Artistic Singing (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. RESPIRATION. OR many years past very much has been said and written by professors of elocution and of singing upon the important connection of respiration with the speaking and singing voice. Physiologists and medical men have pointed out again and again the laws of physiology governing the vocal organs, and the serious consequences of violating those laws. But in spite of these efforts which should have been received as so valuable to the singing art, the most pernicious theories have been promulgated and have found followers. It is not too much to say that thousands of voices have been ruined or hopelessly injured by those who have applied them. The too prevalent idea has been that in order to sing well, some abnormal and difficult method of breathing must be learned. The terms abdominal and diaphragmatic as characterizing a method, have caught the ear, as scientific words pregnant with value, and the student has very often submitted to be led accordingly by those who, while professing knowledge, are ignorant of the real meaning of the terms they use. Since Dr. Mandl in 1855, published his famous paper Sur le Fatigue de la Voix, giving a clear exposition of the different types of breathing, and their effect upon the action and the hygiene of the vocal organs, at the same time pointing out the fatal errors of the Methode de la Conservatoire de Musique, a more serious and growing attention has been given to the subject, and the best teachers recognize to-day that the success of the old Italian school of singing was based upon sound physiological laws. It is scarcely appreciated that almost every feature of the art of singing depends upon the proper use of the breath; that without an easy management of the breath there can be no legato, no messa di voce, ...