Scan 14
Musical Courier 1897-07-14: Vol 35 Iss 906, 1897
32 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 15. 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.
1M. T. N. A.
2PAPERS READ AT THE RECENT CONVENTION.
3(CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK.)
4The Mental and Physical Tone.
5BY FLORENZA D'ARONA.
6PART SECOND.
7WHEN we hear a quality good or bad we must recognize the causes.
8The different opinions regarding voices which send many good singers into seclusion and exalt inferior ones come from the fact that people do not hear alike. They do not detect the cause of a vocal tone being dull or shrill or unmanageable, or why one tone is beautiful and another ugly or less carrying. By becoming acquainted with the remarkable differences and various stages of the ordinary ear's development will account for the contrary opinions of critics, musicians, &c., regarding the merits or demerits of a singer. How many go to the opera to hear what they in their limited knowledge consider beautiful tones; instead of knowing the composer and the composition, and being prepared to concentrate attention upon the qualities of tone that are to faithfully bring out the character of the role, they lash the artist without mercy who makes the sense of the word and tone to fit, if it so happens to be a terrible role (a Borgia, for instance), and the singer does not use the liquid, pearly tones of a Lucia. Were she to do so they would instinctively feel that something was wanting and would sum it up as lack of "temperament." The general idea regarding the voice is what is termed a "lovely quality," and it generally means the quality most fitted for a lullaby. Judgment of this kind is not the education of the ordinary musician.
9It does not suffice to be a singer or a musician to be accurate in the judgment of sounds, to say nothing of the shades of the sounds. The work of the ear is analogous to that of the eye. If the eye of the colorist must be cultivated to a degree unknown by the ordinary mortal, the ear of the singer and that of the critic should be made more than ordinarily sensible to the analysis of the qualities in the singing tone. One quality of tone, no matter how rich in overtones it may be, is totally inadequate to the artist. The pretty, sweet quality has its line of work, but it is a very narrow and limited line compared to the command of all those qualities which will enable the singer to reach the seat of feeling and portray every emotion, idea and phase of character of which man is capable.
10There are millions of beautiful voices, but how many singers have we heard whose monotony of tone quality has wearied us to the very marrow of our bones? How many are there to-day who thrill and touch our hearts in one composition, pelt us with mirth inspiring climaxes in another, fascinate us with a dreamy delicacy of beauty in another—in a word, will sing a most difficult or a most simple ballad with wealth of tone color, volume or quaint simplicity, all according to the character of the composition? It may be argued that voice culture will do this, or that temperament covers the ground. Not at all. Neither one nor both are sufficient to make the great singer.
11Temperament, the would-be artist must have, and in nine cases out of ten, can have, if aroused. Few are so hard and so cold as they would have us believe. No, temperament without a well-balanced mind, highly cultivated ear, a finely educated musical intelligence and taste, is like a wild thoroughbred horse. It needs the discipline of a master to show it off. Temperament needs to be controlled by that mental part of us which has realized science and art and developed them to the highest degree of faithful sensitiveness. The mind must manufacture a net large enough to contain and give to temperament just as much scope as the artistic meshes of truth and beauty will permit.
12What is sentiment with an unbalanced mind but insanity? What is affection, uncontrolled, but a disease? Are not our most sacred feelings ludicrous if displayed upon wrong occasions, out of time and place? So much for unbridled temperament. Knowledge can only be acquired by observation of differences. It is because of light that we are aware of darkness, and it is because of heat we understand cold. All knowledge is relative. We must distinguish before we can recognize and analyze. Wagner wrote chords that jarred upon the ear and offended the taste of great musicians even. Hundreds of musicians and vocalists cannot see, even to-day, any beauty in Wagner's music, or Brahms'. This is not a matter of taste, but degrees of musical intelligence and the difference in the education of the ear. The difference is one of degree, not one of kind. We do not all hear alike, so it is impossible to acquire the same perfection of tone or form the same judgments of the tones of others, singly or in combination. One musical man will derive pleasure from the sounds of a hand organ. Another can enjoy nothing less than a symphony.
13Then comes the development of taste. Taste will choose the dress that an idea, a thought or an emotion is to be presented in. Therefore taste can be as much at fault in song as it is in dress. A display of bad taste by one having volume and beauty of voice is as inappropriate as ugly clothes upon the back of a millionaire. Yet strange as the assertion may seem even the despised tremolo has its place in the storehouse of artistic tone qualities. For instance, when the body should be supposed to tremble, the tone should tremble. Fright, feebleness or despair given with a strong, firm tone is just as much out of place as a tremolo used all the time. Yet the tremolo is no more to be condemned than the employment of other misplaced qualities which are so much misused and abused. Many qualities necessary to the grand opera stage, for instance, are out of place and perfectly ridiculous in concert. The trouble lies in not understanding that the voice must not have one quality, but as many qualities as there are emotions. They are as necessary to each and every vocal artist as a complete box of paints is to the painter.
14We know that the physical qualities of a singer differ widely. But the wealth and variety of quality to be obtained by each voice, when once the ear's cultivation is taken into consideration, is phenomenal. Now, what I term "the physical tone" is not the so-called physical quality of a voice. "The physical tone" is produced by a conscious physical effort instead of a conscious mental effort. This physical tone can come from too great consciousness of the parts comprising the vocal apparatus, or from a great desire to aid the voice to do its work, ignoring mental labor in favor of physical labor.
15Scientists agree that many causes may produce a similar effect. These several causes are what bewilder a pupil. Because the effect for a time seems to proceed from the same cause it takes time and patience for a pupil to distinguish the vital differences. Again, some singers know so well what takes place when phonating that it becomes a great bur to ever producing pure tone. Now, what I mean by pure tone is not the "simple tone" which physiologists frequently term the pure tone, and which is meant by them as a tone without overtones; but what I mean by a pure tone is any tone, from any voice, that is absolutely pure, and purity of tone means what it means in everything else in life—unadulteration.
16This is a tone whose primitive vibrations find their strength and beauty in their affinities, vibrations which have touched the keynote of their resonance chambers and found free and adequate reinforcement there, without depending upon or touching interfering and marring agencies. This tone has nothing to do with quality. Any perfect instrument can produce a pure tone, but each instrument has its own particular quality.
17Purity of tone in each and every quality used must be recognized by the ear before the mind will memorize it.
18Good enunciation is an important study for the singer. The larynx is not only the organ of singing, but of speech. Speech is controlled by the mind. The incentive to speech even is not stimulated by the muscles; no amount of conscious muscle movement will make us pronounce words, or even letters. Would a child, if taught where to place its tongue, lips, jaw, &c., to pronounce words, ever learn to speak fluently? Could we acquire a foreign language in that way? From the brain to the larynx the same nerves are employed to incite our voices, whether in singing or speaking.
19The nerves which control the voice and the aural nerve also meet at the same brain centre. The ear is even more faithful than our judgments. The ear will often detect a sound that reason alone would not admit, but hearing it we confess that it must be so. Tone colors and their finer shades must be heard. Mentality then recognizes them, memorizes them, and at once commences to give instructions to taste in the employment of them. All who set themselves up as critics should be able to distinguish a pure tone, and not confound "taste" (in the use of qualities) with the voice itself. These can be cultivated, and in each instance will show themselves individually characteristic; taste is then employed in the blending of them. In this particular alone, viz., taste in the use of qualities, should there ever be left room for criticism.
20At present the majority of singers, critics and teachers recognize but two qualities in the singing voice, viz., sombre and clair, where in the sense of words they intuitively realize many. The elocutionist must vary his voice to suit the character he is representing. Loudness and softness, emphasis and pauses are but points of expression; they are feeble shades compared with the complete change of voice necessary for individual representation, which combines the various ideas and emotions of mankind.
21The singer, as well as the speaker, is expected to bring out clear thoughts with his words.
22Reality is always to be found by looking inward, not outward. In "the mental and physical tone" don't imagine two separate essences, but a unity, with this difference, that the mental must control the physical. Imagine real progress which at each step produced less and less mind! Psychology is the science of mind. Fechner, Helmholtz, Wundt and their followers analyzed sense impression and called it sensation. Sensations, therefore, are facts, and a pupil should be taught to associate them in consciousness so as to discriminate and realize the causes for the differences in sensations. Sensations after analyses can be synthetized into a perfect system. It is the mind which creates, thinks, knows, suffers and enjoys. The mind has produced all our paintings, poems, literatures, languages, architecture, governments, religions, sciences, and the mind is to us the most important fact in the universe, for without mind what would be the universe? Take away our mind and what would there be left?
23Educate the mind, and the voice will respond so as to often awaken an otherwise dormant temperament. Instead of the emotion suggesting the qualities of the voice, the qualities will often touch the keynote and arouse the emotions. Your voice you must enjoy yourself, then others will enjoy it. Analyze it, realize it, and make it yours; then pour out your knowledge from your brain, from your heart. Let thought tingle with every drop of your blood until it fills every pore of your body. Fill the mind with correct thoughts. Tempt them out day by day. Never mind failures; they are quite natural. The voice would not be worth having if it were not for the struggle. Never mind the struggles, the mistakes. Persevere and you will succeed, for thought alone is the propelling force in each and all of us.
24AMATI VIOLINS—Two genuine Amati violins—one Hieronimus and the other Nicolas—for sale. Address genuine letters only to "Violin," care of this paper. They are the property of an artist, not of a collector or dealer.
25ANTONIA H. SAWYER, CONTRALTO.
26ADDRESS:
27The Musical Courier,
28NEW YORK.
29OTTO LOHSE, CONDUCTOR.
30Address until September (when Mr. Lohse returns to the United States):
31Kloster Allee 10, HAMBURG, Germany.
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