Scan 12
Musical Courier 1894-12-12: Vol 29 Iss 770, 1894
76 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026. Printed page 11. See the scan on archive.org.
A town on its own line is one of the directory's headings. That is where the town on a maker's page comes from.
1MUSICAL PROGRESS
3PARIS.
5WITH WHOM SHALL I STUDY WHEN I GO TO PARIS?
7VOCAL study is a good deal like marriage, the right people exist for each other no doubt somewhere, but look at the wrecks of wedded happiness meantime.
9Answers written personally to this question would make a bridge to Staten Island.
11Were the question "With whom shall I study to become an artist, to attain excellence?" the answer would be simple enough. When, in eight cases out of ten, it means: "Who will put me before the public the quickest?" the subject becomes complex and difficult.
13It is perfectly idle to ask this of pupils. They invariably answer, with their professor. Those interested through friendship or money considerations are equally prejudiced. The wisest person, without knowing the details of the voice seeking instruction, cannot possibly counsel. Each one must find out for himself and for herself.
15Paris is full of students who have been looking for the right teacher many years and have not yet succeeded. I know girls here who have spent from three to seven years, a fortune, and almost all their musical spirit in the search. Some still pursue it, following every new name they hear; some have been obliged to return home; some are wrecks.
17Some of them have had voice, some still have, some never did and never will have. Some have been stupid and could not apply instruction. Many have missed it through not finding the right teacher. In many cases it has been the teacher's fault; more often it has been that of the pupil.
19Only this afternoon a San Francisco girl told me that, for the first time in seven years, she had found the one to do her one particle of good. She is improving rapidly under the instruction, is happy and content at last; but see the waste!
21Before coming to Paris, or asking anybody else anything, ask yourself:
221. What do I want to do with my voice?
232. How much time have I to give to its cultivation?
243. How much money have I, and what prospect of its continuance?
254. What have I to show that I am worth what it must cost?
27Were there a judicious and disinterested jury appointed to decide the last of these for all aspirants to vocal honor, one-half of the trouble would be settled at the start.
29You have sung before friends and been praised. What can you do (at home) before a severer test? Have you a voice that makes unknown people open windows, run to doors, ask neighbors and tell friends to hear you? Does the applause that follows your song come down with a splash, or with a patter? Would the audience be late to dinner rather than miss your last song on the program? Have you talent—ear, memory, instinct?
31Of course some singers have made fiascos at one time who have made successes later, but it was not lack of talent that was the matter but lack of a proper steering of the talent. But there are girls here in Paris to-day, and no doubt girls in America planning to come to Paris, who are hopelessly unqualified for art careers and who persist in following them, receiving just enough applause to bait them on to disappointment.
33I have heard concert applause given in halls in New York that ought to have been enough to stop any thought of career there and then. If you cannot move people at home, no Paris training will ever make you able to do it. Think well who gave you the praise you have received, and think what kind the praise was that makes you want to come to Paris. If satisfactory try a higher test at home. Sing before disinterested people, alone or together. Sing before some man who has money to make through you.
35If you will not do this, give it up and do something else. If you simply please in a negative sort of way without stirring or interesting, study for home and friends. If you can always stir and interest—can raise the roofs of hearts and houses—you are entitled to the best cultivation if you want it.
37Passing the question of what you can do at home for your "best cultivation," suppose you are in Paris for study, what is it that you want?
39Do you need your voice placed? Do you need the power to express with your body? Does your voice need repair? Is yours a parlor or a public voice? Are you seeking French diction and style, or good concert work in all languages? Do you want coaching in répertoire, or simply introduction to French managers?
41Be your own jury and decide lots of things. Decide not only what you want to do, but what you are fit for.
43If you have a dramatic voice and a little bit of a body, that ends Lady Macbeth work, does it not? If you have big hips and head and a sober long nosed face, that settles the Buttercup series, no matter what your voice may be, or what any "friend" may say.
45Well, first seek the teachers who are engaged in the specialty you desire. No teacher can do all, no matter how conscientious, and French teachers especially do not attempt it. One who loves voice placing and can endure scales and trills and syllables is seldom one to feel the love pangs of "Ophelia" or train to the savagery of "Carmen." One whose soul is tuned to sentiment cannot do justice to the "bra, bre, bri" of enunciation.
47Much time here is wasted by girls whose voices are already well placed, following right along with teachers in that line, when what they need is waking up, shaking up, limbering up.
49"You see she just sings, that's all!" said an ennuied gentleman last evening at a lyric action class. The girl was going through the gestures as directed, but all her attention was on her notes, and so dead and lifeless was her body that she just sang, that was all!
51What most girls really need is face massage—something to loosen up their mouths and cheeks and make them less "masky" and more limber. So many American girls have such pretty little, prim, bird-nesty mouths, their pearly little teeth scarcely moving inside them, such still places under their eyes and such immovable eyebrows that expression is hopeless.
53I saw three such faces in a vocal class yesterday. I saw a diction teacher work five minutes with a girl to get her to drop her jaw in saying "je t'aime." She could not; she just moved it out a trifle, making the sound "je t'eeme." I heard a wise man say he did not believe any woman could sing impressively with one of those pretty little faces. They can do nothing but bat their eyes!
55After knowing what you need, it is well to see many teachers of that specialty, hear them teach and talk with them.
57Aside from knowledge and power to impart it, half of a teacher's power is the appeal to the pupil's nature.
59The woman who just suits your brunette cousin, whose temperament demands force and all that represents it, will not be at all the one for your gentle, timid blonde tints and fine lines. There are talkative teachers, reserved teachers, teachers who dictate, teachers who flirt, and teachers who force information into their pupils. A jumping-jack in a studio could never teach Jane anything. The self-contained, silent professor next door could do just as little with Mary. The cooing pattings of Madame N. would make no impression upon Nellie, but Emma must have them.
61Again, you cannot judge of a teacher's ability by her "stars," but by the average equality of her class. No matter if she points at her walls to portraits of her dear Etoiles-telle-et-telle, A-B-C. See rather if the imprint of her education is on five out of seven of her pupils. If so, she is a teacher.
63Even with the best judgment it is still difficult, this search for the right teacher. I know four American girls, of about equal sense and voice, who have taken from the same teacher. One took four years without change or supplement of any other vocal teacher and is a successful professional singer. Another, just ready for her début, is satisfied that the four years she has taken under the same were wisely spent; she has a lovely vocal emission and diction and a sound throat. Of the other two, one after two years found she had no voice whatever—could not even speak aloud. The other simply stood still after eighteen months, and changed at the end of two years.
65Many pupils are not willing simply to be led to perfection by a teacher. They must be coaxed and petted along the way or they leave. Some must be fed on praise. The instant the teacher stops saying nice things they become discontented and go where someone has told Jenny so-and-so. Some want the stage held close before their eyes in order to be able to study, as one must hold an apple before a pony to lead him to the bridle. Some want to have the time set when they will be able to sing in public or be "through." Some argue and contest points with their teachers. Pupils who give themselves unreservedly into the hands of their teachers are indeed rare.
67Once you decide the question of where you shall study, better put it aside. If you keep on the constant lookout to do better you rob your teacher of much of her power—your confidence—and you become discontented.
69"Americans always seem like birds on a branch," said one teacher. "I always feel as if they were ready to fly. A teacher must plan for the pupil she educates. I cannot apply my experience to their cases. I can only pick out little scraps of knowledge here and there and throw to them—on the wing!"
71"Running around" is universally decried here by teachers, artists, and all serious students. It stands to reason that it is not wise.
73One thing certain, do not decide to take up any teacher just because she promises you an engagement at such and such a time, or when you are ready. No teacher can get you an engagement, not even the wife of a director. Anyone who promises you this is not a wise choice, as it is an indication of insincerity in all things. A teacher may introduce a singer, it is true, to a manager, but no manager is going to risk his money on any singer unless she is valuable and he needs her. It does not require a teacher's influence to get such a position.
75If you want a French début, do not take of a foreigner. Better take of one who cannot speak a word but French, and it must be the best of French, too. You can do nothing with a Paris manager without diction, and even in concert you are only laughed at. The French do not care for dramatic effect, but finesse they must have. It is their nature. There is no finesse in a brogue. I saw a
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