The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-08-19
VOICE CULTURE.
Some of the Methods of Deyel.
0ping Talent.
a Musical Ear Essential to the Making Of
Singers - Locating Defects and Rem
edying Them Fixing the Voice.

A representative of THE CALL had an
interview yesterday with Henry Kirke
White of Boston on the subject of voice
culture, and in answer to a question as to
what methods he employed lie said:
81 hardly know what to tell you. The
method is my own, one that l have evolved
out Of my own experience, extending over
period of fifteen years. | think if it was
named it might be called the commOn-sense
method, as apply the most simple and prac-
teal modes to bring about the desired result.
" 1t is true OF singing as OF every other
kind of teaching, that, whether Intention
ally or otherwise, the instructor throws an
air of mystery about the art or the science
of which he is the exponent. This at the
very earliest battles and terri6es the pupil.
He imagines that he is to meet terrible diff
culties. and that it is even question
whether he will be able to surmount them
So. at the very outset, teacher and pupil are
handicapped by their inability to fully I'M
derstand one another, and the hard work
begins at once.
A NATURAL FUNCTION.
Now. if people can only he made to un-
derstand that singing is natural function,
just as speech is-that the question of
whether person can make a singer or not
is solved by the possession of musical ear
or the lack of lt-then the matter is simpli-
fed at once.
My own instructor. Nine. Erminia Ru-
derSdorf of London, the mother of the
clever young actor, Mr.. Richard Mansfield,
used TO say. to applicants for instruction
when they pressed her to tell them whether
they could ever learn to sing:
- Ii you have an ear, l can help you. If
you have not an ear, God help you; l can
not
And there the whole matter lies in nut
shell. Any person with correct ear may
learn to sing, even if the original voice be
small ana of limited compass. But it is
hopeless for the person who has not an ear
to undertake 1t. BY the proper practice the
voice may be developed in power and eX-
tended in compass to an extent that is posi-
lively Incredible.
AIDING NATURE.
You will see, l say, by proper prac-
tice. For what l do is to aid nature.
l do not wish to take away the
natural voice ana to substitute for it some
thing that IS entirely artificial. That would
be bad art, or rather it would be no art at
all. III Is an accepted truth that the best art
is that which keeps the most nearly to ma
ture, both in spirit and representation, and
OF no mt is this more true than of music.
Now does it not follow that in order to
assist nature the natural qualities must be
studied and the teaching be such as to meet
the requirements OF the individual pupil?
Skillful physicians will tell you that in treat
ing any disease the temperament and habits
OF the patient must be largely considered.
They cannot treat in a wholesale manner
even patients who are suffering from the
same ailment There are as many phases
oil disease as there are persons who suffer
from it.
LOCATING THE WEAKNESS.
" The same thing is true of voice cultiva-
ton. livery voice has its own weakness or
defect, that must be treated by special
means. My first object is to find this weak
ness or defect and then set myself TO RENE
dying it
But l am very careful of one thing. 1
never call pupils attention to the defect,
and he never knows what the particular eX-
ercSe is to correct. He knows that he is
given 1t because he needs ii, and that it is
part of his special Instruction. If l called
his attention to the defect he would always
be conscious Of it, and it would give HIM
twice the difficulty to overcome. 1t would
be with him as it would with a little child
playing in a room which had a hole or
slight obstruction in the floor. Unconscious
that 1t Is there the child plays about and
does rot tall over 1t, but the moment his at
tention is called 10 it he is sure to hurt HIM
self over it. Now, which is better to call
the attention OF the child to that which he
has not discovered and has not been harmed
by and let him come 10 halt, or to quietly
remove the obstacle or cover the hole in the
floor while he Is still in ignorance Of its
existence?
And so with the voice, go on and rectify
the fault, without placing stumbling blocks
II the way Of pupils progress.
LATENT TALENT.
More people can sing than know they
can. A large number have Il latent talent,
and are not aware of its possession simply
because it has not been aroused. | have
often seen the truth of this, but never in
more marked degree than in 4 case which |
will tell yen of.
"a few years since | was induced to 20 to
one of our large New England cities to take
the direction OF musical society there 1t
had been iouriShing society, but it had re-
lapSed into very sleepy state, from which
1t was dItncult TO arouse it. My first sug-
gestlon was that an appeal should be made
to the younger people of the city to Join il.
l was assured that there was no musical
talent among the young people. l didn't
credit this, and urged the matter more siren
uously. As result effort was made and
large membership ensured. The greatest
enthusiasm prevailed, many became my
pupils, and old marvellous work. At the
end OF the season we had given two public
recltalS Of part songs, and We closed with
three representations of the opera of Pa
tience,' all the solo parts being taken by
members OF the society," who had never be-
lore been known as singers. Every church
choir in the city was recrganzed, and in
place OF singers who came from Boston and
other cities, the young men and women OF
the town were employed. 1t was a genuine
musical revival, and the effects of it are still
felt.
81 could multiply the illustrations, but I
only give you this TO show you how often it
is that talent lies dormant while its posses
sion is unSuSOpctpd.p