The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-24

MRS. CLARA H
 modern singers and teachers regretting the passing of the old time ballad and tuneful English songs.
 Indeed
 The majority of American singers get smattering of English songs and later with superficial knowledge of the lan- guages, they trill and tra-la-la dinifrar- ently the new fangled things until people fairly long for something that is seal- something that is tangible, something that can be understood.
 Music makes men and women better. It has civilizing influence. It is said that it even cures certain kinds of diseases.
 But
 It must be the right sort of music. The majority care very little for the
 high vocal gymnastics and pyrotechnes
 as much as they dc real music. After all, when you stop to think of it, it isn't the musical productions rem
 dered by famous artists that people re-
 member and whose echoes return to them in after years, but the simple songs that they themselves sang with untrained voices, and perhaps n-faulty tune, or the songs they heard at home or in little
 social gatherings.
 The ballad that we listened to In our
 early youth, the beautiful hymns that
 make the background of our religious
 fervor, are never those sung by church
 choir, although these are very beautiful,
 but by the mother of our heart, in her gentle. simple, quivering voice ah! golden wondrous memory! l The rollicking choruses-the part
 songs," and the sentimental ballads give
 more pleasure than the great stirring
 things sung by noted artists. in Ian
 guage that we cannot understand-that we cannot comprehend
 l The heart as we'll as the head, is a ! very important element in the employ
 ment of music.
 The prime donna songs may not touch the emotions, while that of 'home' singer guiitless of art. but singing from the pure love of music. may fill the audi
 tor with peace and joy abiding. Of course everybody likes cultivated
 voice--in fact there is no excuse for any body who wants to sing these days not to possess one-for there are many ex- cellent teachers-and so many splendid artists to learn from and the cultivated voice, next to the natural god-giyen sweet ness of a voice is more to be desired then anything else, musically. To Birmingham has recently come Mrs. Clara Harper Steele and in the hand some Cable-Shelby-Bur building has opened studio.
 Mrs. Steele will teacf. vocal music. and with her appealing personality, and her cultivation, her intellect and her charm, she will no doubt make an enviable place for herself in the musical world here. Mrs. Steele is very interesting to talk to-all enthusiasm and vivacity, all wo- manliness and grace-and after chatting with her a few minutes about her work and plans, you go away with decided leaning toward her way of thinking namely, that foundation" for the good old English songs, is the most important ia ctor in a singers success. "A plea for better English songs is ycur slogan" I suggested to Mrs. Steele, after a brief prelude to our conversation. "Yes," said Mrs. steel, T believe that our American singers, if they mastered their own language, their own songs, and then acquired the foreign lan- guages afterward would make far more progress in art than by reversing the
  lecting the most important factor in their work"
 Foundation is tho theme that I harp on constantly" Mrs. Steele continued. .aThat is my forte, foundation. voice placing and tone production. My own voice. fortunately, possesses absolute pitch But you know that there are more Woices spoiled because of a lack | of foundation than any other one thing Especially is this true of the American girl who goes abroad to study. They 1 go to the cig teachers who haven't time | to bother with the elemental things in voice work and they have a pupil singing the big 'arias and 'recitatives' | in a short time and before you know 1t l the voice Is ruined. It takes years and years to place the voice. to build a I foundation: after that, the singer can | do anything. During the building a mastery f English, and the beautiful English songs can be acquired, and while the voice may not be as showy during that time as later, still the foundation is there and cannot be re- moved.
 | I've seen young singer go to a big | teacher or, worse still. a coach. and in less than six months sing the most diffi- cult things in the showiest sort of way, and everything seemed to be going beau- tifully but alas, the voice had no foun-
 
 the result was that many singers have practically had to give up work on ac- count of oversstrain and overtaxing the voice. young singer will attempt things l that an experienced singer wouldn't dare. and frequently because they have rot been taught how to take care of the voice. what to do and more especially what not to do. That is one of the things that I make speciality of. teach ing the singer how to take care of the voice once it is placed."
 'Tell me about your studies and why you chose to be teacher rather than g public singer" I asked.
 "T have sung all my life" said Mrs. Steele. "Inerely because I've loved music. T didn't ever mean to be a professional l teacher or singer until some years ago went out to California. where I met Grace Matthewson Tyndall pupil of George Sweets. She took a great interest l in my voice and after studying with her a year I decided to go to New York.
 went and began my studies with Percy