The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-13

and thought The mechanical part does not
amount to so much and can be acquired at
any time. pupil should never practice
vocal exercises. including songs, more
than thirty minutes at time. One should
not imagine that he is losing time in this,
as he is really gaining it, for should he
practice when his voice is not in the proper
condition he would probably cause a slight
congestion, which no doubt would deprive
him of a lesson or two. A very good exer-
else when out of voice is humming through
the nostrils. In this all of the muscles are
entirely in repose. and no effort whatever
can be used 10 strain the vocal apparatus.
HAD A SWEET VOICE.
The man who had the sweetest voice 1
was Joe Emmett, the noted German come
dian. While his voice utterly lacked culti-
walton, and it would have been impossible
for him TO have sung anything but the
melodies which he made famous he never
theless possessed a voice of peculiar sweet
ness of tone and charm which distinguished
him from all other singers. He had
natural voice which did not require cult-
walton to make it what it was. Emmet's
singing was, however, on the order of that
of the ballad singers in minstrel show.
although he had a much finer voice than
any of those fellows. 1 have heard the
tenor in a minstrel come out and sing some
love-sick ditty and when he had finished
the people would think he was grand.
They would all wonder at the voice he pos
sessed and would go into raptures about
it. The fact of the matter is, if taken out
of his surroundings and put in a church
choir where there are no fancy costumes,
no orchestra, no lights and where he
couldn't depend on his facial expression to
win over the audience, he would, no doubt,
be a dead failure. Theatrical singers all
possess more natural than cultivated
voices, for there are few of them who ever
study music TO any great extent. All they
are endeavoring TO do is to meet the re-
quirements of the business, and the delu-
sion which the audience in a theater al
ways is laboring under does the rest. The
theatrical manager does not give his au-
dience time to think about the singing, be-
cause he keeps something before their eyes
all the time.
Now in this course I am speaking of the
ballad singer, for in opera it takes train
ing. The training for opera is very much
dlOnS the same line as lndl Oh CnufCn sing
ing, because in both the production must
be natural. Many people are under the inn
preston that sacred music is not near so
difficult to sing as comic opera. Now, this
is where they are entirely wrong, for the
fact is the songs Of comic opera much
easier to render. In church music great
control of the voice is required, SO that the
necessary sustained tones can be properly
produced, and there must also be lofty
sentiment expressed, which can only be
done by dignity and breadth of thought
In church singing there is nothing to help
the singer out if he hasn't the voice. while
in the comic opera one can conceal any vo-
cal inability by action, and more depends
on the personal charms of the singer and
his ability to act than on artistic vocaliZa-
ton. The church singer must depend upon
beautiful tone production with the express
sion not overdrawn, such as raising the
shoulders or rolling the eyes from one side
to the other as many do. The singing of
church music should be fervent but not ex-
travagant. There should be- a great diff
ference in the rendition of the sacred song
and of the ballad, but 1 am sorry TO say
that the church choir singers frequently
fail to display this difference"