The Human Voice

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 321, 17 August 1945, Page 9

The Human Voice

INCE singing is so good a thing I wish all men would learn to sing." So wrote William Byrd some four hundred years ago. There are a good many to-day who might disagree with this unless the emphasis were on the word "learn,’ for the human voice can be the most disagreeable of instruments. It is so cheap to come by, so economical to use, so impressive at times in its: volume, , that its owners are easily led to follow the advice of the advertisement to "use often and freely." Yet, for those who take the trouble, the voice may become indeed a thing of beauty, qualifying for another opinion of Byrd that "There is not any Musicke of Instruments whatsoever, comparable to that which is made of the voyces of men, where the voyces are good, and the same well sorted and ordered." Listeners to the Lyric Harmonists Choir from 1YA one Saturday recently would most likely have subscribed to this. It was good to hear a choir singing unaccompanied part songs with creditable intonation, clearly-articu-lated words and lively rhythm, Even if the tenors-rare fellows these days-did sound a bit coarse at times and, on occasion, wandered from the strict path of musical virtue, any roughnesses were compensated for by the evident spontaniety. Without being so extravagant as to place the Lyric Harmonists alongside such famous organisations .as the Fleet Street Choir, it would still be true to Say the voices were good and the same’ well sorted and ordered.