The investigation and discovery of the facts here stated have been made with the utmost conscientiousness, repeated by men of science in Germany, and acknowledged as correct.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THESE OBSERVATIONS TO THE CULTIVATION OF THE SINGING VOICE
In teaching the art of singing, it is now-a-days very generally the custom to endeavor to raise the lower registers as far as possible toward the higher. This is especially the case with the tenor voice. It is considered a special advantage in a tenor voice when it can sing the a1 on the first leger line
with the chest register.
Upwards of a hundred and fifty years ago, when every good tenor was required to sing a1 with a clear, full chest tone, this note, according to the orchestra pitch then, was not higher than a note between f and f
, according to the present orchestra pitch in England and America. Since that time the orchestra pitch has everywhere gradually risen so imperceptibly that this important fact remained unknown to many singers and teachers, and until recently has been only rarely noticed. And yet it is precisely this much higher pitch and the consequent unnatural extension of the limits of the registers, which is the chief cause why most voices now-a-days last so little while.
That the registers may be forced up beyond their limits is possible, we have seen. But observation teaches us that it cannot be done without a straining of the organs which may be both seen and felt, and no organ will bear continued over-straining. It will gradually be weakened thereby, and become at last wholly useless.
This is a simple fact, scientifically established, universally known. It admits, therefore, of no doubt that the common custom of forcing the registers beyond their natural bounds injures voices, and seriously affects their durability. Even when the organs are so strong that they can bear the unnatural effort for a considerable length of time, they gain nothing in grace and timbre. Like every thing else unnatural, it carries with it its own punishment. Our tenor singers are, for the most part, only for a few years in full possession of their voices, while the earlier singers knew how to keep their voices fine and full to their latest age.