run the risk of coming to grief when for some reason or other an unexpected strain is put upon one’s resources and there is no sound knowledge and understanding to fall back upon.
How can one properly understand, for instance, the all-important subject of breathing, if one has not at least some idea as to the natural processes involved? Vocal teachers and students of voice production are often twitted upon the conflicting character of the views which they hold and the principles which they lay down, but here is one subject, at all events, upon which there is universal agreement, namely, the supreme importance of right breathing as the very foundation of the singer’s art.
Chapter XIII
BREATHING
HE who breathes properly sings properly, it has been said; and there is not a single authority of any weight, I venture to say, who does not endorse that statement. The old Italian masters used to say, indeed, that the art of singing is the art of breathing; and the same idea was put by Lamperti in another way when he observed that “the attainment of proper respiration should be the first object of the student of singing.”
On the same subject the words of a famous English singing teacher, William Shakespeare, may be quoted. In his well-known work on the Art of Song he lays down as the two fundamental aims to be set before himself by the student: 1, how to take a breath and how to press it out slowly; and, 2, how to sing to this controlled breath pressure.
It is when we come to consider the views of the different theorists in detail that divergencies will be found to arise. But on certain fundamental matters there will, I think, be found pretty general agreement nowadays.
The great guiding principle to be borne in mind, in my opinion, is ease and naturalness. This is one of those matters in regard to which nature can be trusted much more safely than theorists and professors. I refer, of course, to the actual process of breathing. As regards the subsequent production of tone there is, of course, plenty to be taught. But the actual process of inspiration and exhalation should be as natural and as easy as possible.
ROUGH DIAGRAM OF THE LARYNX, TRACHEA AND LUNGS.
Some wise words of Salvatore Marchesi may be quoted on this point: “When explaining the physical, mechanical process of breathing to beginners it is essential to make them understand that natural laws have provided for its independence of our will, as is observed in sleeping. Therefore, every intentional preparation or effort made in order to draw more air into the lungs will produce the contrary result, hindering the freedom of the natural process.”