Scan 28
Musical Courier 1898-06-22: Vol 36 Iss 955, 1898
34 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 29. See the scan on archive.org.
1injury, but if correctly guided will be conducive to health, and it is the scientific use of chords and muscles that make us sing correctly. When these orchestra and chorus directors keep to their work and piano teachers to their line, then we may hear less ridiculous singing and fewer disappointed vocalists.
3How few sing German songs as they should be sung. Klafsky was an ideal Wagnerian singer. She understood the true school of voice work, for in tone, strength and dramatic action she was true to nature. Put Klafsky in a human part and forthwith it began to throb with human feeling. She gave to the listener what the great composer intended. By her method she told the truth which filled the soul: the equal development of poetry and music; artistic unity. Wagner wrote the music as content and meaning demanded. Consequently it required an artist to interpret the artist, and Klafsky, with a lace brim full of vivacity, conveyed to her hearers the heartfelt sympathy she feels with the work in hand: pathos, fire, exuberant tenderness. It may be that Klafsky had studied with German teachers, but if so her natural method was so strong that she sang in spite of them, for the naturally poised voices are the only ones that can defy their forcing methods.
5The German teacher gives German songs to all pupils regardless of quality of voice, regardless of all artistic taste. When pupils are ready for Wagner they should sing, not screech. Their volume should be of the pure, certain kind, and no matter how much action or power may be demanded, the mind should keep to the composer's thoughts and still give out to the audience musical tone. Nothing in music is presentable unless artistically rendered. Nothing can take the place of music in the way of refining and elevating, and people should look into the matter more seriously. Think of the youthful singers whose voices in singing sound as though they were about 100 years old, just because our country accepts so many uneducated vocal teachers. Four-fifths of the world seem to think there is nothing at all scientific in the study of singing. Pupils of chorus teachers imagine themselves teachers, and communities flock to them without questioning their knowledge, and the conscienceless teacher takes their dollars and laughs at his own cunning.
7A man or woman who destroys the tone quality in a voice has much to answer for, as men and women who possess good voices may lose an opportunity of doing much, and many times the gift of song is the only talent they possess which could be turned to remuneration. The artistic singer can easily get from $50 to $4,000 per night, but bad training can render a voice incapable of anything but occasioning ridicule. Another May festival German chorus director in a city of about 75,000, and who was at that time director of a conservatory and teacher of voice, gave out in his catalogue that the Italian method was inadequate for singing of German songs, ballads, Italian opera, in fact everything; but he added that he knew how to teach the Italian method, but preferred the German, a kind of "hey hi hum" method. At any rate he said it was an improvement on the Italian; it was new (new spring style, I suppose). A lady from a small neighboring town began studying with him. As her voice in testing ran below middle C he decided she was a contralto. In one year's time I attended their recital and imagine my surprise to hear that beautiful soprano voice croaking on low tones while her deluded friends were congratulating her on the change and saying, "How fortunate that you could be a contralto when contraltos are so scarce, and how few teachers were capable of changing a soprano into a contralto," and I marveled.
9The second year the unnatural course of struggling to do something and not knowing what continued, until someone must have suggested that possibly her voice was soprano, so he began the "soprano lessons" which I presume were not at all like the "contralto lessons." But the manner in which he went to work cultivating that voice was amazing and exceedingly mysterious. At the end of three years she graduated. (I have always suspected that the diploma read: Warranted to sing either contralto or soprano with or without tremolo). The graduating song was not an aria or anything that one expects from three years' constant work, but a simple song sung with a cheap throat tremolo, harsh and unmusical—in fact void of everything artistic. All were impressed with the thought that she had tried to sing but could not. There was scarcely anything left of the beautiful soprano voice which I had so much admired three years before.
11Her voice was not naturally poised and there were many faults which should have been eradicated in the beginning. So she required a teacher who knew how to set her aright in order to bring out the hidden beauties of tone. When I hear her singing ridiculed I think of the teacher who was the sole cause and who charged $50 per term for such work for three years. At the very start I pointed out to the mother the error of such training, but a very classical school teacher who could not sing a tune or play an instrument told her that he was the fad and with many a fad is preferable to the genuine. So the daughter sings away and those who sing in the same senseless, unmusical way think she sings beautifully, while those who know how to sing pity her.
13This German professor of several things (he composes too) read an article on voice culture at a musical assembly. Think of it! A teacher who does the kind of work I have just described, who cannot distinguish a baritone from a tenor, a mezzo from a contralto, whose pupils sing with trembling, harsh and uncertain tones, assuming the airs of a voice educator. Where did that article come from—that is, who wrote it? Where did he get it? And what was sadder still this article was copied in a musical magazine as a production of this professor. So people reading this article were led to believe that he was an authority. Is it any wonder that he does not hesitate to take dollars even though he never sent out one singer who did not either screech or mumble their words, sing guttural or with tremolo? The majority of people seem to think that if one can lead a chorus, drill an orchestra or compose, they must certainly understand voice training, when in reality chorus training is the greatest evidence of their lack of knowledge in managing the individual voice, because if one does really understand the delicacy of the human voice they are interested in keeping it sweet and musical and any musician who says that the average chorus and choir singing is not injurious to artistic tone work has no conception of the artistic and his or her ideas are not worthy of any consideration. None of my teachers ever led an orchestra or a chorus, never taught in a conservatory. They were independent teachers and pupils of independent teachers, consequently they had never graduated or never gave out a diploma, but their pupils sang beautifully so that a recommend from them was quite sufficient.
15Albani, Litti, Patti, Eames, Melba, Nordica, Nilsson, Calvé, Malibran, Thursby, Sims Reeves, De Reszké, Campanari and others were not heralded as graduates from any conservatory. Every one was advertised as a pupil of independent teachers. This is not said through any disparagement of conservatory work but as a gentle hint to those living in country towns who seem to think that the graduate and possessor of a diploma has all that is necessary when in reality the graduate may be not in any way qualified to do artistic singing. In cultured communities the word graduate (so far as singing goes) has very little significance.
17To be sure we have vocal teachers at the head of conservatories both in Europe and America who have acquired a name, but perhaps if you would look into the matter scientifically you might ascertain that some of these famous madams and masters have acquired their fame through the great, beautiful voices, naturally poised, who would sing well though they never saw a teacher. And upon further inquiry you might be surprised to ascertain that some pupils who had serious faults to overcome presented themselves to these madams and masters and found these famous teachers not equal to the emergency, so they were obliged to seek elsewhere for a teacher who understood something beside startling embellishments.
19Imagine a pupil with a good voice not naturally poised racing up and down the scales as though a mad dog was in pursuit; then all of a sudden a composition of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms or Bohm is given them to study to sing. Such ridiculous singing sounds as though it was an outburst of a "bomb" instead of a Bohm creation. Another German professor says a lady cannot teach a gentleman, as the pupil must have a "big" chest voice to imitate. Cultivation which depends upon imitation never fails to produce a lot of parrot-like singers, for those who have no method and whose singing is not based upon scientific principles usually imitate every cheap singer who appears in light opera or church choir. When one has no rule of what permanent use is imitation, only to make you feel for the time being that you are right and the next day to find yourself at sea?
21As I have often stated in previous articles, method is method whether it comes from madam or master. The majority of German teachers grope in the dark as to method. The only real knowledge seems to be in charging and the public enjoy the delusion because it is foreign. The sooner these bombastic ideas are placed where they belong the better it will be for America's music. Our Americans have beautiful voices and our American men and women are the ones that should train them, but if we must have foreigners give us the English, French or Italian.
23A superintendent of public schools (an American of German descent) after listening to the songs preparatory to closing day exercises said: "Now, children, you will notice many of our songs are by German composers, in fact our great composers are German, and our greatest singers are Germans. No one is considered a singer until one has perfected the German method and no other country accepts singers as artists until they have been recognized as such in Germany. What we Americans call music, they consider trash."
25It has often been remarked that this superintendent is in no way qualified to fill the position, but it is to be hoped that his knowledge of singing is his weakest point, or he could not possibly distinguish an algebra from a gymnasium apparatus. If he should in his leisure moments (and he must have any amount of leisure) write the names of some of these German singers who are superior to Patti, Eames, Calvé, Melba, Nordica, Albani, Nevada, Sims Reeves, Myron Whitney, de Reszké, Campanini, Campanari and similar "trash," it would be such an education to the children and a great revelation to the "grown up" as well.
27On account of being "educated up to such a ridiculous pitch," this superintendent receives $3,000 per year. American children should not hear such nonsense, and if superintendents cannot have the advantage of vocal training they should at least read before making such an assertion. Composers in England, Italy, France, Poland, Norway, Russia and other foreign countries should be recognized by our American educators, and children in American schools should be taught to recognize our American composers such as MacDowell, Nevin, Foote, Buck, De Koven, Chadwick, Herbert, Hawley, Julia Rivé-King, Gleason and many others.
29Because of my extensive travels both in this country and Europe, and associations among the best musicians both as student and teacher, as critic for some of the finest concerts and festivals in the United States and Europe, I feel safe in saying that Germany produces the worst singing of any country on the globe, while their influence over America, musically, exceeds that of any other country. Among our really artistic cultured American musicians, the word German has little effect only in compositions and instrumental music. They recognize the wonderful composers, but they never approve of their singing methods. If the public in general could only be brought to the same understanding, then American can soon boast of good singers, and a large number, too; but many Americans are so silly about everything un-American that they grasp all kinds of nonsense so long as it comes with a broken accent. If one vocal teacher out of every 500 hundred knew how to make presentable singers out of both little and big voices good singing would not be such a rarity. As it is, our great cities can furnish but a few, and towns from one to 100,000 have none. There are many who think they sing, but does their singing sound or attract as Melba's, Patti's and Calvé's? The majority will say that they are born singers, and no one can expect to sing as they do, but if the good voices could have the genuine cultivation then they would also attract and impress. I am personally acquainted with a violinist and pianist who had, through the effects of good instructions, given up the idea of ever accomplishing anything out of the ordinary. They were ambitious and wanted to reach the artistic, and were willing to work for it, yet there was nothing in their instructions that led them to believe that it could be acquired; so they gave up in despair, believing that only the few who inherited great talent could ever play well; but they happened to come across teachers (Americans and not extremely popular either) who knew how to teach, now they are working earnestly and looking forward to success and a name, for good instruction is alway an incentive to work.
31One cannot expect to charm his listeners with songs full of uncertain tones, no pathos, no style, no dash. Sometimes style and dash are effective, but the sight is pitiful, for embellishments come only from those who have a naturally poised voice or from one who has passed through all the intricacies of good foundation work. Our country is pretty well filled with German vocal teachers, directors of colleges, conservatories and choruses, and still America can boast of few singers, and the best of these are pupils of American teachers. Tenors who sang as did the pupils of Mme. Pasta and Porpora are heard no more. The art seems to have been lost.
33Ballads, sacred songs, Italian and German compositions can be sung by a method that will make the song
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