The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-15

~ AC0It bC0Ln " INV w Nv 9AhNStu
and continuous. d,
ANY endeavor to push forward the vowel
tone before the oonsonAnt 10 out Of the way
will result In straining. It will, a. O
writer Gays, 'cauSO q muscular effort and
produce tension In parts Of the body, which
will rob the vocal sound Of beauty and
deprive the singer Of freedom.
When the singer has acquired q pure
and round pronunciation OF the vowel
sounds and Q clear and smooth ertincias
ton OF the consonants, he should etvo no
little time 70 the practice Of clear delivery
Of text. He will 5000 find that certain oorn-
binations bother him more than others.
For example, how many public speakers
always make q mess OF such Words a. sreSt0'
or "tsote.'
The combination ssts' 10, In nine cases
out Of ten, transformed into a double Q.
This 10 wholly unnecessary. The cause OF
II 10 haste. The speaker does not take the
time to form the three consecutive sounds.
Now the singer Il far moro likely to hurry,
because he will be anxious 10 carry his voice
forward to the ne1t vowel; but 1t 10 en-
tirely unnecessary to do this. The oon-
sonantal sounds can be clearly Inundated
without checking the dow OF tone or do
stroying the atmosphere Of the legato.
Suppose you are singing a0h, rest Ia the
Lord The EST" in rest must be clearly
enunolated or else the beauty Of the text
and the pathos Of the passage will be de-
stroyed. Now, when the cavity Of the mouth
10 In shape for the short %" In "restS the
tone may be properly prolonged on that
vowel, and the sst' taken with the tip Of the
A-A-.a~ AasL. A-l alAASis lAaH4-a thA
tongue In precisely tho right poaiton for The
formation Of short as In the next word.
In tho practice Of the delivery Of text
the singer should note oil details Of this
kind and store them away In bic mind for
future use. This use should be that Of
atudy only. To suppose that q singer In
ths practice Of his art must think always
Of all the rules Is absurd. Study makes
him master Of the rules. 1t does not make
them master Of him. The pianist spends
years In acquiring q correct position OF
the hnnds and fingers, but when he IL play
ing he docs not concentrate his mind on these
matters. The violinist studies long and
arduously to acquire An automatic command
Of the positions, but he does not have to
centre his thought upon them when he is
interpreting Beethoven's concerto.
The singer'a technio must in the course
OF time become automatic. The purpose OF
long study IL to perfect an .~ahtomatism
which shall be absolutely correct. Then
the singer can concentrate his mind on the
higher features OF technio, such as phras-
ing, style, dramatic expression. These
things, too, are technical. There Ia a way
to phrase and a way not 10 phrase. There
Is a way to sing lieder and another way to
sing the music OF Rossini. There is a way
to be purely and nobly dramatic, and there
is a way to be a charlatau, appealing to the
ears Of groundlings.
The earliest masters Of vocal art were
peremptory in their demands that the
text should be clearly delivered. The
theories OF Peri and Caocini, the leaders
OF the movement which resulted in the
establishment Of opera, called for a perfect
enunciation. They were engaged in An
attempt to reconstruct Italian dramatic
music on the lines Of the Greek drama,
and they laid down as the basic tenet OF
their creed the law that the music should
follow and embody the sentiment OF the
words. To sing such music so that the
words would be incomprehensible would
ave defeated their entire purpose.
But only a few years elapsed before
musicians themselves saw that the endless
recitative was not the ultimate perfection,
nor even the fundamental material Of an
artistic lyric drama. The need for muSical
design speedily made itself felt. and the
arioso re~citative Of Monteverde's 4Arianna'
was but the prelude to the rhythmic aria
Of Cavalli.
Once the aria, with It's inevitable return
to the first part, had been established as
the solar light Of opera the fidelity TO the
text soon disappeared. ana with It fed
the regard for clear and beautiful enuncia-
ton. The Italian singers came TO hold
in high esteem their pure and sonorous
yowels, because these furthered the pro-
duction Of good tones, and at the san time
these singers began to slight the c~onsonants
simply because they found these sounds
in tho way and were unable to perceive
any great merit in them.
with the development OF dramatic
music in France the demand for clear enun-
citation was reiterated, for the Frenchman
had that natural inclination for the theatre
which aroused In him a desire to hear the
speech of the actors, singing or speaking.
This demand reacted upon the Italians.
because they sought success In the French
capital.
Again the history Of opera in Germany
led toward the rehabilitation Of fine diction.
From the beginning the German loved tho
asingspiel," the opera with dialogue. He
above all men desired to know what was
going forward on the stage. He had no
use for prolonged dialogues In r~ecitative.
He demanded that they should be in speech,
and 80 they we're even to Mosart's Die
Zauberfote,' B~sethoven's "Fidelio' and
Weber's Der Freischnts.'
The Italian dramatic SCHOOL Of the early
nineteenth century was not slow to feel the
influence which was spreading over Europe,
and Rossini and his contemporaries wrote
recitatives and arias Of which the text was
intended to be heard. 1t Ii true that they
wrote others In which the words were OF
no importance. but In Italy as elsewhere
the general trend was toward that dramatic
verify which demanded that the words
should be conveyed 10 the auditors.
With the full development OF the led OF
Schubert the imperative necessity for clear
enunciation was made apparent to the entire
muaoal world. The Wagnerian drama