New-York tribune., 1918-10-20
Vocal Teacher
States His Case
BY George E. She.


that followed by the unfortunate pu-
pills of those instructors who demand
the placement Of the voice Gin tho
head,' and more head resonance;
more nasal resonance!" This leads
to mental and physical confusion on
the pupils part and to deplorable tonal
results. The saving clause in some
cases. consists in this, that nature in
slsts upon producing the voice in her
own Way-Which is not through the
nose.
We might as we'll begin by admitting
that most famous singers owe their
prominence first to their excellent
natural vocal endowment, and, after
that, to their training. This being
granted, what does the declaration Of
the nasalists amount to--the declara-
ton that most of the great singers,
as shown by the photographs of the
vibration tracings of their voices, pro-
duce their tones wrongly? 1t amounts
the wrong way!
What is nasalist? One of that
school whose cardinal belief is that tho
voice tone should resound as much in
the nasal, or head, cavities as in the
mouth-if not more! This school has
produced no singers of reputation, but
nevertheless its propaganda of error
has Influenced many teachers, particu-
larly those who are theorists rather
than practising singers with an actual
public experience. This evil concep-
tion is passed on to the long suffering
vocal students, who, like his taxpayers,
always in the last analysis pay the
cost.
But. alas, the voice students, having
paid these pipers, can themselves no
longer pipe! Their original natural
conception Of tone production has.
through their Jealous effort to get the
voice "into the head" become so
knotted that they no longer know, vo-
cally. whether they're afoot or on
horseback.
There are three speech sounds which
can be sounded only in the nose: "m,"
"n" and ing" Without nasal cavities
these sounds would not exist-just as,
without mouth, all the other speech
sounds would be impossible. If you
close the mouth and lips and hum you
c. or b, or !, or any other speech
sound, but you'll all the time be pro-
ducing m, or n, or ng. Consequently,
if the vowel you think upon cannot
modify your m. n, or ng, when you
hum, why, inversely, should m, n, or
ng modify the vowel you sing upon?
Now, if you open your mouth and con-
tinue to hum, you'll produce the eng"
sound and your soft palate will remain
low, against your tongue. But if, with
open mouth, while continuing to hum,
you will produce saw" or "Eh" (dur-
ing which vowel sounds your soft nal
ate can be obsevcd) your soft palate
will rise instantly. This is so with all
untaught singers, because it is ma
ture's way. What happens when the
soft palate lifts thus? The nasal cavi
throat and mouth, allowing the voice
to resound in these latter. This is
natures way. this is the natural
born" singers way, and the nasalists
say it is the wrong way. If by much
trial and struggle you mango to sing
with partially lowered palate, produc-
ing the awful combination Of a vowel
sound that people will go miles to
avoid hearing a second time.
The lowering of the soft palate dur
ing vowel tone gives either the "sound
in muff" or nasal quality painful to
all properly hearing ears.
Moreover, when the palate is lowered
the midway and rear tongue always
rises: This is all very. well for some
vowcls, but for others the tongue must
be low. A continually high tongue
means unintellgible vowels. If with
low palate you force the tongue also to
remain low. you get contraction, small,
ugly tone and uninteligibility.
The nasalists say "If while you sing
on vowel the stoppage of your nostrils
does not result i'll greatly diminishing
your voice volume, your production is
wrong" Exactly the contrary is true.
Stoppage of the nostris should not d.
minish the volume of a properly pro-
duccd voice. Nasality is, or ought to
be, taboo. Even as a means Of starting
the voice placement nasality is a half
measure only halfway to proper place
ment, which is further forward in the
mouth than q nasal tone can ever be-
# the nasalists were right and one
half of the voice should flow through
the nose. where, remember, only m. n
and ng can be sounded, then these three
must be mixed in with all other speech
sounds whose individuality must in
evitably be destroyed thereby and re-
duced to a formless tumble.
The distinguished educators, Taper
and Goetschius, in their "essentials Of
music history" write these words: "For
all arts, but particularly in those Of
emotional expression the voice
Of Nature herself must first speak,
hrouph the IiDs of har ;puop,,orc ,,J