In addition to all this, the proceedings of various societies in New York alone, judging by their reports also contained in the November, 1896, number of Werner's Magazine, which is of unusual interest throughout, show how great is the interest which, at the present time, centres around this matter of the voice. In place of saying the "truth" in matters of the voice, as contained in my book, it would, perhaps, be more correct to have said, "the first ray of light that has ever penetrated the gloom and the mystery surrounding the nature of the voice." In Werner's Magazine it is stated:
"If Mr. Emil Sutro's book, The Basic Law of Vocal Utterance, be right, then other writers on vocal science are wrong. His statements are startling and revolutionary. He claims to have discovered a new vocal cord and to be able to prove that speech sounds are the product of inspiration as well as expiration. The significance of this is apparent when it is realized that all vocal authorities, heretofore, have taught that voice is vocalized expiration, and that speech is this vocalized expiration articulated into words.
"The author draws a sharp distinction between the air taken for life-purposes and the air taken for speech-purposes. He says that vital breathing can and should go on independent of artistic breathing, and that the two processes need not and should not disturb nor conflict with one another. He combats the theory that the lungs are a reservoir of air, which in the vocal act is pressed against the vocal cords of the larynx, thereby producing tone, which is resonated and modified by the parts above the glottis. He maintains that it is a physical impossibility to give sufficient force and rapidity to the lung air to put muscular and cartilaginous tissue into tonal vibration,—that this force and this rapidity can come only from the internal atmospheric pressure, and that, therefore, preparatory lung inhalation for voice-purposes obstructs rather than aids the vocal act. He gives a new explanation of the formation of speech sounds, and offers various novel theories.
"Many readers will hesitate to accept his views, yet as long as vocal science is still in a formative condition and involved in so much chaos and uncertainty, any attempt at a solution should receive careful consideration."
I have cited this able review in full, written by one whose life has been one act of devotion to the solution of these questions, as it will at once introduce the reader into the drift of my investigations as far as they had advanced up to that time.
I have continued to steadily devote myself to the further prosecution of my investigations, never publishing anything, scarcely ever speaking on this subject to any one. The subject appeared to me so great and so far above my ability to master it that I, at first, looked around for assistance among those I deemed most likely to be able to render it. But no one had any assistance to offer, no one scarcely seemed even to comprehend what I was after. Thus, at last, almost in despair, I made up my mind that I must undertake this task single-handed; and I have been at it, scarcely without interruption, ever since.
Meanwhile, the play of "Much Ado about Nothing," or "The Farce about the Larynx," continued to go on bravely all over the world. I have watched it with a sense of pity, rather than amusement. It appeared to me, more than anything else, like a game of blind man's buff, in which all the participants were blindfolded; my own horizon, meanwhile, being illumined by roseate tints representing continuous new discoveries, like a May morn before the rising of the sun.
The voice has been treated as a separate mechanical issue, while it is the outcome of a series of both physical and spiritual issues. While the old school is reproducing, in its minutest details, the dead branch of a tree, I am portraying, in its majestic proportions, the broad expanse of a living oak.
These anatomical details may interest scientists; they are valueless to the singer, as he has no control over the movements of the larynx. He need but "attack" his note in the right way, and all these muscles, sinews, cartilaginous tissues, etc., will fall into line, involuntarily and unsolicited.
Now that I am offering innumerable proofs in corroboration of my assertions, I want scientists to take these matters seriously, and not to look upon this book, also, as some may possibly have felt inclined to do in regard to my previous publication, as a "scientific curiosity" merely. There are no greater problems before the world to-day than are treated here.