THE ART OF SINGING

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 256, 19 January 1928, Page 16

THE ART OF SINGING

SIR HENRY WOOD’S ADVICE TRAINING AND HARD WORK Most people, if asked what they con- 4 ceive to be the magnum opus of Sir Henry Wood, would say, ‘His thirty three years’ work at Queen's HalK’;

but though that has b6en a very important part of his experience, he himself finds the summing up of his life’s labours in the volumes of which the first was published recently “The Gentle Art of Singing.” Teaching singing was one of his earliest interests. His father, an engineer by profession, studied voicetraining under Dr. Mullah and Manuel Garcia, and it was by being present while his father gave lessons, and studying the various voices that young Henry Wood learnt to deal with them. Frequently his father would ask him, after a difficult case had. been before him, “Now, what would you do with that voice?” Then the youth began to teach also, and found endless fascination in the work. As conductor of touring opera companies he had plenty of scope for his activities in training choristers, arid he has continued these all his life, being in request especially for the training of choirs for the large festivals. His individual pupils have given him constant interest, but of late years he has had little time for thi3 work, and has practised chiefly as a consultant and special coach. No Royal Road Sir Henry had some rather severe things to say about singers in general. “They do not work as hard as instrumentalists, on the whole,” he remarked. “They are seldom as serious and earnest.” The fact that singers start work later in life than do most players gives them a chance of obtaining a good foundation of general education and of musical knowledge, but, says Sir Henry, “they want to get on too fast, when they start. Look how long the best Continental singers study before they will undertake Wagner, for instance; here, our singers expect to appear in Wagner after a very short period of study of the difficult music. They are not free from anxiety, and so ease and purity suffer; they get stiff, and have not sufficient resource.” Instead of a minimum of something like six or eight years’ work he finds students expecting to be fully equipped in three or four, or even less. “Another point,” he remarked, ‘is that they don’t develop themselves physically. You must have good stamina and fine control of. a well-developed body to be a good singer. You will notice that almost all the best vocal artists are fine, big men and women.” The singer must be a vocal athlete, and athletic training, to be sound, must be slow. “No youth starts training for any athletic exercise by going the full course; he begins in the most gradual way. Our singers ought t?o do the same. „ . - “Of course, there are all sorts or charlatan ‘systems,’ ” he added; “I have prowled among vocal studios in Milan, Florence, in Germany, and elsewhere, and have come across some astounding humbugs, as well as some fine artists who carry on the best or the ancient traditions, without boasting of possessing the secret of ‘the one true method.’ ”