The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-07-25
HOW THE ITALIANS SING.
me Voice Should Be Formed in the
Roof of the Mouth
rom the Neig York Star.

Ninety per cent. of the people of this coun-
Try could De made to sing, by proper teach
ing, SAID Hayden lila, the other day Italy
Is nation Of singers because the people are
taught IN the right way, and for no other
reason whatever. Moreover, very few
aliens who SO Co even the best Italian mas
tiers ever get the benefit of the instruction
which Is open to the natives 1t is an art
winch IS preserved for the Italians"
UT. INA sat IN his music room on Fifth
avenue and explained a method of voice
creating which is at variance with
the generally accepted laws of singing,
ana tod the story OF the discovery of the
Italian way of teaching.
! More than a century ago" he said, "a
! chapel master in Italy, while examining
! the vocal powers cf number Of people who
! were candidates for membership in the re-
serve choir, discovered voice of remark
able volume and beau y Its owner was a
| peasant. young man with no education.
! VINO evidently knew nothing OF music But
such a voice The old chapel master had
| never heard. He was so much interested
| That he made u study of the fellow, and
| discovered that he had peculiar forma-
| ton OF the face, in that the lower Jaw re-
| coded very materially from the uUper He
| also noticed that in singing there was a
| considerable elongation of the overhang of
the upper 'ew. This discovery set the
| chapel masUsr uDon a course of scientific
| investigation, and a series of comparisons
| of the faces of the members of his choir.
! In the end he concluded that the voice in
| slnglng-and speaking as well-should be
| formed in the roof of the mouth. and that
! the throat and chest mad nothing to do with
| it.
And this is the underlying principle of
the Italian method of snging,n continued
| Mr.. lila. 1.-The formation of the face de-
| terInines the question whether a person
should be able to sing or not. A man or
woman whose lower jaw recedes consider
| ably from the upper should have good sing
/ voice. One whose lower jaw projects be-
| yond the upper will have an iaditf erent
voice, if any. But any person with proper
| teaching and practice may improve upon
| the conditions fixed by the facial forma-
| ton.
''As the voice is formed in the mouth, it
should require no physical effort and no ex
| traOrdinary expansion of the lungs to en-
able a person to sing his highest or lowest
note. Patti. little, slight woman, with
| comparatively small lungs, fills the largest
| auditorium with her voice, even on its
| highest notes There should be no physical
| effort in singing, no exsrtiOn of the lungs.
| The voice rests in the roof of the mouth, like
| an egg in cup, and should be used with
| perfect ease on any note. "
While Mr.. Tilla was speaking one of his
! pupils entered the room. He was tall
| young man slight build aud with rather
| fiat chest. He was shy in manner and
not thoroughly at ease when he saw that
strangers were present. The formation of
| his face was of the sort which Tilla had
described as indicating fine singing voice,
| and the teacher at once proceeded to illus
trate his theory.
| The young man, whose name is Arthur
| Wynfred, is a Scotchman. He is carpen-
| ter by trade, and according to his own
statement, never sung note until month
ago. lie had desire to learn to sing, but
| his friends discouraged him, as he had no
voice. A number of teachers laughed at
the man because of his ambition to sing,
when he couldn't produce tone.
Wynfred sat in chair in one corner of
the room, ba,hful and dlffiient, W it'll his
chest contracted rather than expanded, and
looked at the floor as he fumhed with his
watchchain. But when Tilla sat at the
| piano and struck chord, the young man
| opened his lips and let out tone of a quail
ity and volume that made the nerves of his
listeners tingle with pleasure. Then, at
Tilas request, he left his place and
stood agai st the mantel, with a
! spectator on either side, watching his pro-
file and noting the play of his jaws. He
sang a number of practice phrases sus-
tanning a tone on B fiat, with a bit of rec
itative, and then dropping plumply to E
fiat. Then he repeated the music trans
posed into the keys of D, d fat and G and
surprised his listeners by dropping to
lower c. with a full, round, vi
brant tone like that of an organ
pipe, and singing three or four words Any
singer knows that it is one thing to sus tain
a very high or a very low note, and quite
another to pronounce three or four syllab les
on that note. Wynfred sang his 10 vest
range with as little effort as he used in con-
versation, and the tone was as full, round
and big on lower c as it was an octave
higher.
The young man sang for an hour for the
pleasure of the listeners. His voice was
such a remarka lie basso profundo that the
little audience would nave kept him sing
ing for much longer had not other duties
claimed hi, attention. OF course, the voice
was not in perfect state nor was the young
man a thorough master OF its use. Long
| practice and training will be required to
| fit it for its best SERVICE but the volume and
quality were beyond dispute. And the
ease with which the young man sang, in
whatever pose he happened 10 strike, with
| his lungs in their normal state of expan-
sion, nor even contracted, set at defa nee
all the generally accepted theories of sing
ing;
| easy to ACQUIRE said Mr. Tilla. "a few
simple rules govern it. Long hours of
fatiguing practice are not at all neces sary,
| When once you start in the right direction
your voice will grow as you sleep, and you
will awake each morning surprised at the
Improvement it has made since the pre-
vious day"
Young Wynfred says that he has not
gotten over his surprise at the sound of his
owl voice In fact he appears, while
singing, much like man who has been
blind from his birth, but who has suddenly
gained IN some measure the use of his eyes.
His voice, the form ,tion of his face and the
ease with which ho sings tend to confirm
what Tilla s.regardlng the secret Of the
Italian method of singing.
Plain History.
SMift1s Specifci is simple vegetable COM