Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-20
Musical

EkV OU do not sing with your
throat" said Harry Girard,
n "but with spinal column and
the cavities above the roof of your
mouth
with that a lead pencil and paper
were produced and a buried diagram
showed the vocal passages as this
singers experience has demonstrated
them to exist.
"You see," continued the teacher, 81
lost my voice once, when singing ac-
cording to the usual ideas that the
tone color was the beginning and END
of vocal production. After having Civ
en- UP all hope of ever recovering my
own vocal organ | determined to dis
cover If possible the mistakes Which
had caused it's disappearance. one OF
the noted surgeons of New York was
q personal friend, and although he
could not sing note he told me where
/ had erred in my singing, explaining
to me the science of tonality.
Naturally it was difficult to believe
that this man who had no knowledge
of music could tell me anything in re-
gard to the matter, but to prove that
his statements were correct, and 10
persuade me to adopt his rules, he took
me with him to the surgery clinics OF
the various hospitals in New York city.
There I studied the throat, lungs,
OIOuCIldl IuDGS anu NOCeil DleiiCo VI NiiS
head-in fact, the entire human anato-
my for two years, until finally real
lied that he was right"
would it be possible to explain a
little something about those ideas for
the benefit of The Herald's readers?,
'Well, to be very brief, the general
facts are lust these: Most vocal teach
ers are endeavoring to produce color in
the voices of their pupils instead OF the
fundamental principle, resonance
VOICE is RESONANCE, not color,
voice being the act of resonating Vi
brated breath on the main sounding
board of the human body, namely, the
spinal column, from its base clear up
through the pharynx into the head
plates. Once pupil acquires this trick
In singing all others are easy"
Mr.. Girard explained that it required
about two months of practice along
these lines before he recovered the use
of his own voice, and that even then
the recovery was so unusual that ne
hardly dared to incorporate the idea
of his own teaching until after several
years experience had continuously
demonstrated that the application of
these principles of science in singing
gave the required results.
For the summer months Mr.. Girard
time will be largely occupied with his
duties as director of the musical stock
company which is to hold the boards
at the Majestic theater, but he hopes
to remain in Los Angeles for some time,
long enough at least to complete a
light opera now under way, and also
a heavier symphonic work begun before
he wrote the music to "The Alaskan"
which interfered temporarily at least
with the undertaking of the more ser1-
Gus froms of musical composition.
s.
The opening concert of the United
Singers festival took place last night
in New York when monster chorus
of 1000 voices sang the chorus parts
of Max Bruchs Fair Ellen" assisted
by Mrs. Corinne Rider-Kelsey, soprano,
and Claude Cunningham, baritone.
This afternoon has been set aside by
the committee for the school ohildren's
concert, which is to be given by a
chorus of over 5000 voices, which have
been selected from the different high
and elementary schools of Manhattan