The Richmond palladium. (Richmond, Ind.) 1906-1907, 1906-09-02

Method" One of the first question.
asked me in Richmond was: DO yoJ
teach the old Italian method?" Nov
frankly, very little is known of TIL:
lold Italian method. The greatest o.
the old Italian teachers left no printed
rules. The Italian school has Away.
rested almost entirely on traditions
handed down orally from teacher tC
pupil And it can be readily seen that
what was originally the Italian me
lthod has in each successive transmits
sion from teacher to pupil. been col
ored by the light of that teachers ex
perience.
The greatest achievement of the
Old Italian Method and doubtless the
most perfect vocalist of the age was
Nine. Patti. Her voice was -ull, rich
and Iiquid-perfect as regards beauty
of tone and fiexibifity. She would
change from high to low note
from piano to a forte gradually or
suddenly with perfect ease. In her
early career the abundance of uncalled
| for scales, trills and staccatos she
sang, maintaining the sensuous beauty
| of her tone and facility of execution,
would by their mere technical difficult
| ty appal most modern singers. There
are still many admirers of this style
of singing who think it worth while
for a vocalist to spend many years of
arduous toll in learning to execute
fioriture which a yiolinist could learn
TO play in a few weeks. A style of
text than the flutes or violins do is
IL
doned forever. Lovers of vocal tight
rope dancing" and thread-bare orches-
trail accompaniment, who insist that
Wagner is merely fashion" and
that ere long we will return to the
sacchaine melodies of Rossini and
Verdi have not studied the history of
Opera Rossini and Verdi themsel-
yes expressed their opinion of writ
ing their best and most mature
works in style approaching that
of genuine dramatic song, and with
scarcely trace of colorature And
the history of opera and song. has
always gone hand in hand
Now fiexibility and sensuous beauty
of tone are very desirable things in
music. Chopin's valses lose half their
characteristic beauty if played on a
poor piano, or by one who does not
use the pedal in such a way as to
produce a continuous stream of rich
saturated sound. The Italians de-
serve great praise for their proficien-
cy in producing beautiful tone. But
all Characterization, dramatic effect
variety of tone-colour are bartered
away for sensuous beauty of tone. The
criticism of the German school is that
it barters away all beauty of tone for
dramatic effects, and this is the diff
ference between the Italian and the
German styles of singing. The Ital-
ian sings for the pleasure Of the thing
itself. The German makes his song
the means of definite emotional ey-
preston. In striving for emotional
tone colour, the German does often
lose all beauty of tone. But the Ger
mans are more robust than the 1tal-
ians, with more powerful voices, and
their climate is conducive TO frequent
throat trouble, so that the gift Of mel
low, supple song does not come ID
them naturally. Then German teach
ers have foolishly tried to adapt the |
voices of their pupils TO the Italian |
bel canto which is Incompatible with
the German language. 1t will never |
be possible to sing in the German |
language so sweetly as iii the Italian. |
Cosmopolitan Vocal School.
If / had the time l should like to I
ell you how the cosmopolitan vocal /
school of America has recOnciled the |
German with the Italian, the French /
with the English vocal schools The T
italian method is good as far as it
goes. For purity of tone, portomento,
scales, trills and facile yocalization it
s unequalled. But the modern roman
ic and dramatic spirit demands more
vigor, soulful accen-
uation. The Italian school gives us
he mellow, sonorous voice, to which
he German method adds conscien-
iousness, passion and distinctness of
and adapting its mel
'dic accent to its word accent, makes
he melody heighten the effect of the
ext as does that of the sketch in
PAINTING.
And since the English language and
english character have much more of h
ierman yigor and masculine strength
han ofItalian Incidence, the English
-ocal Style of the future must inexi-
ably be modelled after the German
Wy