The Voice in Singing

by Emma Seiler

TIME OF INSTRUCTION

The old Italians began with quite young pupils, commonly when they were in their ninth or tenth year. The great demands which were then made in regard to the technical culture of the voice required a long time for instruction, usually five or six years. The extraordinary fulness and power of tone possessed by the earlier artists could be acquired only by persevering and adequate practice of the vocal organ, taken while in the process of growth. Those singers, men and women, whose voices have been celebrated for their fulness and strength of tone, such as Catalani, Perini, &c., sang in their fifth year, under the careful oversight of persons musically cultivated. In childhood the impulse to imitation is strongest, the vocal organs are more tender and pliant than in adults; and hence, when care is taken to avoid fatiguing and straining the voice, children learn much easier and better than grown persons. They are also preserved by early and correct singing from the many bad habits with which the teacher has to contend in adults. That special skill and care are required in a teacher who has in charge the voices of children, there can be no question. But unhappily, no regard is paid to this consideration in the system of teaching singing in the schools, universally introduced in France, Germany, and Switzerland. To any teacher who can sing at all, or play on any instrument, the tender voices of children are entrusted, and he allows them to sing together in chorus, satisfied if the tones are not grossly false and the time is kept, paying no regard to the formation of the voice. Now it is well known that even practised singers avoid singing much in chorus, considering it injurious to the voice. Although schooled and educated voices can endure a much greater strain than children’s voices, yet children are often, without any understanding, required to sing loud, in order “to bring out the voice.” In such a way of singing it is simply impossible that every separate voice should be attended to, even were the teacher competent to attend to it; while it often happens that at the most critical age, while the vocal organs are being developed, children sing with all the strength they can command. Boys, however, in whom the larynx at a certain period undergoes an entire transformation, reach only with difficulty the higher soprano or contralto tones, but are not assigned a lower part until, perceiving themselves the impossibility of singing in this way, they beg the teacher for the change, often too late, unhappily, to prevent an irreparable injury. Moderate singing, without exertion, and, above all things, within the natural limits of the voice and its registers, would even during the period of growth be as little hurtful as speaking, laughing, or any other of the exercises which cannot be forbidden to the vocal organs. But it is wiser not to allow boys to sing at all while the larynx is undergoing its change.

The plan of introducing into schools instruction in singing, so excellent in itself theoretically, tends, by the way in which it is carried out in practice, to lessen the number of voices susceptible of artistic culture, without any compensation in an awakened feeling and understanding of music. In the palmy days of the art of singing there was no instruction given in singing in the schools, but there were instead numerous schools for singing, where children were trained into artists by the most skilful teachers, and whence proceeded good singers, male and female, in great numbers.

The numerous vocal music Unions and Männerchöre, as such, contribute as little as school singing to the elevation and improvement of the vocal art, the sole object of which is to cultivate the individual voice for artistic singing. Considered as a means of moral culture, the rise and increasing prevalence of chorus singing among all orders of the people merit commendation and aid, but not in the interest of the art of song.

Apart from this school instruction, now becoming so popular, people commonly venture to entrust their sons and daughters, but not until they are quite grown, to a singing master to be educated. But then it is expected that he shall, in the shortest time possible, often in the space of a few months, advance them so far that they shall be able to sing with applause before company.

Such is the case in Germany, and in a much higher degree in America, while in the various conservatories of Europe there is now required a period of from four to seven years for education in the art of singing. In the Conservatory of Milan, which is now held to be the best school for our art, pupils are admitted only upon the condition that they will remain seven years.

Thus, while every instrument, if anything is to be made out of it, demands years of practice, to the human voice alone is time denied, simply because, I suppose, almost every one has a somewhat natural aptitude for singing.

The greatest fault, however, is to be found in the present mode of teaching singing, which is so superficial that people have become accustomed to overlook the possibility of changing a voice and rendering it beautiful. For the most part instruction begins where and with what it should end; the aim is, paying only passing attention to the timbre and the formation of tone (Tonbildung), to teach the pupil to sing certain favorite pieces with the due execution, and to see that the breath is taken at the right places and that the tone is not too impure. But the human voice is susceptible of much higher culture than any instrument. And it requires more gifts and far more study to become a true and distinguished artist in singing than are necessary to the mastery of other instruments. It would most assuredly contribute to the advancement and elevation of the vocal art, if gifted children, as it often happened in former times, were early instructed in singing with the requisite care and skill. Thus, educated for their art, and giving to it their best powers, they would be able to satisfy far higher demands and attain to quite another and higher artistic perfection than we are wont now-a-days to find anywhere among our vocal artists. Such children would then, at the age at which at present instruction in singing begins, have already mastered all technical difficulties and be able to apply themselves chiefly to the æsthetic cultivation of their art. With young girls especially, whose vocal organs do not change so much as those of boys, the earliest possible beginning of instruction would be in the highest degree advantageous. It is owing only to the unnatural, overstrained method of studying the art of singing now prevalent that a principle recognized and applied in the learning of all other arts, and even in all the other branches of music, has universal prejudice against it.