Voice and Song.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 40, 30 December 1893, Page 5

Voice and Song.

Bt G. BARNES

(Teacher of singing, Liddel at., Invercargill

[all rights reserved.]

Voice Culture as a Road to Health.

(Continued.)

Dr. Guilmette is well known all over America as a thorough musician, the possessor of a grand bass voice, and an authority on the treatment of diseases immediately connected with the organs of respiration. He Has been medical adviser to several large -opera companies in New Orleans, and for some years held an official position in Brazil (under direct appointment by the Emperor), "-acting as principal bass in the Imperial Church, and medical attendant to the choir.

A. series of lectures delivered by him at the ' Cooper Institute, New York, has been published in book form, and therein he maintains, and I think clearly proves, that a better understanding of the respiratory organs will put an end to such complaints as dyspepsia, palpitation of the heart, certain diseases of the throat, and consumption. He asserts -that breathing, as commonly carried out now--a-days, only keeps active a small portion of the lunge, and points out that just as total ■exclusion of air from the lungs produces immediate death, so partial exclusion, from contraction brought about by continuous employment in cramped positions, by neglect of culture, or from the use of a vitiated atmosphere, will produce lingering death, “ leaving its traces of impoverished blood in the pallor and blueness of the skin, in general debility, in an ulcerated throat and lungs, and in other manifestations of decay.” It is needless to say that he strongly advocates the ■teaching of children in the proper use of their respiratory organs,and denounces the con..gregation of large numbers of young people in school rooms unprovided with ample ventil-

ating arrangements. He says—“ Without discussing the wisdom of a custom that taxes the brain of a child with mental, effort for two or more consecutive hours I content my-

self at this time by simply noting the fact, that although the wasted forms, the pallor ■ and langour that characterise school-children —especially the female portion of them—have moved our modern philosophy to some grateful modifications of the mode and formulas of . juvenile education; yet the grand cause of these alarming symptoms remains undis- • covered! That cause I have no hesitation in ■assigning to a lack of suitable education of the respiratory organs. We all know that children require to be instructed in the proper use of every bodily and intellectual faculty; and is it not surprising that possible deficiency in the art of breathing should never enter into the imaginations even of professed physiologists? We require the aid of art and constant effort to keep us from relaxing into uncouth bodily habits which are most under our observation and control. Not one in ten oan walk gracefully until carefully instructed. It is only art and constant effort that keeps us from talking through our noses, druling at our mouths, or peeping through our uncombed and animative hair. Is it to be expected, then, that, submitted, as they constantly are, to opposing influences, the respiratory organs will accomplish their full vocation without proper attention on our part ? And, certainly, we are net likely to bestow such attention so long as we are kept in ignorance of the organisation and true functioning of these complex organs. ” The ■lungs are composed of minute ramifications of blood-vessels, air-cells, and nerves. They :-are suspended, as it were, in the chest by the ■windpipe, and are also attached to the heart fey the pulmonary vessels. The pulmonary artery carries the venous blood—which is unfit to sustain life—from the heart through -the lungs in order to subject it to the action •-■of the air in their cellular structure. After this action, or arterialisation, has been accomplished the blood is returned to the left of the heart, and by that into system.atic circulation. The air is supplied through the windpipe, and the two bronchi into which ;fche windpipe branches, and is diffused throughout the lungs by minute and innumerable ramifications of the bronchial tubes. The air acts upon the blood in the lungs ■through a wonderfully thin membrane which is estimated to be not more than from 1-70 to the 12-100 part of an inch in thickness ! If we tie up tightly in a bladder a quantity of venous blood—which is dark purple in colour we shall find in a short time that that portion of the fluid which is nearest the suriace of the bladder has undergone a change. The - air has passed through the bladder, and has converted the venous into red or arterial Mood. This is precisely the change that is wrought (only instantaneously wrought, by reason of the thinness of the membrane) by the passage of air through the cellular ramifications of the lungs. Connected with this result is another equally worthy of note. It is this : that the air, having rendered the Mood fit to sustain life, has, by that operation, deprived itself of its life-giving properties, and is no longer fit for respiration. Fresh supplies of air, then, in order to the •production of pure blood, is an essential •object ol the respiratory apparatus. It should now be perfectly clear from this how health can be benefitted by voice cultivation, for the very first thing a singing pupil should learn is that it is absolutely essential for good vocalization that he or she should maintain £hc lungs in the healthiest condition attain-

able by daily exercises of a character calculated to extend their capacity. The unfortunate sedentary individual, by a cramped or indolent positioning of certain parts of the body, limits the respiratory mechanism to a very contracted and feeble action, barely sufficient for existence —certainly not calculated very greatly to prolong it. Hence there is pressing need on his part that hfe should educate his respiratory muscles by proper daily training until they habitually contribute their full share of air to the lungs. To bring about this desired result, Dr. Guilmette has formulated some extremely valuable exercises, which will be published in next week’s article. If his instructions are correctly carried out, and these exercises practised daily for a month or two, i am confident that the reader will continue their employment until, at all events, the proper method of breathing, which they will engender, has become a fixture. Should there bo any doubt in the mind of the operator as to his understanding of these movements, I shall at all times be pleased to put the matter straight. My own experience of Dr. Guilmette’s method is simply this: I had been studying singing under several singers of repute, but none of them could tell me how to get easy control over the output of breath in rendering passages of more than ordinary length, and as a consequence I was everlastingly dissatisfied with my progress. I could, it is true, by dint of very hard practice, manage to get through a tow scales and some of Bordogni’s exercises without coming to grief, but the tone was always harsh and constrained, and 1 always left off, feeling that instead of its being a pleasure to me, practice for anything more than a very few minutes became more and more distressing and at times even painful. What it must have been to listeners I can only imagine. My teachers were kind enough to let me yell behind their chairs while they kept up a running accompaniment on the piano to my ravings, and they certainly expressed no distaste for the performance ; but then they were being well paid for the infliction, and that may possibly account for their good-natured approval of what ought to have been excruciating torture. Let us hope that use had become second nature to them, and that they had got to like that sort of thing. One sees some funny things in going through life. However, I became acquainted at last with Guilmette’s method of cultivating the voice. Very soon thereafter singing began to be a pleasure to me. Corresponding with that improvement my chest measurement began to enlarge considerably. From 36 inches it took over 40 inches of tape to go round my chest in less than two years, and I have never since been bothered with a feeling of exhaustion consequent upon singing a couple of ballads. In further proof of fch; value of the exorcise, I may mention that a young fellow 21 years of age, who had just come into a small fortune, gratefully presented me with £SO for giving him instruction in singing based on Dr Guihnottc’s system. When he started lessons his chest measurement was but 37 inches (although ho was over six feet in height) and inside 12 months he had extended his chest capacity to )ver 40 inches. The last time I saw him his maximum chest capacity was close upon 43 inches ; fears of an early grave were banished ; and he is now a powerful man with considerable ability as a sculler, and as full of animal spirits and go as formerly he was apathetic and depressed. Dr Guilmette’s recoi’d of his own physical development is even more wonderful than these facts within my personal observation. I have been teaching in Invercai’gill scarcely six months, yet, I can confidently refer doubters to several of my pupils for further confirmation of the value of my statements. With men I find no difficulty in obtaining satisfactory' results. I wish I could speak as positively in the case of the gentler sox. In their case the corset curse steps in with its blighting influence (as it does in other directions well-known to the medical profession) and it takes a good deal of argument to upset established habits where fashion is concerned. Girls who pride themselves on the smallness of fheir waists shirk these exercises when they find that their tendency' is to make them more uncomfortable, bound, as they are, with their bands of steel and other unyielding material. When women learn more about the construction of their bodies and act sensibly' in the matter of dress we shall hear less and less of that dread disease, consumption. Young ladies who want to sing well must first of all consent to allow their lungs fair play. Dr Semple is also strongly in favour of voice cultivation as a means to health. At page 67 of his singularly valuable treatise on “ The Voice, musically and medically considered,” he says; “ I take this opportunity of expressing my strong sense of the healthy nature of the 2 ) >’°P er exercise and development of vocal power. This, I think, will bo conceded by every physiologist who bis given attention to the matter. By a judich us employment of the voice in singing the lungs are steadily and firmly inflated, tho elastic power fully exercised, the organs of circulation brought into vigorous action, the muscular power of the chest increased, weakness strengthened, and the digestive organs undoubtedly stimulated. Finally, a singer who really has regard to his voice, and wishes to maintan the organ in proper order, must be very careful of the undue use of stimulants, for it is a fact, manifest to anyone who reflects upon it for a moment, that alcohol, beyond moderation, most seriously interferes with and damages the vocal organs; and there is no greater mistake than to suppose that singers who have attained position have ever had, or do have, recourse to stimulants

to' retain their vocal powers, for so doing would be at the immediate risk of losing their voices.” Dr. Semple’s opinion on the abdominal method of breathing advocated by Dr. Guilmette in the exercises alluded to is confirmatory of the latter’s teaching that it is as beneficial a method for women as it is for men. On this point Dr. Semple says—“By abdominal breathing the chest or thorax is expanded with the least expenditure of muscular energy. This variety of respiration may be used without fatigue for a long period, especially by men in whom, by continual action, the diaphragm acquires very great power. In women, however, for obstetric reasons this muscle is not so constantly employed, although I think too much importance is attached to this part of the inquiry. The pernicious custom of squeezing in the waist with tight-fitting stays, thus depriving the upper portion of the abdomen through its entire circumference, and, in all probability, the last two ribs, of free play, has, in my opinion, infinitely more concern in the limitation of abdominal breathing.’’ On this point I may mention that female artists on the operatic stage have given me their experience, and ah have assured me that without this method of breathing they would be unable to maintain their energies throughout the lengthened periods behind the footlights, during which they have to sustain the characters represented. I think I have written enough now to convince my readers that voice cultivation is of the highest importance in the acquirement and maintenance of sound bodily health, and that persons of sedentary habits or occupation will, by cultivating their voices on correct principles, take the best possible course for counteracting the evil effects of their indolence or unfortunate necessity. As already stated, they neednotall try to become singers unless they have a fancy that way, for the colony is lamentably weak in oratorical ability, and a good voice is as necessary for success in the pulpit, or political arena, as it is for the applause of a concert audience.,. . [To be continued] /