Having established the fact that the rhythmic movements for English and German vocal expression are directly opposed to each other, the one being represented by the iambic, the other by the trochaic measure, there is still a wide field open for investigation as to the idiomatic expression of other languages. This it should not be difficult to determine; personally, I cannot devote the necessary time to this subject even as far as I might be able to do so in connection with other languages of which I have some knowledge. The differences in other tongues, of course, must be embodied in either of the two measures named, as these embrace all others. Whatever may constitute a nation's idiomatic expression must spring from a variation of either of these. While the precedence is given to the abdomen in some and to the thorax in others, the point of gravitation, which according to its location calls for the special manner in which we inspire into and expire from either the one or the other, establishes such variation in the idiomatic expression of all tongues.
All that is said about an Italian, a German, or any other "school" (with the exception, perhaps, of what may constitute the difference between what is called "the old and the new Italian school," and which covers issues of a nature foreign to these investigations) has its proper significance right here: There is no "school" in the sense in which this word is ordinarily used. There are nations and there are languages belonging to such nations. Each nation's language is that nation's "school," and no one nation can go to school with any other nation.
Peasants and the mass of the people generally in Italy, France, Germany, etc., do not visit academies to study vocal art, yet their mode of expression is precisely the same as that of the best vocal artists of these respective countries. I do not mean to say, of course, that the raw material their voices is made up of is as rarefied and artistically trained, but that the composition, the fundamental element thereof, is of precisely the same order as that of their most finished artists. This raw material, on the other hand, in every instance, varies from that of people belonging to every other nation.
The best thing, therefore, to be done, to bring such vocal material as nature has endowed one with up to its greatest perfection, is to have it "schooled" by artists belonging to one's own nation. There may be a time coming, and the same may not be far distant, when methods may be taught by which one may become acquainted with the spirit, and learn the exact mode of the technical expression, of other nations besides one's own. It will then become possible to comprehend these foreign methods and to profit by comprehending them. As long as the principles upon which they are based, however, are not understood, any attempt at singing according to the same will be futile as an accomplishment or an art, and hurtful to the voice of the person making the attempt.
Such person will only injure his or her own natural mode of expression, without acquiring the foreign mode.
The idea of learning a certain mode of expression, the Italian, for instance, for singing, and applying it to all tongues, is futile and contrary to all reason. We might, with as much show of reason, say that by learning to pronounce one foreign tongue we may apply that knowledge to the pronunciation of every other foreign tongue.
The true state of affairs, and the only one to follow, is, and always will be, this: First, and above all, learn to use your own tongue thoroughly, for all purposes of vocal expression. Then learn the use of other tongues for vocal expression in those other tongues only. You cannot apply the technical mode of Italian expression to English vocal utterance any more than you can apply the technical mode of English expression to Italian vocal utterance. An attempt at so doing is quite as preposterous in the one case as it is in the other.
Besides, for the purpose of singing in his own tongue, an Anglo-Saxon does not and should not want to acquire any other mode, as he is by nature in possession of one of the best modes of expression. There is none intrinsically purer, none possessed of more vigor or power of expression. There are those with greater softness combined with purity, but lacking strength, as the Italian; and those with more soulfulness combined with strength, but lacking purity, as the German. This native element of purity allied to strength in the Anglo-Saxon, more especially in the English-American, mode of expression is primarily the cause of the high position in the artistic world of the American singer. I ascribe the superiority of the "American" mode of expression over the "English," when untrammelled as in song, in part to the greater personal liberty, the greater want of conventionality, the vast extent of our territory, and our almost constantly clear and unclouded sky; all these being conditions that assist the free exercise of one's natural endowments. To reach the best results in the art of singing, the body as well as the soul must be, as far as possible, untrammelled in any direction. While the idiomatic expression of the English language here and abroad is the same, the social restraint and the conservatism of the English as a nation act against the best outcome of their gift of song, which demands for its best expression freedom from conventionality or any other constraint.
Each nation is at its best in its own tongue. Our orators are equal to any there are in the world. They do not speak according to the Italian, the German, or any other school. If they did, they would utterly fail and make themselves ridiculous. Why do people, then, want to "speak" in this more expansive and soulful manner, called "singing," in these foreign modes? I know the answer will be that singing and speaking are things quite apart, having no affinity in their mode of production. I shall show, as I have already partly shown, that they are of precisely the same order, though different phases of that order; that they cannot be separated; in so far as the elements which belong to speech also belong to song, and those which belong to song also belong to speech; but that they are used in an inverse order in the former as well as in the latter.