Voice and Song.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 42, 13 January 1894, Page 12

Voice and Song.

By G. BARNES of singing, Licldel st., Invercargill.)

[all bights reserved.] A Correction. —In setting up the first exercises published last week, the compositor has made it appear that I asked my readers to retain their breath for a few minutes .. The compositor has certainly always been looked upon as a fearfully and won-derfully-constructed individual, but •even his extraordinary ability in turning everything upside down will scarcely enable him to accomplish such a feat as this. The word “ minutes ” should, of course, have been “ seconds.” Who should Sing, and Who should Teach. In my previous article I think I must have made it clear to my readers that cultivating the voice upon •correct, physiological principles will lead to improved health, for no voice can be properly cultivated without securing a healthy condition of the lungs, and the exercises I have already given for that purpose will, I feel sure, be acknowledged by every medical authority to be the best possible means for attaining the desired •object. If carried out with ordinary intelligence, according to the directions laid down, these exercises can do no harm to anyone, but I want once more to emphasise the fact that ordinary intelligence must be shewn in their employment. Only “ Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,” •and those who imagine that they can more speedily cure the evils resulting from long-continued bad habits by a violent application of a remedy which should be gradual in its progress, will learn the truth of that adage by painful experience. They must not blame the method then they can only honestly attribute their failure to their own want of common sense. Aspirants for vocal fame are frequently a little too anxious to attain celebrity, regardless of the fact that nature has probably not endowed them with the necessary physique for rapid developments of any kind. Slow and sure is a maxim which should be taken to heart by all who are x-eally desirous •of being able to sing well. Almost everybody possesses a voice capable of giving pleasure to the listener when exercised in singing; but unfortunately it isn’t everybody who is ready to devote the time and patience necessary for acquiring that ability. As one eminent master puts it —“ t*’ome years since it was considered a work of labour and importance to bring forward singers combining all the requisites to enable them to pass victoriously through the ordeal of public opinion. They toiled assiduously up the hill of science, patiently enduring the drudgery ere they presumed to pluck the flowers which bloomed as the reward of their industry; but, in the present day, singers spring up like mushrooms, after a few months’ instruction ; unable to stand the test of criticism, they sink back into oblivion.” This, of •course, applies particularly to the public platform, but it is almost equally applicable to the drawingroom, for no matter what some socalled teachers of music may say to the contrary, depend upon it that one or two quarters’ instruction is not sufficient for imparting more than the barest rudiments of the art. The teachers who talk in the w r ay indicated have probably never had a real lesson in singing in their lives, and they are certainly more calculated to hrealc good voices than make them. They may be able to show you how- to keep to the time and tune of a few songs, just as some professox-s of the pianoforte cause their pupils to play waltzes before they should be out of the five - fingered exercises, but they will never produce a singer any more thaxx the others will ever- produce competent instrumentalists. “Evex-yone teaches,”

says Tosi. “I do hot mean the first rudiments only; —that would be an affront to them. lam now speaking of those who take upon them the part of legislator in tjxe most finished part of singing. So mischievious a pretension prevails, not only among those who can barely be said to sing, but among the meanest instrumental pel-formers, who though they never sing, nor know how to sing, pretend not only to teach, but to perfect, and they find some who are weak enough to be imposed on.” I have often been asked, “Is it worth my while to learn how to sing i” And I have always rep'ied, unless there was a radical defect in tone disci-imination, “ of coui-se it is.” I have so answered before I became a paid teacher, because I always loved singing, and liked to hear it. How much more likely am I to advise in that way now ? Why ask the question at all ? If people wish to be able to sing, they should start at once, and learn how. They may not be Lloyds or Santleys, Pattis or Pateys, but they have voices, the cultivation of which must be an allround benefit —physically to themselves, and musically to their friends. What more can they desire ? At all events if they possessed the most magnificent organs evex- heard from a range or a quality point of view, it would be impossible to decide straight away what could be done with them (except to cultivate them) until it was first ascei-tained whether other attributes essential fox- the production of a good vocalist accompanied the gift. For singing purposes a good ear is as essential as a good voice, for a voice may have both range and power, yet the ears be irretrievably defective, and the pupil consequently unable to measure accurately the diffex-ent intex-vals of sound. This, however-, is a very x-are occuxrence, and many persons ax-e often condemned as having impex-fect ears when in reality they are only uncultivated from want of expex-ience in .musical society. On this point Dr. Guilmette observes “We do not expect a peasant to enter a drawing room witlx all the politeness of a courtier. yet he may possess talents that require but few years study and observation to render him as bx-ight an ornament as the most polished of the pax-ty. The children of musicians seldom x-equix-e half the trouble to become proficient in the science of music that is necessax-y with other-childi-en, because the ears of the former are imperceptibly cultivated by constantly listening to the compositions of the fix-st masters ably executed. But let those children be placed where the sound of music seldom or never x-eaches them, and I question whether- they would not have to combat with the same disadvaxxtages in educating their ears as the latter.”