexing and decisive
matter to be settled. Who should be entrusted with the delicate
mission of restoring to normal a deformed voice production? To
whom, most logically, does it belong; to the laryngologist, to
the singing teacher, or to some new professional element? This
is the very vital question which must be answered definitely.
“Under present conditions,” as Madame Galli-Curci wrote to the
author, “singing teachers know very little about the science of
voice, and scientists know just as little about the art of
singing.” That is true. In general the scientific men who are
interested in voice are not well enough acquainted with the
musical equipment indispensable for the culture of the singing
voice; and among the singing teachers very few exist who are at
all cognizant of the mechanism of voice production. Therefore,
neither of these two elements is eligible to undertake the
teaching of voice culture.
The vast number of teachers, whose origin may be traced to that
class of singers who, having had short-lived careers because of
their bad singing, sought refuge in the teaching field, or those
pianists of mediocre ability and no success who tried to
commercialize their profession to better advantage, becoming
vocal instructors, are not the experienced men to whom the
education of the voice can be safely intrusted, especially in
its preliminary and fundamental period, which is the most
essential in voice culture, and requires a thorough knowledge of
the natural principles for its placement and production.
The same objection applies to coaches, conductors, or any other
class of musicians (to make no mention of the unscrupulous
outsiders of the musical world) who, as a result of failure in
their own field, direct their activity to that of teaching
singing.
Another prevailing idea in the singing world is that pupils
should apply, for their voice education, to the very best
singers of the past, or to great conductors. That is a banal
error, and a dangerous one.
A child who begins to attend school needs the supervision of an
experienced pedagogue to start his education. If, instead, it is
intrusted either to a great literary man, or to one who presumes
to be such, the child is improperly instructed, for the theories
presented to his mentality are not suited to his age. Everybody
can see the mistake of the medical student who aims to become a
surgeon by assisting a professor of surgery in his operations,
without first going through the preliminary studies of anatomy,
pathology, and all the other medical branches which are the
foundation and support of surgery. In the study of singing,
however, this error is easily overlooked. Great artists or
conductors are undoubtedly persons well fitted to assist
students in their preparatory artistic education for the stage,
inasmuch as interpretation and style of singing are concerned.
In this they excel all others. But they are not competent in
preliminary voice culture, for many obvious reasons.
It is universally known, in fact, that most of the greatest
singers never knew how they produced their voices. Prominent
examples were Patti, who, as we quoted before, when questioned
about her singing would say, “I know nothing about it”; and
Destinn, who could explain her physical feeling about her voice,
but not her method of singing. Caruso himself tried to
investigate his own voice, but his analysis was fruitless. His
marvelous singing was natural, eminently natural, and his voice
production could not be governed by any conscious influence.
If the great stars who shone in the firmament of opera, and are
teaching at present, were capable of forgetting themselves and
their artistic achievements, and could teach beginners voice
placement and production instead of their own manner of singing,
they would perhaps be of more assistance than experience has
generally proved them to be. Singing is a personal inspiration
and act; no two persons, perhaps, can sing in precisely the same
way, though they may have the same method. Two voices, just as
two faces, cannot be the same; therefore two mechanisms of voice
production can operate along the same lines, but do not produce
the same results, and the possibilities of one voice cannot
coincide exactly with those of another. The principles are the
same, but their application differs slightly, because the vocal
means used are different.
The majority of great singers of the past sang only by natural
disposition and inspiration, knowing little or nothing about the
physiology of the voice. As teachers, consequently, they cannot
master and apply the physiological laws which are in general
unknown to them; thus their instruction must be confined purely
to a method of imitation of their own singing, which bears no
scientific support. An unconscious self-admiration also seems to
be a weak spot in their teaching. Easily enthused with pupils’
voices, without judging their personal possibilities at the
proper valuation, they try to make them counterparts of their
own individuality and art. The result is that most often their
teaching proves not only unsuccessful but injurious because it
calls for work on too high a mental and physical plane for the
minds and voices of the beginners.
We remember a popular and successful lyric soprano, widely known
for the beauty of her voice, who owes her downfall to a short
course of study with a prominent coloratura star retired from
the stage. When the ambitious young singer applied to the great
star for assistance to improve some slight shortcomings in her
high tones, the teacher felt that in this pupil’s voice lay the
very chance to reincarnate an edition of herself. Her dream
would have been justified had the judgment been correct. The
vocal means of the young singer could not withstand the strain
of both lyric and coloratura soprano. The teacher, therefore,
had to resort to an artificial voice production, which changed
the original, natural voice into a series of forced and empty
head-tones. The successful young woman went abroad with a voice
of rare beauty, which she had used to great advantage for a few
years in the large number of simple and artistic songs suitable
to her natural means, and returned, after a few months, with the
pompous addition to her repertoire of “Casta Diva” and other
difficult arias, but not with the same voice of soft, natural,
velvety quality, which had formerly made her prominent in the
singing field. This artist paid dearly for the tragic influence
of her teacher, for she was gradually forced to abandon her
public career.
Great artists, it appears, cannot discriminate between their own
mental and vocal attainments and those of pupils. They cannot
get away from their personal assets, but instead strive to teach
their so-called “secrets” to their pupils, in the hopes of
making great artists of them. Meanwhile the elementary steps of
voice culture are of scarcely any importance to them. Thorough
physiological voice production is overlooked in their
imaginative and temperamental teaching. It is a lamentable waste
of valuable energy, misdirected; it is a regrettable handicap to
the progress of the art of singing.
Therefore, who is the man to whom the fundamental education of
pupils must be intrusted? The laryngologist?
The teaching of laryngologists endowed with natural musical
disposition, upheld by a thorough knowledge of the physiology of
voice, could no doubt benefit beginners and singers whose vocal
defects are the result of forcible voice production. Since voice
is the product of the physiological function of the vocal
apparatus, laryngologists, rather than self-appointed teachers,
can ascertain if the mechanism of the vocal organs is operating
naturally and correctly, and, if not, can restore it to its
normal function by detecting the immediate source of these
defects and giving the proper assistance to pupils, which the
present-day singing teachers cannot. But laryngologists who have
sufficient musical experience for competently doing this work
are at present very rare. Circumstances are not in their favor.
Their professional career does not permit them to cultivate
enough music; and the general belief that voice culture must
belong only to musicians does not tempt them to enter into the
difficult enterprise of restoring to Nature the command of voice
production. They could save the present decadence of voice
culture, but not without exposing themselves to many
humiliations and sacrifices, as their advent into the field of
teaching would throw them into competition with professional
elements, which, in most cases, are not on equal level with
their intelligence, dignity and standing. Hence the men to whom
voice culture should be intrusted, provided they acquire more
musical competence, are definitely kept out of the field.
To place voice culture in the hands of an infallible element,
therefore, we must resort to a new professional man, an expert
of the voice, who must combine all the musical requisites
indispensable for voice culture with sufficient scientific
knowledge to guarantee that singing conforms with natural laws.
This new professional man must be a product of the singing
class, selected from those students whose natural gift—voice—is
not remarkable enough to raise hopes for a great career as a
singer, but whose talents can be utilized to better advantage in
the art of teaching. These students, though, must be really
intelligent, and endowed with general culture, to be properly
equipped to enter a field of this importance.
These students must constitute the professional element which
the author points out as the champions for promoting and
spreading the radical reform of voice culture, conforming with
the principles and suggestions already given. These men must be
the founders of that new class of voice experts who will be
known as _Voice Specialists_.
The Voice Specialist must possess a keen sense of understanding
and of criticism which will enable him to detect the qualities
and faults of his pupils. Above all, he must have sound
knowledge of the physiology of voice, of its natural production,
both as speaking and singing voice. He must be endowed with a
fine ear in order to be able to place the voice in its natural
center, and take care of its development under the guidance of
the fundamental laws of acoustics applied to the vocal
apparatus. He must have a facile way of clearly communicating
his ideas to the pupil, making himself easily understood, and
must mold his teaching according to the plane of his pupil’s
intelligence. Almost every pupil must be taught in a different
manner; the teacher must find the easiest means of impressing
his mind with the fundamental needs of a correct method of
singing.
The Voice Specialists, although not exceptional singers, must be
correct singers, in order to demonstrate to pupils, in practical
form, the correct voice production.
To create these new and competent elements, the author advocates
a school of Voice Culture for young teachers, which must be
founded as part of some important public musical or scientific
institution. This school should be recognized by the Government,
if the Government feels that this branch of popular education is
important enough to be taken into consideration, and if it can
foresee of what great service it may be to the musical element
of this nation.
Private institutions, private benefactors and many a Maecenas of
art are spending millions for the education of gifted young
people. Thus far results have been almost entirely negative.
Voices exist; ambition, too; money is lavishly expended. What,
then, is the actual obstacle?
It lies in the very roots of the elementary education of the
speaking voice, from which the real basis of the singing voice
takes origin. Therefore, the Voice Specialists must first be
instructed in the correct phonology of the speaking voice.
The method of singing which the author presents in later
chapters is merely a continuation of the phonetic method for
speaking. If official recognition were given to this method by
the Government, starting its application in the elementary
schools in the form of phonetic rules, children would learn,
from the beginning, an easier and more correct form of speaking.
Consequently, those endowed with the natural gift of a beautiful
voice would find the road to correct singing an easy one. School
teachers should be instructed along these lines, to enable them
to competently instruct children.
It is part of the author’s program, if aided by public approval
and moral support in his attempt to carry out the radical reform
of Voice Culture, to establish a special school for conducting
the education of those new teachers, the Voice Specialists, who
are willing to enter the teaching field through the main
door—knowledge and truth.
The Voice Specialists as we suggested at the beginning of this
book, must be subject to examination before a special Board of
Scientific and Musical Experts, appointed or recognized by the
Government. They must get their licenses from this Board, as in
the case of any other profession. This alone can protect the
singing field from all kinds of intruders, charlatans, and
impostors.
This is the aim of the author. The rest depends on public
opinion and moral assistance.