ARTICLE I.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 39, 23 December 1893, Page 16

ARTICLE I.

Voice Cuituee as a Eoad to Health. Looted at from a common sense point of view, the proper cultivation of the voice is of as much importance ti humanity as the proper cultivation of any oilier mental or physical’ attribute, for perfection of vocal power dm pends entirely upon the healthy condition of the lungs, and upon the healthy condition of the lungs depends the healthy condition of the blood. “ The blood is the life,” and it is the air we breathe that gives life to the blood. Now, voice is breath converted into sound; and as we can’t live without breath, it follows as a matter of course that wc can best cultivate the one by maintaining in good order the machinery with which we obtain the other. I suppose no one is liLcly to dispute that statement. It woidd be a matter of great satisfaction to aspiring vocalists if the arguments of all singing masters insupport of their pet theories in voic c 'production were equally unanswerable—but more on that point by-and-bye. In this article I shall confine myself to treating voice-culture as a means to health only, and leave the vexed question of its application to song for further consideration. I here are quite as many people who are without a burning desire to be vocal artists as there are of those who show an ambition in that direction —a great many more, in fact. Everyone, however, possesses a natural desire for health, and just now I want to encourage the regular practice of certain exercises in breathing exercises which, while they are imperatively necessary for the successful career of a professional vocalist, are of equal value for more general use. Telling people that they don’t know how to breathe properly at this lute stage of existence may sound like an absurdity, but nevertheless it is a fact that ninety-nine people out < f a hundred have no conception of what should constitute the act of breathing scientifically. In this respect civilised mankind has sadly degenerated, for there is every reason to believe that away back in the remote ages when men and women lived lives untrammelled by fashion and free from the indoor confinement, made compulsory by the seductions of luxury, the pale faces, narrow chests and feeble voices now everywhere the rule instead of the exception were then objects of wonderment if not contempt. Consumption amongst savage tribes was unknown, the only chest diseases laboured under being those created by an unfriendly spearhead. Even now some of the native tribes of America and the East Indies exhibit features of lung endurance whi.-h are regarded by athletic Englishmen

with wondering astonishment. In America there are Indians who will easily travel:, twenty or thirty miles at a continual jog trot, while in the Hill Districts of India a couple - of chair-bearers will indifferently pick up-the heavy dragoon, or his more delicately-con- - structed lady, and run along over hill and, dale for an extraordinary length of time with--out showing that the stoppage was due to being “pumped.” How many men in Invercargill could do either of these feats ? As another instance of what additional power skilfully-executed breathing is capable of giving, there is the drawing-room amusement of four persons, with a very slight expenditure of strength, lifting a heavy body when seated on a chair. All these things point to the fact that there is a vast amount of existing ignorance in the mechanism and proper management of our breathing apparatus. In densely populated countries like England there maybe some excuse for this ignorance among the poor who are compelled by their necessities toengage in unhealthy occupations amid unhealthy surroundings ; but there should be none in New Zealand, where the people as a, whole may fairly claim to bo intellectually superior, and are certainly blessed with the most fa vourable conditions for pleasurable • existence. Our American cousins exhibit in this, as in many other subjects connected with personal comfort, a good deal more common sense than we do, for there is scarcely a town of any size in the States without its professorof voice cultivation ; and in the large cities competent teachers of elocution and singing; are numerous. In the public schools many matters of importance relating to the anatomy of the human body form part of the studies, and as one consequence of all this attention to physical development, the land of the Stars and Stripes is now supplying the • world with a large proportion of its leading artists both in stage and drama. The increased, and rapidly-increasing, interest shown by English-speaking communities during this century in the advancement of that branch of education devoted to music has induced a number of leading men in the medical profession to apply their scientificknowledge to voice production. Amongst those who have thus become specialists in thecaro and cultivation of the voice as a means of health, I will make special mention of J)r - Alexandor Guilmette, of America, and Armand Semple, 13. A., M. 8., Cantab., M. R.C.P., Loud., Physician to the Royal Society of Musicians, for many years clinical: assistant in the throat department at the London Hospital, and professor of vocal and aural physiology at Trinity College, London.. I mention these gentlemen particularly because my own experince leads me to the conclusion that they best represent their respective nationalities in the ranks of scientificvoice cultivators. Both of these gentlemen are accomplished musicians, but while in thorough agreement as to the value of regular exercise of the voice, they differ very considerably as to its mechanism, for while Dr • Semple believes in the vocal cord theory, Dr Guilmette, in my opinion, utterly demolishes, it. The correctness of that theory is undoubtedly of. the highest importance to thevoice cultivator, and it is a subject well worthy of further scientific enquiry. lam now not a believer in voice being produced'by the vibration of the so-called vocal cords, bub my reasons for disbelief will appear later on when I come to deal with the use of the voice for singing purposes. [To mis Continued.]