The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1909-04-15

A Department of Questions and Ans
wers, through which music lovers and
students of music may be brought in co
intact with one of the foremost teach
in music, either vocal or instrumental,
may submit questions to Mr. Gerard-Th
iers. The only requirements are that
they be concise and to the point. written
in good faith and signed by the senders
They will be answered through this dep
artment only, as promptly as possible
and in the order received, the editors re
serving the right to select such as they
deem of sufficient Importance. All let
ters should be addressed to Mr.. Albert
:, Gerard-Thiers, in care of The Stark Co
unity Democrat.
Breathy Tonc
| have a brother who has fine
baritone voice but it is very breathy.
What can he do to cure this defect?
G. j. M.
Breathy tone is caused BY the escape
of more breath than is needed. For the
production of tone take a deep breath at
he base of the lungs, expanding the in
feror costal ribs, the diaphragm drawn
in; then commence to blow through an
inch long piece of clay pipe, like those
used by children in blowing bubbles, as
slowly as possible, so that the expulsion
of air will be absolutely uniform and
scarcely detected by the hand placed
before the orifice of the pipe, care being
taken not to exhaust entirely This must
be a part of every days practice many
times repeated say five minutes at q
control is gained and breathy tone cor
rected.
The italian Method.
| have read of the Italian method
of voice production but never could
find teacher who could or would en-
tighten me about it. My teacher in
Paris, whom l asked about it, gave
a long dissertation on the greatness
of his own method and finished by
saying he was the only one teaching
the Italian method, but carefully
evaded my question. l went from
studio to studio but each professor
had absolutely different ideas about
it, yet each claimed to be teaching
it. Your answer will interest many
of our vocal students. NJ l..
Your experience has been the same as
mine and 1 do not believe there is such
thing as an Italian method The most
perfect method of tone production is pro-
longed, uncnanging vowels, propelled by
consonants, free from contraction of any
part of the vocal organs Every word,
every syllable of the Italian language,
with few exceptions, begins with a con-
sonant and ends with pure, unchang-
ing vo"el; it fulhlls the fundamental
conditions of the production in itself
without method.
Good Soprano Songs
Will you kindly give list of about
ten good songs for a soprano voice?
| want high-grade songs by Ameri-
can composers. M. L.
am glad you want songs by American
composers; the American song writer's
rank second to none. The following Is
a selected list which think you Will
"Haymaking," Alicia Needham.
Ecstasy" Mrs. II. H. A. Beach.
Love Has Wings" ]. II. Rogers.
Twas April" Nevins.
"He Was a Prince" Lynes.
"Sunbeams," Ronald
"Open Secret" Woodman
Sweetheart" Lynes.
Irish Love Song" Lang.
operate Salaries
/ live in small town where 1t is
hard to believe the stories of the
enormous salaries paid to the oper-
attic stars in New York Do you
know anything about this? A. A.
Do not believe all you hear on this sub
tect. The singing art is, to some extent,
influenced by personal vanity so that, in
some instances, the management makes
two contracts, one for advertising pur-
poses and the other for the artist. You
are safe in accepting about one-half of
what you read in the press agents no
tices.
"saIIy in Our Ally"
At a musical lecture given in our
town recently the lecturer made the
astounding assertion that the song,
"Sally in Our Alley" was the joint
work of Carey and Ludwig Won Bee
thoven. Can you give me any in
Black, a Scotch music publisher and
dealer in Edinburgh, hearing that Lud-
wig Won Beethoven was in need, sent