When singing before an audience in a hall, do not look on the music. A glance at it may be made from time to time but keep the eyes off. A singer appears very ridiculous if he looks on the page. A song is a story told by the singer in the singing voice. It is not a lesson read from a book. The story cannot be well told if the singer has only half learned it. If he is confined to his notes he attracts attention to himself and that spoils art and the artist. It is best to learn by rote the music to be sung, and when it can be done, to leave the music in some place out of the hands. If it must be carried, have it as much out of the way as possible. A singer of much fame, spoiled his evening's work recently by fixing his eyes on his music all the time while singing. This may have been an exceptional evening, but if he does that all the time, he is no artist, in spite of his repute, and ought not to receive engagements even if he has a fine bass voice.
COME UP HIGHER.
The man makes the musician as does the musician make the man. The rules of life which make men better make the musician better. There is a constant call in life to "Come up higher!" He who has lost the sound of that call is at a standstill, or rather, since there can be no stopping, he is sinking from the place once gained. Get within the sound of that call and heed it. There are no heights so great, but that they form the base to heights beyond. Music is so rich and full that no man can understand it all and no man has reached the highest place in it. The call ever sounds "Come up higher!" Music fills all which contains life, and uses all materials for its transmittance. The air, a subtle ether, is filled with a still finer ether, on which sound travels. That ether is filled with vibration. It is ever present. The connection with it can be made at any moment and the musical thought can be sent off into unlimited space, to influence all within that space. To be able to use this at its best the thought which is musical must be raised to divine thought. The possibilities in that are boundless.
Musicians cannot stop. The year may roll around and one may feel himself doing a great and good work, doing a work which seems to be well rounded; a work which leaves the musician, as the end of a season rolls around, exhausted from labor, and ready to say that the end of his work is reached, that he has gone to his greatest height. Not so, however. Next year is a height to be ascended, and that of the present moment is but the base of that greater height. Music calls "Come up higher."
CRUDE VOICES EXPRESS NO EMOTION.
An untrained voice can never have correct emotion expressed in it. The voice responds as truly to the thought which passes in the mind as does the leaf bend before the breeze. The singing voice is an extension of the speaking voice, and since nature planned only for speaking purposes, in order to have the organs which produce voice in proper condition for singing, there must be that degree of physical drill which makes the vocal apparatus able to convey in proper pitch and quality, the thought of the mind. The untrained voice will not do this. The throat becomes rigid, the pharynx strained and in-elastic. Emotion cannot be expressed when the vocal apparatus is thus held. One may have a beautiful natural voice and he may arouse the enthusiasm of certain of his hearers, but he cannot, without careful training do a tithe of what he is able to do. That is sufficient reason for teachers to urge all who sing at all to place themselves under the best of tuition. All who talk pleasantly have the power to sing. The exceptions to the rule are so few that they amount to but a very small percentage. But all who do sing, if they would rightly use their gift should train themselves to do whatever they do, well.
CHAPTER VII.
AMBITION.
"Character is the internal life of a piece, engendered by the composer; sentiment is the external expression, given to the work by the interpreter. Character is an intrinsic positive part of a composition; sentiment an extrinsic, personal matter only." Christiani.