ilifornia 
 
 ional 
 
 lity 
 
 LACED AND DEVELOPED 
 
 
 CARL PREETOH
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 CAUFOHNIA 
 
 SAN
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 ""'MA SAN BIEGO 
 LA JOLLA CALIFORNIA
 
 The Tone 
 
 Placed and Developed 
 
 By CARL PREETORIUS 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 
 FAULKNER-RYAN Co. 
 1907
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1907 
 BY CARL PBKETOBIUS
 
 JOSEPH F. SHEEHAN 
 OPERA CO. 
 
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 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface 5 
 
 I Introductory Scientific Analysis of Sound 
 
 Waves 11 
 
 II Analysis of Tone. What Tone Is. Acoustic 
 
 Properties 17 
 
 III The Value and Training of the Ear . . 31 
 
 V The Placement of Tone (a) Value of the 
 Lips, (b) Training of the Lips, (c) How 
 This Affects Tone, (d) Vocalizing Breath. 
 (e) Development of Tone. (/) The 
 Rounding of Tone, (g) The Different 
 Tonal Qualities and Syllables to Effect 
 These 35 
 
 V Timbre and Quality Division of the Voices 57 
 
 VI Assimilation of the Voice 61 
 
 VII Crescendo and Diminuendo 77 
 
 VIII Vibrato 83 
 
 IX Portamento 85 
 
 X Coloratura 85 
 
 XI SottoVoce 87 
 
 XII Trill 97 
 
 XIII Wordal Placement . . 101
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Much has been said of the old Italian 
 method of singing. The musical quality of the 
 language and its adaptability for the ready ex- 
 pression of the vocalist is freely acknowledged. 
 Still, the fundamental reason why the old 
 Italians, preferably to the other nationalities, 
 came to be called the maestros is to a great 
 extent overlooked. The Italians, they say, 
 possessed the natural way of singing, but just 
 how their maestros could bring about this 
 natural production of tone, I have nowhere in 
 the limited literature of the vocal art found 
 fully explained. 
 
 Mercadante was, perhaps, one of the most 
 famous maestros of this old Italian school. 
 The method which he followed in his teaching 
 was imparted to his pupils in their lesson 
 hours. No written formulas were put into 
 their hands, and it depended entirely again on 
 these to transmit his knowledge to the next 
 generation. The most promising pupil of 
 Mercadante, who possessed the greatest pos- 
 sibilities for teaching and handing down his 
 ideas, was Vincenzio Cirillo. Cirillo had re-
 
 ceived, at a very young age, a thoro train- 
 ing in the conservatories of Italy. Coming 
 under the influence of Mercadante, he turned 
 his attention away from the instrumental to 
 the vocal field. His musicianship and thoro 
 understanding of the vocal art were fully 
 acknowledged by men of and outside of the 
 vocal world. Both his intimate friendship 
 with Longfellow, with whom he collaborated 
 in setting his poems to music, and the high 
 regard in which he was held by such singers 
 as Campanini, Tamagno, Del Puente and Brig- 
 noli, were sufficient evidences of the recog- 
 nition of his ability. Cirillo possessed a clear, 
 active mind and, with the aid of a well devel- 
 oped bass voice of great beauty, he was a splen- 
 did exponent of the method of the old 
 maestros. 
 
 When he was at his prime as a teacher and 
 composer of vocal music, Cirillo came to this 
 country. It was at this time that Mrs. J. P. 
 Brown, of Boston, came under his instruction. 
 Her natural musical ability and brilliant voice 
 immediately attracted his attention. He gave 
 her the benefit of his best knowledge, in order 
 to fit her in every way for an operatic career. 
 Before her nine years of training were at an 
 end she had been engaged for grand opera, 
 but her sudden marriage at this time made her 
 public career impossible. The remaining years 
 
 6
 
 of her training were then spent in preparation 
 for carrying on Cirillo's work. 
 
 It was thru this line of traditional teach- 
 ing that she inherited the correct idea of 
 natural singing. It happened, too, that the 
 idea which had been handed down so clearly 
 escaped the more modern fad of teaching 
 "breathing." In regard to this, Cirillo told the 
 story of how Mercadante answered the inquiry 
 of an ambitious applicant when he asked, "Do 
 you not teach me how to breathe?" at which 
 the maestro exclaimed, "Mio Dio, if God has 
 not taught you how to breathe it is time you 
 were buried!" 
 
 As soon as I came in contact with this idea 
 I realized that it was the true one of natural 
 singing. After some years of study under 
 Mrs. Brown and of original research, 'I have 
 analyzed and put the idea to a scientific test 
 thru the laws of sound as we know them, but 
 as they have never been applied to singing, and 
 to a second test, which may be called the aural 
 
 test. 
 
 The old Italians found that in teaching for- 
 eigners the art of song they encountered many 
 difficulties. These difficulties became more 
 apparent when they tried to teach the for- 
 eigner, especially the English-speaking pupil, 
 in his native tongue. The difficulties here re- 
 sulted from crudely combined syllables which 
 
 7
 
 the English people used to express the vigor- 
 ous, aggressive spirit of their environment. 
 For many generations they had grown more 
 and more commercial, while the Italians had 
 become more and more artistic. The Italian 
 language itself had undergone a radical change 
 from the time of the sturdy, hard-fighting 
 Romans to the time when artistic development 
 demanded a more easy-flowing combination of 
 syllables, for the Italians had become dreamers 
 instead of fighters. 
 
 It was thus that the consonants and vowels 
 gradually re-combined themselves in such a 
 way that they fell easily and musically from 
 the lips. To re-quote from Henderson's quo- 
 tation in his "The Art of the Singer," the San- 
 scrit proverb says, "Be sparing with the vow- 
 els and you will speak beautifully; honor the 
 consonants and you will speak distinctly." 
 Thus it is that the consonants first lead the 
 vowels to their true sounds. So to-day, when 
 the Italian artist sings his language, the 
 vowels flow out freely in a rythmical swing, 
 for the lips have long been trained to the 
 proper production of tone. 
 
 The maestros, then, in teaching the English- 
 speaking foreigners, worked along the line of 
 least resistance. He taught the art of song 
 thru his own Italian language, and trained 
 his pupil's ear to the tone-forms as he knew
 
 them in his native tongue. He then endeav- 
 ored to translate these tonal forms into the 
 English language. This method was only par- 
 tially successful, for, in teaching his pupils to 
 produce tone with the Italian syllables and 
 words, he could not, with but few exceptions, 
 teach them how to produce musical tones with 
 the use of consonants and vowels as they are 
 arranged in English words. Singing and 
 speaking the Italian language musically has 
 come to those only who have been born there 
 or who have lived there and caught its real 
 spirit. 
 
 In order to understand why the old Italians 
 were so successful in their production of tone, 
 I made a thoro aural and scientific analysis 
 of musical sounds as created by the voice. 
 This brought me directly to the language of 
 sound as science understands it, for science 
 understands sound equally well in English as 
 in Italian. No matter how musical or un- 
 musical the spirit of any nation may be, science 
 must recognize all sound from its element to 
 its roundest, fullest form, whether it comes 
 from the violin, pipe-organ or the human voice. 
 Certain combinations in the English language 
 gave me the same results that came from 
 certain combinations in the Italian. Follow- 
 ing out the scientific analysis of sound, I found 
 that all tones, from the keenest to the round- 
 
 9
 
 est, could be expressed similarly in both lan- 
 guages. There seemed to be a common alpha- 
 bet of sound. But the Italians had built their 
 language nearest the lines of the easiest pro- 
 duction of tone. The English had strayed 
 farther away from it. 
 
 In the following pages I have transferred 
 the idea of the famous old maestros, as applied 
 to their own language, to the language of the 
 English-speaking people. If the earnest stu- 
 dent assimilates and applies the principles 
 which have been presented, he cannot help but 
 develop all the requisites necessary for the 
 production of beautiful tone. 
 
 CARL PREETORIUS. 
 
 10
 
 Introductory. 
 
 Scientific Analysis of 
 
 Sound Waves. 
 
 Air vibrations of sound, when unimpeded, 
 vibrate in spherical waves from the point of 
 disturbance as a center. The action of sound 
 waves in the air is roughly illustrated by the 
 spreading, circular waves on the surface of 
 placid water when a pebble is cast into it. 
 Altho sound is produced as a result of vibra- 
 tions in the air, all vibrations produced in the 
 air do not necessarily produce sound. For 
 sound does not depend alone on the mere 
 vibration, but on the length, amplitude (depth) 
 and form of the vibration. Sound can only 
 result when the vibrations have certain length, 
 amplitude and form. When light and heat are 
 transmitted by air we have vibrations of light 
 and heat. Every movement of our bodies 
 causes some vibration in the air. It is, there- 
 fore, the character of the air wave that deter- 
 mines whether it affects the eye as light, the 
 body as heat or the ear as sound. 
 
 For the benefit of those who desire to under- 
 11
 
 stand the science of the transmission of sound, 
 I insert the following illustrative figures of 
 wave motion in water. Wave motion, or 
 vibration, in air and in water is the same, with 
 the exception that in air waves the motion 
 travels to all sides, i. e., spherically. 
 
 Fig. 1. 
 Fig. 1 shows the particles of water at rest. 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 Fig. 2 shows the particles raised and de- 
 pressed and in a single wave motion. The line 
 A, B, C, D, E is the form of the wave. 
 The straight line, A, E, is the length. 
 The line B, F, as also G, D, is the amplitude, 
 or depth. 
 
 Similarly a sound wave also has three char- 
 acteristics: 
 
 (1.) Form. 
 (2.) Length. 
 (3.) Amplitude 
 12
 
 The Form determines the Quality and also 
 the Timbre of the sound. 
 
 ' The Length determines the Pitch. 
 
 The Amplitude determines the Intensity or 
 Carrying Power. 
 
 (soft tone) 
 
 (loud tone) 
 
 B 
 (still louder tone) 
 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 1. The softness or loudness of tone depends 
 on wave amplitude. 
 
 In Fig. 3 are shown three waves of the same 
 length and form, but of different amplitudes. 
 
 Intensity of sound depends on the ampli- 
 tude. Therefore, the greater the amplitude the 
 greater will be the carrying power of the sound. 
 As long as there is energy enough to create an 
 amplitude the sound will continue. 
 
 13
 
 2. Pitch depends on wave length. 
 
 (high pitch) 
 
 Oow pitch) 
 
 (still lower pitch) 
 
 Fig. 4. 
 
 Fig 1 . 4 shows three waves of the same form 
 and amplitude, but of different lengths. 
 
 The pitch of sound is lower or higher as 
 the wave length is respectively longer or 
 shorter. The number of waves or air vibra- 
 tions produced in a second of time is deter- 
 mined by the wave length, i. e., the shorter 
 the wave length, the greater will be the num- 
 ber of w r aves in a second of time. If the air is 
 forced to vibrate a certain number of times 
 in sound waves during one second, and a 
 greater number of times the next second, there 
 will result two different pitches. This is easily 
 proven by swinging a nail tied to a string 
 swiftly and more swiftly over our heads. The 
 sound travels up scale as the speed is increased. 
 A high note, consequently, is formed by a 
 quicker vibration than a low note. By a 
 quicker vibration, however, we do not mean 
 a more intense vibration. Intensity depends 
 on amplitude. Quicker vibrations merely give 
 a greater number of vibrations within a given 
 time, and so raise the pitch of the tone. 
 
 14
 
 3. Quality as well as Timbre depends on 
 wave Form. 
 
 (Fig. 5.) 
 
 In Fig-. 5 are shown three waves of the same 
 length and amplitude, but of different forms. 
 
 As the form changes, either quality or 
 timbre, or both quality and timbre, change. 
 Quality and timbre are denned in a succeeding 
 chapter. How two different timbres affect 
 the form of the sound waves that express the 
 same quality is also explained. Suffice it to 
 say here, that wave form determines both 
 timbre and quality. 
 
 A knowledge of how these three character- 
 istics form, length and amplitude influence 
 the sound wave, will aid the student to under- 
 stand how the development of the element of 
 tone gives him the greatest possibilities for 
 expression in the tonal art. 
 
 15
 
 Analysis of Tone. 
 
 What Tone Is. 
 Acoustic Properties. 
 
 A scientific knowledge of the characteristics 
 that constitute a sound wave has been gained 
 in the Introductory. In the making of music 
 with the voice, however, there is necessary an 
 aural knowledge, i. e., a power of comprehen- 
 sion and discrimination of tones with the ear. 
 A scientific analysis of a sound wave shows 
 its three characteristics to be: (1) amplitude, 
 (2) length, and (3) form. These character- 
 istics appeal to the aural sense as (1) intensity, 
 (2) pitch, (3) quality and timbre. 
 
 The first important consideration for the 
 vocalist is the life-sustaining power of tone, 
 for without life-sustaining power there could 
 be no tone. In the scientific analysis the life- 
 sustaining power is shown to be the amplitude 
 of the sound wave, which, in the aural sense, 
 corresponds to its intensity or carrying power. 
 
 In analyzing tone, therefore, with the aural 
 sense, we must find what ingredient it is in 
 
 17
 
 the tone that gives our sense of hearing the 
 sensation of greater or less intensity. 
 
 In order to find this ingredient let us analyze 
 sounds we have heard. Concentrate closely on 
 the memory of some very powerful sound that 
 has affected every nerve in your body and 
 made you clasp your hands over your ears. 
 You will find that it was a piercing, shrill, keen 
 and penetrating sound. It made your nerves 
 tingle. It cut into your brain. It startled 
 you, altho you may have expected it. The 
 keener and sharper the sound, the more your 
 nerves tingled and the deeper did it cut. Take 
 away this keen, piercing ingredient from a 
 noise to any extent and you will realize that it 
 affects you less severely. There is lacking that 
 something which stirs your nerves and makes 
 you clasp your hands to your ears. 
 
 You have heard whistles blowing in your 
 neighborhood-* one farther away than the 
 other. You may have become aware that one 
 of these whistles was less distinct than the 
 other, altho the one less distinct was not 
 so far away. The more distinct whistle had 
 a keener, shriller sound. 
 
 You undoubtedly have heard a human 
 scream of agony or fright that has made you 
 tremble; not only because of its humanness 
 and your sympathy did it make you shudder, 
 
 18
 
 but because it carried in it that something 
 which compelled your mind to listen. 
 
 The power that roused you and held your 
 attention, in spite of every other interest of 
 the moment, was the keen, piercing sharpness 
 that predominated in both of the sounds. It 
 will be remembered, if you recall such sounds 
 heard at a great distance, that it was this keen- 
 ness that was evident to your ear. For ex- 
 ample, the whistle of a locomotive will sound 
 very sharp when it is far away, but as it ap- 
 proaches the ear receives a fuller sound. Or, 
 as the locomotive moves slowly into the dis- 
 tance, the whistle sounds shriller, till the last 
 sound you hear is a thin thread of sharpness. 
 This goes to show that it is the keenness in 
 the sound that carries itself into the distance. 
 From the scientific analysis we know that the 
 distance a sound travels is dependent on the 
 wave amplitude. Science also says, rightly, 
 that intensity of sound corresponds to the 
 wave amplitude. From your own experience, 
 as illustrated in the two examples above, you 
 know that a sound that affects your nerves 
 most intensely is the sound that is keen and 
 piercing. Since it is not the wave length, but 
 the amplitude, that determines the life or the 
 carrying power of the wave, and since it is 
 the keen and sharp sound that is carried the 
 greatest distance, these two things must be 
 
 19
 
 identical with the intensity of the sound wave. 
 The question may arise in some minds 
 whether the distance causes a rise in pitch. 
 They may remember that when a factory 
 whistle begins to blow it rises in pitch. The 
 reason for this rise in pitch, which is especially 
 evident in a large whistle, is that the amount 
 of pressure that is at first applied is not yet 
 sufficient to make the air vibrate in sound 
 waves such as are meant to be created by the 
 aperture of the whistle. The air column in 
 the whistle, instead, is being vibrated before 
 the- steam drives it out. As soon as the steady 
 pressure of steam forms sound waves thru 
 the lips of the whistle the pitch will remain the 
 same unless that pressure is again slowly 
 removed. It is never the distance, but the 
 amount of pressure, that has to do with the 
 rise of pitch in this case. The pitch of every 
 whistle, we know, depends on the size of its 
 aperture, and it takes a certain amount of 
 pressure to make it blow at that pitch, and 
 no matter what the pressure is thereafter there 
 will be no further rise in pitch. Pitch never 
 changes because of distance, for then the wave 
 length would have to change, and all laws of 
 harmony in sound would be contraverted. If 
 that were true, then sounds made on the same 
 pitch, one after the other, at different dis- 
 tances, would reach the ear of the listener as 
 
 20
 
 sounds of two different pitches. If two in- 
 struments of different timbres, or of the same 
 timbre, played two notes in harmony, these 
 two notes would be out of harmony when they 
 reached the ear of the listener, if the wave 
 length changed with the distance and the 
 listener happened to be nearer one than the 
 other instrument. 
 
 A sound in the distance, we know, has a fine 
 keenness. As you approach the resounding 
 body the sound may become very full. The 
 amplitude increases as the distance diminishes 
 and, with it, the intensity of sound. The wave 
 form, as we approach the resounding body, 
 rounds over, i. e., the sound becomes fuller. 
 The form of a sound wave depends entirely, as 
 science has proven, on the aperture thru 
 which the sound wave is created. The fullness 
 is dependent on the form of the wave, which, 
 in turn, is modified by the amplitude. The 
 amplitude of the sound wave depends on the 
 force transmitted into the wave. The ampli- 
 tude of a sound wave, then, or the intensity of 
 that sound, is the element of sound as it ap- 
 peals to the ear of the listener in a more or less 
 rounded form. 
 
 We may say, therefore, that tone is the ele- 
 ment of sound in a more or less rounded form. 
 
 All things in Nature have an ingredient 
 substance which determines the life or the 
 
 21
 
 classification of that thing. In analyzing sound 
 we have had to seek that ingredient which 
 gives to sound the power of existing that 
 power which sustains the life of the vibrations 
 that carry sound from its beginning until it 
 reaches the ear of the listener. Science has 
 clearly demonstrated that it is the amplitude 
 that determines the life of the sound. And 
 hence, the ingredient in sound, as it appeals to 
 our ear, that determines the life of the sound, 
 must correspond to the characteristic that de- 
 termines the life of the sound wave. Added 
 ingredients of other elements are only of 
 proportionate value and must always be 
 eliminated in order to get at the determining 
 element. The existence of sound, therefore, 
 in whatever form that sound may be given life 
 by the resounding body, is determined by the 
 intensity, or the element. 
 
 For the vocalist, as I have said, the first 
 important consideration is the life-sustain- 
 ing power of tone. This we have learned 
 to be the element of tone in a more or less 
 rounded form, i. e., it is the intensity with 
 which the sound appeals to our aural sense and 
 which has been proven to be, in its most in- 
 tense form, a very keen and penetrating sen- 
 sation. The rounder the sensation stimulated 
 in the aural receptiveness, the less keen and 
 piercing is the tone produced. For instance, 
 
 22
 
 the mouth of the whistle is cut in a certain 
 shape to produce a certain sound, for it has 
 been found that one kind of aperture will give 
 one kind of sound, and another, another. The 
 round-mouthed whistles give a rounder sound, 
 i. e., a fuller sound. In the full tone the ele- 
 ment of sound, i. e., the keen, piercing ingredi- 
 ent, has been rounded. Stated scientifically, 
 the wave form or outline of the full tone, 
 created by the amplitude, has been given a 
 very rounded form by the aperture thru 
 which the force gave life to the wave. 
 
 The important consideration that concerns 
 the life of sound is the transmission of energy 
 into the flexible body of air by the force that 
 creates the wave. The sound produced by 
 driving a small nail with a good-sized hammer 
 into a solid post of oak is much less in in- 
 tensity than the sound produced by shaking 
 the same-sized nail in a tin box. From this il- 
 lustration it can easily be seen that it is not the 
 force expended, but that it is the force trans- 
 mitted that creates the intensity of sound. In 
 the first case the force was directed to drive 
 the nail into the oak post. The resistance 
 of the wood in the oak post stayed the vi- 
 brations of* the nail and killed the sound. In 
 the second case the nail, in its contact with 
 the tin box, was left free to vibrate upon the 
 air. If the hammer had struck a nail fastened 
 
 23
 
 in a large, thin sheet of brass, the resistance 
 of the brass would not have been great enough 
 to stay the vibrations of the nail. In this 
 instance the vibrations would have been trans- 
 mitted to the sheet of brass, and from it into 
 the air. A boiler-maker, when he drives the 
 rivets, is always deafened, to some extent, by 
 the vibrations of sound. 
 
 Now, if the vibrating body is covered, the 
 vibrations that produce sound waves are re- 
 sisted, and the result is a muffled sound, or 
 perhaps no sound at all. No one would think 
 of covering the mouth of a whistle or the 
 mouth of a human being unless he wished to 
 muffle the sound. Near by, this muffled sound 
 may seem very big, tho never keen nor intense, 
 and it can not be heard at a distance. In 
 order to transmit energy to the flexible body 
 of air for the creation of sound waves there 
 must be no resistance between the force of the 
 resounding body that creates the sound vibra- 
 tion and the flexible body of air where the 
 sound wave is created. 
 
 Vibrations of sound, therefore, must be free 
 and unimpeded in order to continue effecting 
 new vibrations. In order for sound to be 
 carried a great distance the wave vibrations 
 must be deep and high, i. e., the amplitude 
 must be so great that, for a long time, each 
 successive wave has sufficient force and energy 
 
 24
 
 to impart in order to create another wave. As 
 the energy is transmitted from wave to wave 
 in spherical motion, the circle is gradually 
 widened. The increasing amount of air that 
 is set in motion, and the friction caused by the 
 resistance of transmitting energy thus, from 
 one wave to the next greater wave form, 
 diminishes the amplitude (intensity). 
 
 It is self-evident that a noise created outside 
 of any body is far greater than a noise locked 
 within that body; for when the sound is im- 
 peded before it reaches the ear of the listener, 
 by virtue of the laws of reflection and refrac- 
 tion, the sound is partly thrown back, and the 
 part that does reach the listener is so weak 
 that it has lost its original character. 
 
 This calls to mind again that one thing es- 
 sential to the life of the tone which we, who 
 desire to attain a perfection in the vocal art, 
 must take into consideration. That thing is 
 no other than the element of tone itself. This 
 we must teach the ear to cultivate. But that 
 comes in a later chapter. 
 
 No doubt, you have sat in the front row 
 at the opera and heard world-famed singers 
 producing tones that came to your ears rough 
 and jagged. But when you heard them from 
 the rear end of the theatre, the tones made by 
 the same singer sounded smooth and even. 
 The explanation of this apparent incongruity 
 
 25
 
 does not result from a conscious production 
 of tone by the singer, but is a simple matter of 
 fact that, when a singer produces a rough, 
 scratchy tone in a large place, where the 
 acoustic properties are more or less imperfect, 
 the waves of the sound vibrations have rough, 
 jagged surfaces. The energy which creates 
 this little roughness in a wave is not sufficiently 
 forceful to live out the life of the vibration, 
 and, consequently, it grows less and less 
 rough as it vibrates toward the rear end of 
 the room, until finally it disappears into the 
 surface of the wave, and the tone is smoother 
 now as its wave line of vibration is more 
 even. Such energy, then, is wasted force, and 
 might have been transmitted to the body of 
 the wave at the start. 
 
 A large space, as well as a small one, de- 
 mands attention. In fact, any resonant space 
 in which we are to create tone must be meas- 
 ured by the ear. This is one of the things 
 that the law of acoustics demands of the 
 singer. As we now know, the element of tone 
 is the carrying power of the tone. It is the 
 cutting of deep, forceful waves. In a great, 
 resonant space we must seek to make the 
 sound waves "vibrate to the farthest corner 
 of the place. We can do this by demanding, 
 with our ears, more of the element in the tone 
 we produce. Contrarily, in a small space our 
 
 26
 
 ear should call for a tone in a very rounded 
 form, for less of the element is required. 
 The wave vibrations need less amplitude, or 
 force, to carry the sound to the other side of 
 the small room. The ear must be at all times 
 the director and judge of the amount of energy 
 necessary to give the tone more or less of the 
 audible elemental ingredient for the wave 
 that creates the telling elemental sound is the 
 wave that will reach the listener farthest away. 
 A pointed elemental tone is carried at first by 
 a very deep wave, but as it vibrates into the 
 distance, the wave, by losing its amplitude, 
 loses to that extent its original character, and, 
 
 of course, carries a sound less intense than the 
 one created within a near radius of the ear of 
 the singer. At a distance, then, the keen, 
 pointed tone will appeal to the ear with less 
 intensity and in a smaller, but comparatively 
 broader form. But distance does not change 
 wave length. 
 
 The size of resonant space, therefore, must 
 be limited for beautiful tone production to 
 the power of the individual voices. There still 
 remains this unequivocal fact: that if the small 
 voice and the large voice are trained to ex- 
 press themselves to the greatest possibilities 
 of musical tone production, both will have 
 tones of equal carrying power, but in harmony 
 respectively with their lighter or heavier qual- 
 ity. The more forcefully a human being can 
 produce a musical tonal wave, the more may 
 
 27
 
 he round the element. However, this does not 
 say that a human heing cannot develop so that 
 he can produce a more powerful vibration than 
 that which he at first produces. The law of 
 development all science must recognize, for it 
 is the strongest expression of the law of 
 Nature, without which nothing can be im- 
 proved. If the contrary were true, even the 
 most beautiful voices would soon wear out. 
 Usage means wear, and development comes as 
 a resultant of usage. In order to rebuild we 
 must remove old structures. If the student 
 is more than ordinarily interested in the phil- 
 osophy of tonal development, which I cannot 
 help but feel every enthusiastic student is, I 
 wish to refer him to the discussion in my book 
 on "The Philosophy of Tone/' 
 
 The law of evolution provides the possibil- 
 ity for development. Even if one has but little 
 tone-producing power to begin with, he can 
 develop a singing voice far beyond his expec- 
 tations, which will be a medium of expressing 
 his noblest feeling and thought. His tonal 
 imagination, consequently, also will grow and 
 develop. It is necessary, however, for those 
 who wish to develop rapidly and correctly, in 
 accordance with the laws of Nature, whether 
 they have great or little power of producing 
 
 28
 
 tone to begin with, to give themselves the exer- 
 cises* that will bring about that development. 
 In this the ear of the student must at all times 
 be his guide and teacher. 
 
 *When the author speaks of exercises he refers to Els publica- 
 tion of three vocal studies Elementary, Intermediary and Ad- 
 vanced. The exercises in these three books are composed and 
 arranged so as logically to aid the developing voice to overcome 
 all difficulties. 
 
 29
 
 The Value and Training of 
 the Ear 
 
 Nature has given us a sense of hearing, by 
 means of which she intends that we discrimi- 
 nate between different sounds. By her law of 
 development this ability to discriminate be- 
 tween sounds becomes of inestimable value to 
 the student of vocal art. It is thru this 
 very power of discrimination that the student 
 can learn to recognize that part of sound which 
 we call its element. And this power, again, 
 which enables the ear to recognize the element 
 enables it to recognize the beautified forms of 
 the element. 
 
 The importance of the ear and the value of 
 its training have been overlooked to an ap- 
 palling degree. The training of the ear is 
 perhaps the most vital factor in the develop- 
 ment of the singer. For thru the ear the 
 tonal imagination receives new impetus from 
 the beautiful tones that it has been able to 
 accept. The tonal imagination, in turn, aids 
 the student to produce that tone which has 
 been built from the tone that the ear has recog- 
 nized as beautiful. As the student learns to 
 
 31
 
 produce more nearly the sound that his tonal 
 imagination calls for, his ear, as a result, will 
 be trained to a higher degree of efficiency in 
 discriminating sound. This again advances 
 his tonal imagination. 
 
 The law of imitation is one of the most 
 powerful developers of the tonal imagination. 
 The student, therefore, should feed his ear on 
 the very best tonal production that he can 
 afford. 
 
 The thing that affects sensitiveness of hear- 
 ing most is the concentration that the student 
 himself applies in striving to create a tone. 
 Here the developing voice itself illustrates to 
 the ear the need of a higher ideal. Thus it is 
 that the ear becomes dependent on two things: 
 (1) on the imitation of a tone as heard, when 
 created by someone else, and (2) on the crea- 
 tion of tone as directed by the tonal imagina- 
 tion. Imitation of tone depends on the mem- 
 ory of hearing; creation of tone depends on 
 the tonal imagination. 
 
 Thru imitation, then, the tonal imagina- 
 tion is developed imitation, not only of the 
 most perfect tones heard as produced by 
 others, but also of the most perfect tone that, 
 at some time or other, we have produced by 
 the impetus of some unusual inspiration. To 
 the tonal imagination, however, is given that 
 creative power which makes progressive de- 
 
 32
 
 velopment, even beyond the limits of the pres- 
 ent conception, possible. Without the tonal 
 imagination, the law of imitation would be nil. 
 It is, therefore, not the power of imitation 
 that we seek to foster, but the constant devel- 
 opment of the tonal imagination, which be- 
 comes, thru its creative power, the soul of 
 the voice. 
 
 The matter of the creation of tone is so 
 important to ear training that, unless the 
 student begins from the first to produce his 
 tones rightly, there will result all kinds of 
 difficulties,. such as defectiveness of pitch, lack 
 of clearness, richness and those qualities that 
 go to make up a beautiful tone. The memory 
 of hearing becomes filled with different in- 
 congruous, unmusical sounds, which are hard 
 to discard. Having become habituated to the 
 production of sounds similar to those carried 
 in the tonal memory, the tonal imagination 
 suffers as it is held in restraint and cramped 
 to a free acceptance of the impetus that a really 
 beautiful sound gives it. The ear may even 
 have become incapable of recognizing a beau- 
 tiful tone. Altho a singer's ear may be 
 acute to beautiful sounds, while he is hearing 
 them, the wrong creation of his own tones so 
 affects his memory of sound that when he tries 
 to create tones in imitation he soon destroys 
 his memory of those tones. The tonal imagi- 
 
 33
 
 nation, in consequence, receives little impetus 
 from the memory and becomes so decrepit and 
 weak that it no longer can build a beautiful 
 tone. 
 
 So far, we have taken up the production of 
 tone as such. The great fault of most singers 
 is that, in their endeavor to create beautiful 
 tones, the language of the song becomes un- 
 intelligible. The creating of alphabetical 
 sounds in beautiful tone form depends on the 
 tonal memory and the tonal imagination. Of 
 course, it is paramount that the student should 
 first understand the shadings of the tones 
 before he takes up pronunciation, as pro- 
 nunciation is one of the last parts of the art. 
 The pronunciation of words will be approached 
 thru syllabic forms in the natural order of 
 tone development. 
 
 At all stages in the work of ear training the 
 student should make every effort to concen- 
 trate his hearing on every tone he produces, 
 so that he can feel sure that he is approaching 
 the ideal of his tonal imagination. With close 
 concentration, the memory will become filled 
 only with the purer sounds, and the tonal 
 imagination will be given the best stimulus 
 for developing a beautiful tone ideal. 
 
 34
 
 The Placement of Tone 
 
 ) VALUE OF THE LIPS. 
 
 b) TRAINING OF THE LIPS. 
 
 c) How THIS AFFECTS TONE. 
 
 d) VOCALIZING BREATH. 
 
 e) DEVELOPMENT OF TONE. 
 (/) THE ROUNDING OF TONE. 
 
 (g) THE DIFFERENT TONAL QUALITIES AND 
 SYLLABLES TO EFFECT THESE. 
 
 When less elastic bodies than air impede the 
 sound waves, they are reflected. This reflec- 
 tion of sound makes it possible to build a 
 resonant space within which the listener's ear 
 can receive the vibrations of sound just as they 
 are produced. The very law that excludes all 
 outer disturbances and reflects all inner ones, 
 works to the detriment of a tone when that 
 tone is impeded before it reaches the hearer. 
 Even tho the structure of the impeding body 
 may be such that it transmits the vibra- 
 tions of sound, the effect of the law of refrac- 
 tion will weaken the original character of the 
 sound. So, then, when a student produces a 
 tone in his throat or nasal cavines, the sound 
 vibrations are impeded and reflected by the 
 flesh and bone of the neck and face, let alone 
 
 35
 
 the fact that the space allotted them in the 
 throat and head cavities is too small to permit 
 them to continue their spherical motion. 
 
 For the listener it is the wave vibration 
 created in the outer air that makes sound. So 
 that air vibrated by the vocal cords, altho 
 formed into sound waves in the mouth, throat 
 and nasal cavines so powerfully that the wave 
 motion is carried thru flesh and bone, yet 
 the wave is impeded and the original character 
 of the sound wave suffers. It is self-evident 
 that in free and unimpeded wave motion the 
 amplitude, length and form of sound waves 
 are retained unchanged. The place where the 
 tone waves must be made in order that their 
 motion will be unimpeded, is as far away from 
 the throat, head and nasal cavities, and as near 
 the outer air as possible. That place which is 
 nearest the air where tone can be created is 
 the outer edge of the lips, where thousands of 
 little muscular fibrillae, by a slight movement, 
 can change and form the vibrations into the 
 different sounds that the ear calls for. We 
 must create tone as far away from our bodies 
 as possible, not only because such vibrations 
 created within the body, covered by flesh and 
 bone, will not carry far, but for the reason that 
 they will lack clearness, being muffled and shut 
 within the very body that creates them. If we 
 keep our mouths closed and try to talk, we will 
 
 36
 
 find that the amount of sound we create is of 
 no use. And, if we open our mouths very 
 widely and force the vibrations up into the 
 head and nasal cavines, thru which we draw 
 our breath and which are there solely to 
 act as a filterer and warmer of the outside air, 
 our tones will be nasal, unmusical, will lack 
 clearness and distinctness and, most of all, 
 carrying power. It speaks for itself that the 
 mouth is the passage nearest the throat and 
 the outside air. If, then, we create our vibra- 
 tions of sound as far forward as possible, we 
 will send them from the lips. This again em- 
 phasizes our desire to learn how to make the 
 vibrations we produce vibrate in sound waves 
 from the edge of the lips. 
 
 Science has proven, by experiment with 
 horns, that it is not the different materials that 
 control the character of sound, but the size and 
 shape of the apertures. 
 
 If you bring your lips together, as you do 
 when you whistle, and then make an attempt 
 to whistle with your throat, you will find that 
 you are blowing the breath thru the lips with- 
 out any whistling sound coming from your 
 throat. Now whistle as you ordinarily would, 
 and while you are making the whistling 
 sound with your lips, slowly separate them, 
 but continue to force the breath out with the 
 same energy. The whistling sound will dis- 
 
 37
 
 appear, for the energy with which you are 
 exhaling the breath is not great enough to 
 create vibrations sufficiently large for the lips 
 to change into sound waves. You will have 
 ceased to have formed sound waves with them. 
 Again, when you whisper very softly, you will 
 find that it is your lips that form the different 
 sounds of the alphabet and not your throat. 
 Exhaling air from the lungs creates vibration, 
 as does all movement, and this vibration, 
 altho a very gentle one when we whisper, 
 is changed by the lips into audible sounds that 
 we understand. The little arrangement of 
 cords that Nature has placed in our throats, 
 by means of which we can vibrate the air more 
 strongly than when we wish merely to whisper, 
 is there to enable us to make bigger and 
 heavier vibrations. Some vibrations are so 
 light that only the ears of insects are attuned 
 finely enough to register the vibration as 
 sound. In order to counterbalance our lack of 
 this acuter hearing, Nature has given us a 
 means wherewith we can create a heavier 
 vibration than we do when we give merely a 
 whispering tone. When this heavier vibration 
 is formed into a sound wave by the lips it can 
 be heard at a great distance. Did the lips 
 receive merely the light vibrations that result 
 from throwing the air out of the lungs into 
 the atmosphere, they could only create sound 
 
 38
 
 waves that would be heard at short range. The 
 necessity, therefore, for the lips, which form 
 the sound waves, to receive heavy vibrations 
 whose amplitude will lend a greater intensity, 
 is self-evident. 
 
 It is to the creation of sound upon the lips, 
 then, that the student must direct his aim. 
 The training of the lips becomes the all im- 
 portant factor in creating tonal wave forms. 
 A tone wave created on the outer edge of the 
 lips, because of its free and unimpeded motion, 
 retains its original form, length and amplitude, 
 i. e., the quality, pitch and intensity the ear has 
 called for. 
 
 A little hole in a steam pipe will emit a 
 sound, whereas a larger hole punctured in the 
 same place, with the same amount of energy 
 retained in the pipe, will make at most a 
 rounder sound of less carrying power. If the 
 aperture is made large enough, no sound at all 
 will be heard. Consequently, the smaller the 
 aperture in the steam pipe the less energy will 
 it take to create sound, and the larger the 
 aperture the more energy will it take. If the 
 aperture is very small, we know that the sound 
 is very keen, hence nearer the beginning, or 
 element of sound. Our reason, therefore, tells 
 us to keep the lips at first closely together, i. e., 
 to form a small aperture with them in order 
 to create a sound wave that will be a vibration 
 
 39
 
 of the tone easiest of production. The tone 
 that is easiest of production is keen and sharp. 
 The sharper and keener the tone the nearer 
 will it be to the beginning of sound. In our 
 own language this sound is best given us in 
 the very keen pronunciation of the vowel "e." 
 In order to exercise the muscles of the lips, 
 however, and to aid us to bring the vibration 
 to the lips that is to be formed by their muscles 
 into a sound wave, we place the consonant "p" 
 before the vowel "e." Practice makes more 
 perfect, and with practice we are soon able 
 to throw the vibration to the muscles of the 
 lips, which they change into sound waves and 
 the form of tone we are seeking. Indeed, our 
 training should be so complete that the mo- 
 ment our eye sees a notation of a sound, our 
 ear will immediately hear its tone ideal, and 
 the lips will respond quickly to the formation 
 of that tone ideal when we throw the breath 
 to their outer edge, softly or heavily vibrated 
 over the little cords placed in our throats for 
 this purpose. 
 
 The first thing that we must do is to culti- 
 vate that sharp, piercing sound, the element of 
 tone, which we know will carry itself to the 
 listener and stir him. Take the syllable "Pee" 
 and make the sound of "ee" as sharp, shrill 
 and piercing as any sound you ever heard. The 
 keener and sharper the tone the more ele- 
 
 40
 
 mental is its character. The combination of 
 P and "ee" is given because the consonant P 
 can only be made by holding the lips firmly 
 together and forcing them apart with a snap. 
 When the lips are separated with a snap they 
 should not be brought together again until it 
 is time to pronounce the next syllable, i. e., the 
 syllable Pee should never be pronounced 
 "Peep." The vibration of a tone must not be 
 cut short in this way. A tone should be al- 
 lowed its natural crescendo and diminuendo 
 after the Pee has once been thrown from its 
 place off the lips. At first it may require some 
 effort to throw the Pee forcibly enough off the 
 lips. The first thing that a student must 
 acquire is tone power, i. e., ability to make a 
 sound that will carry. After a few weeks 
 practice the effort will be found no longer 
 necessary, as the habit of throwing vibrations 
 to the lips has become an involuntary action 
 in the creation of sound with the syllable Pee. 
 Thus the action of the lips snapping apart 
 throws the vibration so far forward that it is 
 shaped into its sound vibration by the lips 
 themselves. The element of tone will be more 
 nearly attained as the ear cultivates this sound, 
 for the ear must always be the guide of the 
 singer. If a singer cannot recognize tone his 
 mind can never build an ideal that he can set 
 as his goal. 
 
 41
 
 It is necessary, therefore, to train the ear to 
 analyze every tone it hears of others and those 
 that the singer himself creates. To hear a 
 tone and to give it again exactly on the same 
 note of the scale, without variance from pitch, 
 is one of the student's first rules. In order to 
 do this the ear must recognize a clear, unim- 
 peded tone, for if the tone is muffled or driven 
 into the head thru the nose, the singer will 
 be unable to hear the sound distinctly enough 
 to realize whether it is exactly on pitch or not. 
 Tone vibrations driven thru the head are 
 no longer pure tone vibrations when they 
 reach the outside air, and therefore again, the 
 singer will find himself, without knowing it, 
 short in pitch of the tone he wishes to produce. 
 Some of our most famous singers demonstrate 
 this fact unconsciously, especially in their sotto 
 voce work. We strive, of course, for sweet- 
 ness, purity, richness and power. Purity and 
 power both depend on getting the tone vibra- 
 tions to take their beginning at the edge of 
 the lips. Richness and sweetness come 
 thru the manipulation of the many little 
 muscles of the lips that are given to us for 
 this purpose. The lips, as well as the ears, are 
 an invaluable agent to the singer in the pro- 
 duction of tone. For with the lips he sharpens, 
 rounds, mellows, softens, hardens, enriches or 
 sweetens; in fact he does anything that the 
 
 42
 
 ideal of his imagination may suggest. It is es- 
 sential, therefore, to pay close attention to all 
 sounds and tones we hear in order to develop 
 our tonal imagination and fill our memory of 
 hearing with beautiful sounds. At first, how- 
 ever, we must concentrate on the element of 
 sound that we long to make beautiful. We 
 place the element of tone upon the lips, by 
 making the "ee" of the Pee sharp and shrill. 
 By remembering to snap the lips apart every 
 time we produce a tone, we quickly gain dex- 
 terity to make a more and more powerful tone. 
 The mind soon realizes, for the ear hears it. 
 Three weeks of intelligent practice will bring 
 comparatively astonishing results in the gain 
 of tone producing power. 
 
 In the first of the exercise books the direc- 
 tions for practising the syllable Pee are given 
 with musical accompaniment. When three 
 months of daily drill have been given them and 
 the ear and lips recognize and form the ele- 
 ment on all the intervals of the scale, it is time 
 for the rounding of the element to be taken up 
 in the first stage. 
 
 In our practice to produce the tone more and 
 more elemental we have learned to throw the 
 vibrations to the lips. Just as soon as we feel 
 that the tone waves are being formed there, 
 we begin to change the tone more and more 
 
 43
 
 to suit our tonal ideal of the sound "e" of our 
 language. Then we transcend from "ee" into 
 another sound, a sound which is an easy 
 transition from the element, but which is more 
 like the "u." This sound we get by combin- 
 ing the "e" and "u," and we again aid the lips 
 by placing the syllable P before it. The sound 
 "eu" (pronounced like the German umlaut 
 "ii") opens somewhat the aperture formed by 
 the muscles of the lips in pronouncing Pee, 
 and slightly rounds it. This is a gradual 
 change. It is made more gradual by allowing 
 the muscles of the lips to round the "eu," at 
 first, but little. The lip muscles soon learn, 
 thru practice, to answer the call of the ear, and 
 in time can produce quite a rounded "eu." 
 
 We find that when we change the for- 
 mation of the aperture of the lips that 
 the sound changes, as, of course, it must, 
 for the form of the sound vibration changes. 
 The intensity will also change unless we 
 have learned to produce a rounded tone 
 with the same amount of energy with 
 which we produce the element. Therefore, 
 we must be careful not to try to round 
 and open the lips too far, for, if we do, the 
 muscles of the lips will cease to have control 
 over the vibrations, as a knowledge of recog- 
 nizing the greatness of the vibration of the 
 sound that we are able to produce has not as 
 
 44
 
 yet been acquired. We must go gradually 
 and, therefore, take the next step that deviates 
 but very little from the elemental form, and 
 this form we find in the syllable Peu. The 
 muscles of the lips must receive much exercise, 
 with concentrated attention, and the ear must 
 hear the daily production of tone. 
 
 As we continue in our practice we take the 
 syllable next in order, which is formed with a 
 trifle more roundness of the lips than the "eu," 
 and this we find in the vowel "u." The lips, by 
 this time, will have become dexterous, and we 
 will have learned to throw to them, with the 
 aid of the consonant P, the vibration necessary 
 to be changed into a sound wave. So we put 
 in place of the snappy P a consonant which dis- 
 appears more readily into the vowel, and the 
 best of these is Y, as it expresses the elemental 
 sound in its pronunciation (i. e., Yee-u), 
 and in this way aids the lips to form the "u" 
 sound wave. When the muscles of the lips 
 have become still more dexterous and form the 
 "u" to the satisfaction of the tonal imagina- 
 tion, we allow the lips to form a still rounder 
 tone out of the vibrations that we send to their 
 very edge. 
 
 In the vowel "o" we have the roundest form, 
 but we must be careful at first not to try to 
 imitate or to create the roundest form that we 
 have ever heard or imagined. We must at first 
 
 45
 
 round but little, as the muscles of the lips need 
 much practice to give the rounding formation 
 and still retain the lip placement. We must 
 not open the lips so widely that the amount of 
 vibration that we send to their edge will be 
 expended into the air without being changed 
 into a sound vibration, for we must keep in 
 mind that it is not the amount of vibration that 
 escapes thru the lips that creates tone, but 
 it is the amount of vibration that is formed 
 into tone waves that creates it. We will find, 
 of course, that after a longer period of practice 
 the element in its roundest form will also come 
 without the aid of a forced snapping of the 
 lips. 
 
 Our object in singing is to create musical 
 tone. That each letter of our language has in 
 it some form of the element, whether more or 
 less rounded, we know. Therefore, it lies en- 
 tirely with the tonal imagination and the dex- 
 terity the student acquires in producing tones 
 with the lips and, of course, in the greatness 
 of the development he undergoes, how musical 
 or unmusical, how stirring or unpersuasive his 
 tones will be. 
 
 Human tone is vocalized breath. In order 
 to vocalize breath as we send it over the small 
 cords in the throat and thru the aperture 
 of the lips, where we create it into tone in its 
 exit, the muscles of the lips must be given an 
 
 46
 
 opportunity to form themselves in such a way 
 that they can, thru their action alone, pro- 
 duce the tone. By vocalized breath we mean 
 the least amount of breath necessary to cause 
 the vocal cords to vibrate in the production of 
 a loud or soft tone, and not the amount of 
 breath expelled uselessly thru the nose and 
 mouth. The utilization of every particle of 
 breath that we send out while we make tone 
 vibrations of it on the lips can best be acquired, 
 as is self-evident, thru the production of 
 the element of tone. For when we produce 
 the element we close the lips so that but a little 
 opening is there for the passage of the breath, 
 and it is the cultivation of this element that 
 develops power in tone production. 
 
 As we learn to create the rounder forms 
 of the element, we learn to manipulate the 
 little muscles of the lips so that every 
 bit of breath we use in creating tones is vocal- 
 ized and not expelled uselessly thru the 
 corners of the mouth and nose, for we certainly 
 cannot make beautiful tones come thru the 
 nose any more than we can whistle thru the 
 nose. 
 
 It will be found, after practice with the 
 element, that the power of producing tone 
 has developed enormously far beyond our ex- 
 pectations. The gaining of power is a matter 
 of intelligent daily practice. Roundness of 
 
 47
 
 tone comes gradually, for it will be found that 
 our ear is beginning to call for finer tones, the 
 formation of which demands more in propor- 
 tion of the lips. 
 
 We now need new combinations of syllables 
 in order to give the lips the necessary gym- 
 nastics to form the different tonal qualities. 
 We have had the syllables Pee and Peu. We 
 now take the syllables Yee and Yeu. The Yee 
 is made without the snap of the Pee and, there- 
 fore, the element of tone in the Pee must first 
 be easy of production upon the lips, else the 
 tone produced with the Yee will be created 
 farther back in the throat, which we know 
 retards, muffles and kills its beauty. If the 
 syllable Yee slips back it shows, of course, 
 that tone can be created farther back in the 
 throat, because the muscles in the mouth and 
 throat are sufficiently elastic and can be used 
 to form sound waves. But the fact still re- 
 mains that the lips, by virtue of their physical 
 construction, are the most flexible and, hence, 
 the easiest to direct, and the best adapted to 
 create all the varied changes of wave form. 
 
 In case the Yee slips back the Pee can al- 
 ways be reverted to. The Yee, if persistently 
 practiced and alternated with the Pee, will un- 
 doubtedly find its creation thru the little 
 muscles of the lips exactly at the same place as 
 the element in the syllable Pee. The aid to 
 
 48
 
 the lips with the consonant P is no longer 
 necessary, and we replace it with the conson- 
 ant Y, in order to give flexibility for rapid 
 work. It is very essential to have a quick 
 response of tone in order to do coloratura. 
 The Y of the Yee will be found gradually to 
 disappear into the element when the scales are 
 performed very quickly. This is as it should 
 be, for it is our object to learn how to create 
 the elemental sound upon the lips without the 
 aid of a consonant. 
 
 The question of attack is entirely obviated, 
 because, when tonal waves are formed by the 
 lips, i. e., when the syllables are produced upon 
 the outer edge of the lips, an immediate re- 
 sponse of tone is inevitable. 
 
 What proves true with the production of the 
 keen element, thru practice, becomes solely 
 a matter of dexterity in the rounding of the 
 element. In order to further this we use the 
 syllable Yeu, and as we pass from the first 
 exercise book to the second we take up the still 
 rounder forms, producing them with Yu and 
 Yo, and finally, in the last book, with Bo and 
 Ro. This all is but the simple and gradual 
 development of the element itself and its 
 rounded forms; it is the backbone of the 
 musical rendition of our language, for the 
 element and its rounding over control every 
 tone that we produce. 
 
 49
 
 In working towards the rendition of our lan- 
 guage in musical tones, we must take up the 
 combinations of syllables which encompass the 
 entire alphabet of our language. This we can 
 do best by making combinations first of those 
 syllables we already have taken up in the ad- 
 vanced book of the exercises. 
 
 Some of us may not be able to realize fully 
 what a round tone is as distinguishable from 
 a hollow, muffled sound. A hollow sound can 
 never be classed in tonal production, for a hol- 
 low sound is a reverberated sound, altho it 
 is perfectly possible to create a hollow sound 
 on the lips, but a hollow sound cannot be cre- 
 ated wholly on the very edge of the lips that 
 is impossible. The little muscles of the lips, 
 in order to create the hollow sound, twist 
 themselves in such a way that they send the 
 vibrations back into the throat and thereby 
 cause a reverberation. Have you ever gone 
 thru a tunnel or under a bridge, or into a 
 large pipe and called out to some one of your 
 friends, and have you noticed how hollow and 
 unearthly the sound reverberated as the vi- 
 brations of your tonal waves struck the walls 
 about you? Even so some singers try to pro- 
 duce tones by making them reverberate in 
 their heads and stomachs. Every tenor who 
 tries to make his tones reverberate in his head 
 and nose, and every basso who tries to make 
 
 50
 
 his tones reverberate in the lower regions of 
 his stomach, is either deplorably nasal or mis- 
 erably hollow, and, most of all, in nine hundred 
 and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand, off 
 pitch altho he himself or his musically un- 
 educated audience may never learn to ex- 
 pect the perfect pitch. 
 
 The rounded element is nothing else than 
 the element itself rounded. We do not lose 
 the ingredient of the keen sound, for that very 
 ingredient is the thing that carries the tone 
 to the listener farthest away. Our endeavor 
 is to train the lips to form the wave vibrations 
 for silver, bell-like tones, or, as the mood re- 
 quires, for rich, sonorous, brilliant, stirring, 
 dramatic qualities. The possibilities for ex- 
 pressing every mood lie in the thousand 
 changes of the position of the muscles of the 
 lips, and whatever may be the probability for 
 dramatic expression or for purest devotion, the 
 muscles of the lips can be trained to a sufficient 
 dexterity to express their every tone-color. 
 From the great pipe organ we have a round- 
 ness of tone that seems unequalled by any in- 
 strument. 
 
 In learning how to place the element diffi- 
 culties present themselves by reason of the 
 many intricate misuses and abuses which 
 voices have undergone. So some of us find 
 that, in spite of concentration and persistency 
 
 51
 
 with the Pee, the sound muffles. In that 
 case place the consonant L before the 
 element "ee." The L will force the snap- 
 ping of the tongue and thus aid the "ee" to 
 its place on the lips. 
 
 In other cases the tones with Pee may be 
 nasal from previous habitual misplacement, 
 then the consonant C, in combination with 
 "ee," will force the sudden lowering of the 
 under jaw, and thus will aid to throw the ele- 
 ment forward. It is quite impossible to get 
 a nasal tone with the syllable Cee. The lower- 
 ing and lifting of the under jaw is simply an 
 accessory to the enlarging of the aperture the 
 lips desire to make, and the snapping of the 
 tongue is simply a primitive aid to bring the 
 vibrated breath upon the lips before we change 
 it into tone vibration. The teeth aid the lips 
 to cut off suddenly some of the vibrations that 
 are to be changed into tonal forms. Practice 
 will enable the student to transform vibrated 
 breath into tone the moment he separates his 
 lips, and there to hold, change and mold this 
 tone at pleasure and will. 
 
 A difficulty that sometimes presents itself 
 in practice is that the lips begin to form a 
 very clouded tone, especially on the roundest 
 forms. Some radical change is needed, and 
 we find it in the consonant D with the 
 element, i. e., Dee. Dee forces the lips to 
 
 52
 
 spread, and immediately we get a change of 
 tone, clear, altho much thinner, for thin- 
 ness is the character of the sound Dee. 
 
 If some should have extreme difficulty in 
 snapping the lips when they first try Pee, they 
 must not give up trying to snap the lips, as this 
 must be learned because of its indispensable 
 aid in keeping the tone in its proper place on 
 the lips. The consonant F, placed before the 
 element, i. e., Fee, will force a snap of the lips. 
 The upper lip should press hard against the 
 upper teeth and down upon the lower lip, so 
 that the surface of the lower lip is wholly 
 covered. In this way it is impossible to make 
 the sound without snapping the lips. The 
 aperture at the mouth should be small. Allow 
 the lower jaw to work naturally with the lower 
 lip it is unnatural to contort the lower part 
 of the face, for it creates an unnatural and un- 
 musical tone. The jaw must be used simply as 
 an accessory to the movement of the lips. 
 
 Sometimes the tones get a thick, puddingy 
 quality on a P when the Peu is used. The 
 pronunciation of the consonant B, with the 
 lips, will immediately produce a clearer and 
 harder tone than with the consonant P. Care 
 should be taken, however, not to keep to the 
 Bee too long, for it in turn will make you pro- 
 duce the tones hard. Bee demands a hard snap 
 and, consequently, a hardening of the lips. 
 
 53
 
 The consonant P, combined with the ele- 
 ment, i. e., the syllable Pee, by a long 
 experience with thousands of voices, has 
 proven to produce the medium between a soft 
 and hard tone. If the tone should appeal to 
 the ear of the student or to those who are 
 directing him as becoming too hard (tho 
 the student himself must build his own tone 
 ideals) the syllable Ghee (pronounced Shjee) 
 will be found of inestimable value. The syl- 
 lable Ghee is very efficient for cultivating 
 richness in tone. 
 
 The consonant P is not to be used with any 
 of the rounder forms after the Peu, as it is too 
 soft in character. After the element is placed 
 on the lips we need no other consonant with 
 the "u," except the Y, because the sound of "u" 
 is begun with the element in a less rounded 
 form. If the Yu has a tendency to become 
 nasal or to slip back into the throat, combine it 
 with the syllable Cee, i. e., Cee-yu. The Cee- 
 yu should at first be used on one notation 
 only. 
 
 The rounded forms of "o," on account of 
 their very fullness, at first need a harder snap 
 of the lips in order to throw them off. So in- 
 stead of the consonant P we use the harder 
 consonant B, and practice Bo. For the same 
 reason that we use Yee instead of Pee on the 
 scales, so we use the Y in combination with 
 
 54
 
 the "o." Bo is not to be used until Yu and Yo 
 come easily. The Yu and Yo are the element 
 in a less rounded form than Bo. Bo will 
 aid to give a fuller, rounder sound. If Bo does 
 not come full and round, use Cho (pronounced 
 Cho not Ko). If Bo has a tendency to muf- 
 fle, use Ro. In order to aid the under jaw 
 to work naturally with the movement of the 
 lips, use Lo. The student must judge with his 
 ear what syllables are best adapted to aid the 
 production of the rounded forms in their place 
 on the outer edge of the lips. In order to give 
 the lips a chance to limber the muscles neces- 
 sary for holding the sound in place, practice 
 the exercises a few times with the placing syl- 
 lable Pee. The melodic exercises are a valu- 
 able aid whenever the production of tone be- 
 comes stiff or cramped. Concentrate closely 
 to create the rounded forms with the same 
 little muscles at the same aperture where the 
 elemental form is produced. 
 
 Using with ingenuity and good sense the 
 constantly developing discriminatory powers 
 of his ear and his growing musical conception, 
 the student can beautify the tones more and 
 more, and make the muscles of the lips form 
 every kind of tone that he desires to produce. 
 
 55

 
 Timbre and Quality. 
 Division of the Voices. 
 
 The human voice is of different timbres in 
 both male and female. Timbre gives that 
 character to a voice by which we are able to 
 classify it more nearly than by range alone. 
 To take, for example: A soprano and a con- 
 tralto may have the same range, yet when they 
 sing the same note of a scale, say a middle C, 
 the contralto's tone will sound several notes 
 lower than that of the soprano's, , and again, 
 the voice of the baritone-tenor will sound 
 lower than that of the lyric tenor. Timbre 
 gives a lighter or heavier effect to the voice. 
 Just as Nature stamps an individuality on 
 every part of a person as the result of his life 
 and thought, so she stamps on the voice an in- 
 dividuality expressed thru the timbre. 
 
 The voice has another possibility of ex- 
 pression, which we call quality. Quality, un- 
 like timbre, is changeable to the degree that 
 it can express the thousand different colorings 
 of every emotion. The muscles of the lips, 
 thru their thoro training, can give a form 
 to the tonal wave they create that will 
 
 57
 
 express a feeling of gladness, sorrow love, 
 anger, etc., as the emotions and mind may di- 
 rect. Quality is a changeable thing timbre 
 is a permanent thing. 
 
 Timbre is an individual characteristic of the 
 voice, just as the formation of the lips is an 
 individual physical expression of character, 
 whether crudely or more happily formed. All 
 of us appear differently, all of us walk differ- 
 ently, all of us express ourselves differently, 
 and so it is with our vocal expression. As our 
 physical selves differ in body form, so the 
 sound waves that we produce differ in their 
 wave form of timbre. Just as the muscles of 
 the lips are shaped a trifle differently in each 
 person, so also the two sinews, by means of 
 which we vibrate the air into greater or 
 smaller waves, to be created into tone by the 
 lips, are of various lengths. 
 
 We say that a person's timbre changes in 
 that his voice sounds deeper or higher, tho 
 at all times his voice may be recognized as a 
 bass or tenor. This small change in the light- 
 ness or heaviness of the voice, however, is a 
 lack of development, and only momentary, for 
 every individual will finally discover that there 
 is one certain timbre in which his voice is most 
 expressive of every quality. 
 
 The difference of timbre in the comparative 
 voices of male and female is an octave. In the 
 
 58
 
 female voice we recognize, according to range 
 and timbre, soprano, mezzo-soprano, mezzo- 
 contralto, contralto and alto in the male 
 voices, tenor, baritone-tenor, baritone, basso 
 and bass. 
 
 Altho voices are classed according to their 
 range and timbre, and rather to their high 
 and low timbre than range, the contralto must 
 have low notes else we call her a mezzo-con- 
 tralto. If the low notes are very weak in a 
 female voice and the high notes fairly strong, 
 with the tones above the G in the staff to G 
 above middle C high-timbred and full, the 
 voice is probably a mezzo-soprano. 
 
 In the soprano the timbre is very high and 
 the more lyric the higher the timbre is apt to 
 be, altho this is not always the case. A 
 soprano will feel at home on the tones above 
 a middle C even tho her voice may not range 
 higher than an A flat. 
 
 The same that is true of the female is true of 
 the male voices. The tenor and the baritone- 
 tenor may have the same range, but the timbre 
 of the tenor is higher than that of the baritone- 
 tenor, and that of the baritone-tenor higher 
 than that of the baritone of the baritone 
 higher than that of the basso. 
 
 59
 
 Division of the Voices 
 
 (Desig. on the Piano) 
 
 Contralto Mezzo-contralto Mezz-8oprano Soprano 
 
 -U& 
 
 
 
 
 t 1 
 
 IS 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 f'ass Pari'.on? Baritone-tenor Tenor 
 
 Baritone-tenor and tenor score usually written in 
 treble cleft. 
 
 Baritone-tenor Tenor 
 
 60
 
 Assimilation of the Voice 
 
 By assimilation is meant the training of the 
 voice to pass from tone to tone of the entire 
 range without any perceptible change. By as- 
 similating the voice from the lowest to the 
 highest tone its greatest tonal possibilities can 
 be unfolded, and it consequently, gains tjiat 
 timbre thruout which expresses the individ- 
 uality of the voice most clearly and forcibly. 
 
 If the voice is a lyric soprano, all the tones, 
 the low as well as the high, should preserve 
 the lyric timbre, for the individuality of the 
 voice can be expressed only when the lyric 
 character is maintained thruout all its work. 
 In this way the low tones will not detract from 
 the tripping coloratura and cadenzas of the 
 upper range where, in coloratura, the lyric 
 voice finds its natural mode of expression. 
 
 If the voice is a dramatic soprano, the dra- 
 matic timbre of the so-called "medium" 
 range should be carried to its highest note, for 
 it is the dramatic timbre which expresses its 
 character. The terms "head," "medium" and 
 "chest" are used simply to designate a certain 
 part of the range. As generally understood, 
 
 61
 
 these designate not alone certain sections of 
 the range but unknowingly designate also cer- 
 tain timbres, of which the mis-directed be- 
 ginner gives a different one on each of the so- 
 called sections. Of course, a voice should have 
 only one timbre thruout its entire range in 
 which to express every quality and, there- 
 fore, the range has really no sections. These 
 different timbres come from wrong placement 
 and lack of assimilation. By thus assimilating 
 the dramatic timbre, the voice acquires the 
 power necessary to express its individuality. 
 
 The uncertainty of unassimilated voices is 
 seen in the lyric voice when it has cultivated 
 tones here and there with dramatic fervor. 
 This unnatural dramatic expression will al- 
 ways sound affected and be destructive of 
 those rippling, bell-like effects that are pecu- 
 liarly the property of the lyric voice. 
 
 Again, when after a few stirring tones, the 
 dramatic soprano flies off suddenly into a thin, 
 high voice, so destructive of its dramatic pos- 
 sibilities, its lack of assimilation is most keenly 
 felt. The dramatic voice should be rich, 
 vibrant and full of sympathy. 
 
 If the contralto peals out rich, beautiful, low 
 tones and suddenly breaks into a different 
 timbre on high notes so as to create almost 
 two distinct voices, the tonal harmony of the 
 voice is destroyed. In the contralto voice, 
 
 62
 
 especially, in consequence of its deep range, 
 this break or change of timbre is most per- 
 ceptible. This break, altho not so apparent 
 in the mezzo-contralto, is nevertheless a diffi- 
 culty that must be overcome. The mezzo- 
 contralto should assimilate the voice with the 
 "medium" tones as models for timbre. 
 
 All female voices must use "medium voice" 
 
 from C below the staff IKZZ^I to C in the 
 
 1 
 
 J & 
 
 clef '/fo for it is this "medium voice" that 
 
 / 
 
 covers all perceptible breaks. If, for instance, 
 the contralto uses what is known as "chest" 
 
 tones to an F or G in the staff /As 9 , and 
 
 *r~ 
 
 then breaks off into a "medium," or, in un- 
 usual cases, uses "chest" to an A or B flat 
 
 and there breaks into the so-called 
 
 "head voice," which, however, is really neither 
 "head" nor "medium," the "medium" tones 
 will scarcely be heard, and the tones between 
 
 the break and the B flat or D flat 
 
 where the "head voice" begins, may be entirely 
 lost, and whatever of tone there is will sound 
 
 63
 
 like the voice of a child. The so-called "chest 
 voice" in the contralto is produced easily up to 
 
 an F below middle C /V , and it cannot 
 
 be lost. The beginner's "chest voice" is hard, 
 and if used pure above C below the staff 
 
 stops all flexibility of tone. When 
 
 the mellow "medium" tone is then suddenly 
 contrasted with the beginner's hard "chest," 
 there result two distinct voices. In order to 
 avoid this the contralto should begin to mix 
 the "medium" with the "chest" on a C below 
 
 the staff fr\ Thus the hardness of the 
 
 "chest" tone gradually merges into the "me- 
 
 dium" up to an F /L , after which the 
 
 tones should be pure "medium." The "chest 
 voice" should begin to tell powerfully on the 
 
 B below the C (ft and down to the lowest 
 
 tone. C and D f(Y) become mixed tones 
 
 in which the "chest" predominates. The mix- 
 
 64
 
 ing of these timbres gives ease by virtue of the 
 "medium," and especially in concerted work, 
 where the need of it is most noticeable, does 
 it give strength to the "medium" by virtue of 
 the "chest" timbre. 
 
 Therefore, if the "chest" is used up to an F 
 
 the "medium" timbre refuses to 
 
 ?== 
 
 answer up to a middle CZ^ZZZIbut by building 
 
 V* j 
 
 the lower "medium" tones, the upper 
 "medium voice" is strengthened so that it will 
 respond loudly. In beginning to assimilate 
 the "medium" on the first four notes, i. e., C 
 
 to F((\) these may be so weak as to dis- 
 
 courage, but practice will make them grow 
 rich and beautiful in a short time. The mis- 
 
 take of using "chest" timbre to an F 
 
 is common even with the soprano voice. The 
 soprano ought never to use "chest" tones. 
 The soprano has to consider but one difficulty, 
 which will right itself naturally if the tonal 
 possibilities that lie in the individuality of the 
 voice, be it lyric or dramatic, are cultivated. 
 The difficulty comes upon F, F sharp and G 
 above middle C. 
 
 65
 
 What is true of female voices in their range 
 is respectively true of the male voices in their 
 range. 
 
 The greatest care and close watchfulness 
 must be given to the practice of the exercises 
 for assimilating the voice. The muscles of 
 the lips cannot immediately respond at the 
 desire of the ear to every call of the tonal 
 imagination, for they have not yet developed 
 the strength and, consequently, neither the 
 dexterity with which to form tonal waves out 
 of the vibrations they have received. Indeed, 
 the ear cannot yet recognize the mixed tone 
 necessary to grive expression to the greatest 
 tonal possibilities of which the individual's 
 voice is capable. The discriminatory powers 
 of the ear must learn to select that form of 
 sound which to it is the most beautiful. It is 
 this most beautiful form that the voice must 
 assimilate thruout its entire range. 
 
 Certain forms of tone waves, such as are 
 created in the throat or in the head cavities, 
 will not give the muscles of the lips the exer- 
 cise necessary for a gradual transition of tone 
 from what is called by the vocal artist "chest" 
 to what is termed "medium." There is, in 
 reality, neither a "chest" nor a "medium regis- 
 ter." The formation of a tone that is called 
 "chest" is simply a matter of the formation of 
 a sound wave by the muscles of the lips, as is 
 
 66
 
 also the tone called "medium." And there is 
 no such thing as a "head voice," because if we 
 are going to throw the tones thru our heads 
 we will surely change the natural form of the 
 tone vibration and retard the formation of 
 sound waves in many ways. To bear down, 
 then, away from the head all vibration of 
 breath that we wish to vocalize with our lips, 
 is our first and most important effort. We do 
 not wish to make tones come out of our chest, 
 nor to make them reverberate with a hollow 
 sound thru the chest. Nor do we strive to 
 make tones reverberate thru the nasal cavines 
 in order to give them a nasal quality. If there 
 is anything unpleasant in vocal production it 
 is the production of hollow and nasal tones. 
 What we do call for, and what all musical 
 instinct and cultivation demands, is a clear, 
 bell-like tone with its silver sweetness, or a 
 tone rich, vibrant and stirring, or a tone 
 that sounds like the mighty waves, rolling 
 unimpeded over one another, as comes from 
 the pipes of the cathedral organ. In order to 
 create such tones, free and unimpeded in their 
 motion, the vibration that is to be converted 
 into a tonal wave must be thrown upon the 
 outer edge of the lips where the little muscular 
 fibrillae can give it the tonal form of wave 
 desired. Unless the tones are produced upon 
 the outer edge of the lips, the voice will never 
 
 67
 
 become assimilated to its greatest degree of 
 expression. 
 
 There is no need to enumerate the many 
 varieties of beautiful tones that the muscles of 
 the lips can give to the wave formations. The 
 very fact that the lips are able to form so. many 
 varied sound vibrations gives each person a 
 power to express his individuality in tonal 
 form. All of us have different tonal imagina- 
 tions in so far as our varied mental processes 
 and the individuality of our natures have been 
 developed instinctively and thru experience. 
 The voices, whether soprano, contralto, tenor, 
 bass, etc., are in themselves a means of expres- 
 sion of individuality, but the entire range of a 
 voice must be assimilated in order to bring out 
 its greatest tonal possibilities. Whether the 
 character of a voice in its expression is lyric 
 or dramatic depends on the temperament of 
 the individual. However, the expression of a 
 voice, as in all things, lies in the strength of the 
 desire with which the individual pursues his 
 development. 
 
 There are, however, laws of the universe to 
 which we must conform and to which our 
 beings must to a greater or less measure be 
 attuned. As we grow in discrimination we 
 are stirred by certain sounds, and by others we 
 are unaffected. Because one can create a pow- 
 erful tone is no reason that he can affect others 
 
 f>8
 
 with it. A powerful tone is not necessarily a 
 beautiful tone, tho the development of produc- 
 ing a powerful tone is a necessity toward mak- 
 ing a beautiful tone, and also a necessity in so 
 far as it gives the strength to create beautiful 
 tones with dexterity. The desire for develop- 
 ment calls for physical ability. To train this 
 strength to express the many varied forms of 
 lighter and heavier work becomes, then, the 
 next most important step. In assimilating the 
 voice the student must make certain that he 
 can produce all tones of his range with 
 strength, and that he does not leave one part of 
 the range weaker than the other. 
 
 In order to send a vibration that is strong 
 enough to be transformed by the lips into a 
 bell-like tone, the student must have acquired 
 the ability to produce first a powerful tone. 
 The lips must be dexterous enough to trans- 
 form the vibration that is sent to their edge into 
 a bell-like tone. In order to gain this, practice 
 for the muscles of the lips and exercise for the 
 power of sending vibrations to the lips is a 
 necessary daily demand. To acquire it in a 
 greater degree than one at present possesses 
 depends simply upon the amount of concen- 
 trative effort and actual practice he gives to 
 attain it. 
 
 Difficulties may arise. There are very few 
 who are born with the instinctive knowledge of 
 
 69
 
 producing tones properly even on three or four 
 notes of a scale. There are others who have 
 not cultivated the ability to discriminate tonal 
 forms, altho they have studied for years. They 
 have encountered some disastrous difficulties, 
 one of which they were told was the change 
 from "chest" to "medium" and another from 
 "medium" to "head." These voices suffer for 
 the lack of assimilation, and in the contralto, 
 on account of her deep range, this is most ap- 
 parent. 
 
 Such of the women who possess low voices 
 may try to produce a tone upon C below the 
 staff and then follow the scale up to an F or 
 even to a B flat below middle C, keeping, as 
 their ear tells them, the same wave formation 
 of tone upon every note. They find that they 
 produce a certain wave formation upon the A 
 below the staff. Their ear accepts that wave . 
 formation, it being either the best tone that the 
 lips, thru the dexterity of its muscles, can per- 
 form, or that their tonal imagination can call 
 for. They find, perhaps, that this is the most 
 powerful sound that they can produce of the 
 low tone in imitation of the sound represented 
 by some letter of our language which their ear 
 has accepted. As they go up the scale they 
 find suddenly somewhere between an F and B 
 flat below middle C that they can no longer 
 form the tone, or if they can, that a number 
 
 70
 
 of tones above where this inability of producing 
 a sound ceases, are very weak. They go 
 higher and find suddenly that they can begin 
 to produce sound again, i. e., they try to make 
 a tone no matter how, and if it happens to take 
 form it does, if it doesn't, it doesn't. If they 
 try again they may find that their tones cease 
 at a different note on the scale. They have 
 taken a new way of making the tone, perhaps, 
 they may have used a different syllable. This 
 strikes them as peculiar and they immediately 
 say that there must be different "voices" to the 
 range, else this would not be so. In the use of 
 a different syllable they have hit upon the 
 secret path to right placement; for, as has been 
 shown, some syllables can be produced only in 
 the right place, i. e., on the lips. If such a 
 syllable is used over the entire range of the 
 voice up and down scale there will be no 
 change. 
 
 They have never made a greater mistake 
 than to look upon the production of tone as 
 resulting from different "registers." The 
 muscles of the lips, as is proven by giving them 
 a syllable they can easily vocalize, simply 
 lacked the dexterity necessary to change the 
 vibration sent to them into a tonal wave. 
 They may have used a syllable which they 
 formed on the throat or in the head. They 
 may have lacked the power to vibrate their 
 
 71
 
 breath sufficiently in order to send the vibra- 
 tions to their proper place upon the lips there 
 to be changed and formed into beautiful 
 tonal waves. For these reasons they excuse 
 themselves and blame Nature for having given 
 them such an intricate construction wherewith 
 to produce sound. They did not stop to con- 
 sider that because they could not immediately 
 form such tonal waves as their imagination 
 calls for, that it was not the fault of the struc- 
 ture, but the fault of their analysis of tone 
 which tells them that the easiest tone to pro- 
 duce is the one created on the lips. 
 
 Because they could create tone in some other 
 way, perhaps forming the tone wave some- 
 where in the throat or in the head, they 
 thought that it was quite necessary to twist the 
 throat into certain shapes in order to get tone, 
 and neglected entirely the pliable muscles of 
 the lips. 
 
 If we produce the sound nearest the ele- 
 ment we will make a very sharp "ee" sound. 
 This "ee" sound with the aid of the consonant 
 P is at first the easiest sound that can be 
 created on the lips. When we, therefore, bring 
 the vibration that is to be formed into a tonal 
 wave upon the lips with the snap of the con- 
 sonant P and shut down the muscles of the lips 
 so that they form a very sharp "ee," a tone 
 wave will result that we can create without a 
 
 72
 
 "break" on every tone step of the whole range 
 as far up and down as we can go. Probably 
 the very first hours' practice will demonstrate 
 the truth of this fact. 
 
 It is our object to train our lips and our 
 ears for the creation of the most beautiful 
 tones. The bell-like quality will be easiest 
 at first for the lips to form upon notes 
 from E on the staff to middle C for the 
 contralto, bass and baritone, and for the 
 soprano and tenor from G below middle C to 
 F above middle C. For the formation of 
 these tones the lips should be exercised and 
 the discriminatory powers of the ear culti- 
 vated. The individuality of the voice, as it is 
 called, is nothing more or less than the fervor 
 which the individual himself longs to express. 
 The muscles of our bodies will respond more 
 or less readily to express any mood of our 
 minds. Our muscles will answer the more 
 dexterously and express in action the more 
 readily and perfectly the feeling and thought 
 we desire to express, the more training and 
 practice we give them to strengthen their easy 
 and free yet forceful action. 
 
 In order to form beautiful sound waves the 
 vibrators, with which we produce the vibra- 
 tions, and the muscles of the lips, with which 
 we give the vibrations their tonal forms, need 
 much practice. There is one thing that after all 
 
 73
 
 will control completely and entirely the degree 
 of beauty that we gain that controlling power 
 is the ear. If we, in the sensing of sound vibra- 
 tions, lack the discriminating power of separat- 
 ing the beautiful or the musical from the not 
 beautiful or unmusical, we lack that brain 
 power, or cultivation of that brain power, 
 which is an absolute necessity in the vocal art. 
 The ear, then, controls and the ear, therefore, 
 above all, must be cultivated and its power for 
 discriminating sound must be increased. With- 
 out this the tonal imagination is nil. That 
 formation of tone which to the ear expresses 
 the individual longing and desire is the one to 
 assimilate and to develop. We must take into 
 consideration also the power of producing 
 vibrations that are to be formed into tones. If 
 we are able to produce big, rich tones on a few 
 notes of the scale, we should train our lips and 
 develop our power for producing the big vibra- 
 tions which are necessary for the forming of 
 tones from the lowest to the highest note of 
 our range. 
 
 By this, then, may we more clearly under- 
 stand what assimilation means. We learn to 
 know, first, the size of the vibrations that we 
 are able to produce as is shown by the tone 
 waves formed of them ; secondly, the dexterity 
 with which the lips make use of the vibrations; 
 third, the power of the ear to discriminate;
 
 fourth, the feeling and thought we long to 
 express as controlled by the directing power 
 of the soul and mind. 
 
 We should express ourselves in that tonal 
 form which gives us the greatest possibilities 
 of giving out the thoughts and desires that are 
 deepest in us and which go to build our con- 
 ception of the things that make up life. If we 
 cultivate this tone form we will train our ear 
 and assimilate in our aural memory that 
 degree of timbre and that quality which ex- 
 presses our individual character as only a thor- 
 oly assimilated voice can express it on every 
 note of the scale that lies within its range. 
 
 75
 
 Crescendo and Diminuendo 
 
 The crescendo and diminuendo of a tone 
 should not be attempted until the sotto voce 
 comes easily. The diminishing of a tone is 
 something that is acquired gradually. It 
 should be cultivated thruout all the exercises 
 in the degree that the tone should be allowed 
 to finish easily and naturally. The student 
 will very soon appreciate this artistic idea. 
 
 In diminishing a forte tone into the mezza 
 voce by decreasing the intensity so that the 
 farthest listener can just hear clearly the full, 
 round sound, the tone, if .still further dimin- 
 ished, must begin to pass into the sotto voce. 
 The intensity of tone and the fullness of 
 tone are two different things. The life, or 
 amplitude, of a sound wave depends on the 
 intensity with which the sound is created. 
 The fullness of a sound wave depends on the 
 form. The intensity gives the sound wave 
 power to reach the listener. The greater or 
 less fullness of a wave form gives the wave a 
 bigger or finer structure. A very fine spin- 
 ning tone on the lips may have the same 
 intensity that is given to a full, round sound. 
 
 77
 
 These two, then, have the same intensity but 
 differ in fullness. The fine, thin sound, how- 
 ever, altho it has the same intensity as a mezza 
 voce tone, is not accepted by the ear as a mezza 
 voce tone. For a mezza voce tone is a tone in 
 its full, round form with an intensity just great 
 enough to make it heard clearly by the farthest 
 listener. In the mezza voce we have the least 
 loud sound of the full, round tone in the 
 diminishing of the sotto voce we are constantly 
 approaching closer and closer to the element 
 of tone. 
 
 When the intensity is lessened more and 
 more after the mezza voce tone passes into the 
 sotto voce, it will have power only to travel a 
 less and less distance, so that the listeners 
 farthest away will soon no longer hear the 
 sound. Therefore, in order to have a dimin- 
 ishing tone heard by the farthest listener, the 
 intensity of the tone must be kept sufficiently 
 strong to create a wave amplitude that will 
 carry the sound vibration of the full, rounded 
 tone of the mezza voce to the most distant part 
 of the resonant space. By bringing the lips 
 closer together, however, the artist can make 
 his tones less full, and, hence, diminish them 
 without diminishing the intensity, or the wave 
 amplitude. The degree of loudness, i- e., in- 
 tensity, must always be in proportion to the 
 resonant space. By bringing the lips grad- 
 
 78
 
 ually closer together, the tone can be dimin- 
 ished to the very last thread of its fineness. If 
 the lips are kept open as they are for a full, 
 round tone, the sound, after it has passed from 
 the mezza voce into the sotto voce, with the 
 lips still in the same open position, will no 
 longer be audible to the listeners farther away, 
 and finally will be lost even to those nearest 
 the singer. The singer, when he keeps his lips 
 open, diminishes only the intensity and not 
 the fullness of the tone. To diminish the 
 intensity of a forte tone into a mezza voce is 
 well and good as long as the tone in the mezza 
 voce can be heard by the farthest listener but 
 when the artist passes from the mezza voce 
 into the sotto voce, the intensity may no 
 longer be diminished; for if the intensity, or 
 wave amplitude, is diminished, the tone will 
 die out before it reaches the most distant lis- 
 tener. A spinning tone is a very fine tone and 
 is made with the lips close together. In order 
 to diminish a mezza voce tone gradually into 
 the finest of spinning tones, the lips must be 
 brought dexterously closer and closer this 
 lessens the fulness of the tone more and more 
 until it finally reaches the last thread of its 
 sound. 
 
 The crescendo and diminuendo should be 
 practiced on the tones which can be created 
 
 79
 
 most easily on the lips. Not until the cres- 
 cendo and diminuendo can be accomplished on 
 these notes should the student try to do the 
 same on the higher and lower ones, else he 
 will be apt to misplace them. A crescendo or 
 diminuendo, or both, should be used to a 
 greater or less degree on the same tone and 
 surely in successive tones in the same rythmic 
 beat. Especially in dramatic work should this 
 crescendo and diminuendo be felt very strong- 
 ly. This must be left to the development of 
 the artistic comprehension of the student. 
 Crescendo and diminuendo must not be con- 
 fused with vibrato. Even tho tones are ex- 
 pressed very dramatically with close vibrato 
 it does not say that there may be no crescendo 
 and diminuendo. The vibrato belongs to the 
 body and form of the wave. The vibrato is the 
 constant increase and decrease of amplitude 
 or intensity in one wave the crescendo and 
 diminuendo is an increase and decrease in am- 
 plitude or intensity of successive waves. The 
 crescendo and diminuendo in its greatest form 
 passes from the finest tone to the roundest, 
 fullest sound and back again into the fine, 
 thread-like tone. 
 
 In the stolid work, where the notes are 
 held a long time and are given with great in- 
 tensity, the beginner will find that he can 
 vocalize every particle of breath and increase 
 
 80
 
 the duration of his tone by bringing the lips 
 closer together as his breath gives out. Final- 
 ly, of course, there is never any want for 
 breath, for a little breath, if vocalized, makes a 
 tone of very long duration. It is not in reality 
 a question of breath capacity, but it is a ques- 
 tion of vocalizing breath. There is really no 
 control of breath, for if the syllables are pro- 
 duced on the lips, the breath cannot help but 
 be vocalized. 
 
 The composer must leave to the imagination 
 of the artist the use of the crescendo and 
 diminuendo in the interpretation of the vocal 
 setting. In order to properly express the 
 emotions the singer must increase and dimin- 
 ish his tones, for in this he will find one of the 
 greatest aids to interpretation and dramatic 
 effect. 
 
 81
 
 Vibrato 
 
 Among the surprises that are in store for the 
 beginner is one that makes itself manifest very 
 early in the training. This phenomenon, which 
 is supposed to come only to those who have 
 worked long and arduously, or which is ac- 
 corded as a gift to the few, comes as a natural 
 result of creating the tonal waves freely and 
 unimpeded. Vibrato, then, is the natural re- 
 sult of free and unimpeded vibration, whether 
 in the lyric or dramatic voice. Tonal waves 
 created by the muscles of the lips have, there- 
 fore, a vibrato. By vibrato in the lyric voice 
 is meant that the vibration of tone has an even 
 swing, whereas in the dramatic expression the 
 sound constantly has a tendency to become 
 more or less intense as surplus energy is 
 crowded into or taken away from the body of 
 the sound wave. Vibrato is a constant cres- 
 cendo and diminuendo during the life of each 
 wave. 
 
 83
 
 Portamento 
 
 Portamento should in every case be avoided, 
 indeed, should never be used, because it de- 
 stroys both the beauty of the tone you start 
 from and the one you reach for. To slide from 
 one tone to another gives an uncertainty of 
 pitch. Tones should always be created sep- 
 arately and distinctly, no matter how finely 
 they may be brought into the sotto voce or 
 how legato they may be sung. Legato in all 
 its forms is best. 
 
 Coloratura 
 
 Coloratura must be acquired by hard work. 
 The great trouble with students in general is 
 that they want to play with tones too soon. 
 Before the student goes on to coloratura he 
 must learn to do scales. But he must also 
 work his way to the scales. Garcia says, 
 "Those who wish to sing scales or other pas- 
 sages without having begun on two, three or 
 four notes, risk failing to execute roulades.'" 
 In order to acquire facility in running the 
 scales the student must begin on one, then on 
 two and then on five notes as given in the first 
 three exercises of the Elementary exercise 
 book. One of the worst things that a pupil can 
 
 85
 
 do is to sing a scale with long holds, for he loses 
 his flexibility in thinking of the holds. Flexi- 
 bility gives agility. If the student's tone pro- 
 duction is not flexible he cannot give a rapidity 
 of tones in succession. The golden rule for the 
 correct intonation and clean-cut production of 
 every note of a scale is to accent the second 
 note going up and the second note coming 
 down. Exercises for scale practice should be 
 followed out as given with the directions in the 
 Intermediary exercise book. Coloratura ex- 
 ercises proper and directions for the same are 
 given in the Advanced exercise book with the 
 aid of the syllables Yee, Yu and Yo. The 
 student should remember not to sing color- 
 atura below mezza voce at first. 
 
 Imitation aids but little in the acquirement 
 of coloratura, yet hearing it well executed will 
 help the tonal imagination, thru the tonal 
 memory, to build beautiful coloratura ideals.
 
 Sotto Voce 
 
 The sotto voce is the last part of the art. 
 Few, if any, have completely mastered it. 
 Sotto voce work should not be attempted 
 unless the tones can be produced upon the 
 lips. If, instead, they are crowded into the 
 nasal cavines, they will lack both the carrying 
 power and the sweetness which they havewhen 
 produced upon the outer edge of the lips. 
 Worst of all, a tone forced up thru the nasal 
 cavines will almost invariably be off pitch. 
 This fact is unconsciously demonstrated by 
 some of our most famous singers. The finest 
 of sotto voce tones upon the lips has what a 
 humming tone has not, that is, body, clearness 
 and sweetness, and the finer its fineness the 
 more elemental is its character. Unless a 
 fine sotto voce tone is keenly elemental it will 
 not reach the listener; for as all tone finds its 
 beginning in the elemental sound, it finds there 
 also its end. 
 
 By a forte tone is meant a tone of very great 
 intensity. A dramatic singer, when he wishes 
 to startle his hearers, makes a tone that re- 
 echoes in the resonant space. In the mezza 
 
 87
 
 voce the intensity of tone should be such that 
 the tone carries distinctly to the last listener. 
 The degrees of intensity between the forte and 
 the mezza voce are at the artistic command of 
 the ear. But too much of the over-intensity 
 destroys musical contrast. 
 
 When we speak of sotto voce we must 
 realize that it is a tone that must be heard 
 thruout its whole existence so that not even 
 the finest of its diminuendo is lost to any of the 
 audience. In order to make the mezza voce 
 distinct, it need not, nor should it have, intens- 
 ity to a greater degree than is necessary to 
 make it perfectly audible to the most distant 
 listener. Even the narrative style, which is 
 expressed by the mezza. voce tone, may be 
 swelled and diminished a trifle for the sake 
 of rhythm or for artistic effect by contrast. A 
 mezza. voce tone, we see, has its minimum of 
 intensity in the intensity that is necessary to 
 just carry it to the other end of the resonant 
 space. The sotto voce tone also, in order to 
 be heard by those farthest away, must be given 
 with the intensity that will carry it to the most 
 distant listener. According to , intensity, 
 therefore, the mezza voce and sotto voce are 
 apparently one and the same tone. But this 
 is not so. 
 
 The intensity of tone is one thing and has 
 its limitation in the farthest listener. The full- 
 
 88
 
 ness, or bigness, of tone, however, is another 
 thing and has its limitation in the finest of 
 thread-like tones. We must consider, there- 
 fore, in the diminishing of the sotto voce, since 
 the intensity in the sotto voce must always 
 remain the same, the bigness of the tone. 
 Now a full tone is created with the lips far 
 apart. The larger the opening of the lips, the 
 fuller should the tone be that is created by 
 them. This is shown when we call thru mega- 
 phones, the ends of which vary in size. The 
 same is illustrated when we fit a horn with a 
 larger aperture to the phonograph. The 
 sound produced is fuller. The same proves 
 true with the production of tone on the lips. 
 The larger the aperture made with the lips, the 
 fuller will be the tone created. 
 
 The intensity of a tone has its limitation as 
 soon as the listener farthest away loses the 
 sound. A big tone, therefore, i. e., a full tone, 
 will remain full and big as long as the lips 
 retain the same sized aperture that they make 
 when the tone is given either in forte or mezza 
 voce. But a big tone may be diminished and 
 the intensity remain to such a degree that the 
 listener farthest away may hear it in the finest 
 of its forms. This refining of tone in the sotto 
 voce can be dexterously brought about by 
 bringing the lips closer and closer together 
 until the tone is finally but a mere thread, tho 
 

 
 audible in the farthest corner of the resonant 
 space. 
 
 By holding the tone persistently forward it 
 can be continued almost to any length without 
 tiring, and without the least breakage, so that 
 it makes the singer wonder from where he gets 
 the breath. The truth of the matter is that he 
 vocalizes every particle of breath he uses, and 
 the amount he uses is infinitesimally small. It 
 takes but little breath to make a round, power- 
 ful tone when the breath is properly vocalized. 
 
 A sotto voce and mezza voce tone travel with 
 the same velocity as a loud tone. That is 
 proven when we hear parts of an orchestra 
 playing loudly and softly at the same time. 
 The amplitude of every sound wave deter- 
 mines the intensity of the sound. We must 
 take into consideration that with the change of 
 amplitude, and, hence, the intensity of the 
 sound wave, the sound will be carried to a less 
 distance than a sound made by a wave of 
 greater amplitude. Therefore, if we produce 
 a loud tone and gradually diminish it, the tone 
 will lose in carrying power as the amplitude is 
 allowed to decrease, which, of course, will 
 cause this tone to be heard at a less distance. 
 
 Therefore, it is not only the giving of less 
 and less bigness to tone that we must consider, 
 but in diminishing the tone from the mezza. 
 
 90
 
 voce into the sotto voce to keep, the intensity, 
 or carrying power the same. 
 
 If we form our lips to whistle we will find 
 that we make a very small aperture, and if we 
 open our lips widely the sound will cease, 
 whereas if we close our lips more and more the 
 whistle is still produced, which, tho smaller, is 
 quite as intense as the first bigger whistling 
 tone. The amplitude of the sound waves has 
 remained unchanged. 
 
 The same is true of tone waves. In order to 
 diminish a tone and keep the intensity the same 
 we must make this aperture for the forming of 
 the sound waves smaller and smaller, i. e., we 
 must bring the lips closer together. The closer 
 the lips are brought together the more will the 
 tone be diminished, and if the tone is dimin- 
 ished into its last thread, that thread of tone 
 will be keen and very near the sound of "ee." 
 This is absolutely true if the tone wave is 
 formed out of the vibration thrown upon the 
 lips. For, if the vibration is changed into sound 
 wave in the mouth, the lips simply closed over 
 it, the sound will be deadened and not dimin- 
 ished, let alone the lack of clearness, unsteadi- 
 ness of pitch and lack of carrying power that 
 ensues. It is evident that in deadening a tone 
 the carrying power or intensity is deadened. 
 
 In the finest of diminished tones, then, we 
 get nearest to the element of tone, i. e., we find 
 
 91
 
 the sound wave that will have an amplitude 
 which will be heard as distinctly as a big tone. 
 Even the finest thread of a tapering sotto voce 
 tone must have the same intensity as the first 
 part of the sotto voce tone. Diminishing tones 
 by simply lessening the intensity of tone is of 
 use only within a very limited resonant space. 
 Sotto voce tones made without intensity in a 
 large resonant space are lost to the audience. 
 As to how great an intensity should be given to 
 a sotto voce tone in proportion to the size of 
 the resonant space, must be left to the judg- 
 ment of the singer's ear. 
 
 If the student practices in a large resonant 
 space, which by far is the most preferable, he 
 will find that in order to make his sotto voce 
 tones reach the farthest corner, he must give 
 them intensity to a degree in proportion to the 
 space. He must not practice the sotto voce 
 with so little intensity that it will not be heard 
 at the farther end. Every resonant space 
 should be carefully judged by the ear in order 
 to set the minimum of intensity. A smaller 
 resonant space demands but little intensity as 
 compared to a large resonant space. Too 
 much intensity in a small room cannot be 
 appreciated by a musical ear and the use of 
 it shows a lack of artistic judgment. A stu- 
 dent may find that in a small resonant space 
 he can create a rounder, fuller wave form 
 
 92
 
 but to an artist, whose tones fall easily from 
 their place off the lips, the difference in loud- 
 ness of tone is brought about by a difference 
 of intensity in proportion to the resonant 
 space in a large resonant space the tones 
 must have necessarily greater intensity than 
 in a small resonant space. With the artist the 
 fullness of tone remains the same in forte and 
 mezza voce the intensity of tone remains the 
 same thruout all the forms of the sotto voce, 
 and is just equivalent to the minimum intens- 
 ity of the mezza voce. The more the power 
 of creating tone is developed, the fuller the 
 tone that a singer can produce in proportion 
 to the intensity of the tone. 
 
 The diminishing of a sotto voce tone is 
 brought about by moving the lips closer to- 
 gether. In the finest forms of the sotto voce 
 the lips are apparently closed to an observer. 
 The crescendo and diminuendo of the sotto 
 voce is made by slightly increasing and dimin- 
 ishing the aperture made by the lips. It must 
 be remembered here that the least amount of 
 intensity that may be given a sotto voce tone 
 is the intensity necessary to make the tone just 
 reach the most distant listener. The amount 
 of intensity, therefore, that should be given to 
 the interpretation of the different notes of a 
 song is always a matter of the best artistic 
 judgment. Before a student may begin the 
 
 93
 
 practice of spinning his tones with hope of any 
 degree of success, he must be able first to create 
 powerful tones upon the lips. As in all things, 
 so in the vocal art, the first requisite is power. 
 Without tonal power, dexterity and agility for 
 producing notes in rapid succession is impos- 
 sible. Tones must be heard else they are of 
 no use no matter how dexterously they are 
 produced. 
 
 The syllable Pee has been found most 
 efficient for acquiring the sotto voce. The 
 sound at first should be made very keen in pro- 
 portion to the resonant space in which the stu- 
 dent practices. The lips should be very nearly 
 closed. When the Pee can be rounded and 
 held successfully without the least breakage, 
 the syllable Yee and then the syllable Yu may 
 be used in turn. In order to aid the sotto voce 
 to hold its place upon the lips, swell the tone a 
 little and diminish it as gradually two or three 
 times on one note opening and closing the lips 
 a trifle. If this does not aid sufficiently the 
 student should seek to make his tones keener 
 and sharper, i. e., give them greater intensity. 
 
 Sotto voce should first be practiced on the 
 repetition of single notes as given in the ex- 
 ercises. Later, it should be intermingled with 
 the stolid work. 
 
 A beginner is apt to find that he cannot hold 
 his sotto voce tones a very long time. This 
 
 94
 
 results because he does not vocalize the breath. 
 If he keeps his lips closely together and pro- 
 duces the syllable Pee very sharply and keen- 
 ly, he will soon be able to vocalize his breath 
 more and, consequently, produce a tone of 
 longer duration. When the breath can be 
 vocalized and the tone can be made of long 
 duration, the sotto voce can be diminished to a 
 thin, thread-like fineness by simply bringing 
 the lips closer and closer together. The best 
 results with sotto voce can be attained when 
 practiced at the end of the lesson. Sotto voce 
 with all voices should be practiced at first only 
 on the five or six notes which are the most 
 easily produced. These tones, as a rule, lie 
 somewhere in the middle of the range. 
 
 In the male voice the sotto voce should be 
 the natural tone and not the falsette. The 
 sotto voce is only a diminished form of the 
 loud tone. In order to diminsh a loud tone 
 and yet retain its carrying power, the lips 
 must gradually be brought closer and closer 
 together. Since the sotto voce is simply a 
 diminished form of the loud tone, it should, if 
 swelled, swell easily and naturally into a pow- 
 erful one, and as easily diminish again into 
 the finest of fine sounds. If the male voice is 
 allowed to pass into the falsette the tones will 
 fly from their place on the lips and cause a 
 break. By making the sotto voce keen and 
 
 95
 
 elemental as it diminishes, there will follow no 
 click nor change of voice into the falsette. 
 Tenors, especially on account of their high 
 range, must guard against this change, for it 
 destroys both beauty and sweetness. 
 
 The female falsette tone is a very thin hum- 
 ming tone that goes up into the nasal cavines, 
 and, indeed, some authorities contend that 
 there is no female falsette voice. It is so weak, 
 and the natural tone answers so clearly and 
 distinctly that the falsette of the female voice 
 causes no difficulty. 
 
 96
 
 Trill. 
 
 The trill is the rapid alternating on two 
 different notes of the scale. When it is correct 
 the two notes feel to the singer almost like one 
 tone. But in the trill the two notes must stand 
 out separately and distinctly, yet follow each 
 other without a break or pause. A cultivation 
 of the tremolo, i. e., the shaking of the voice on 
 one note should be avoided this is the result 
 of misplacement. 
 
 With the light voices it will be noticed that 
 the trill comes easier as a rule. This is not 
 hard to explain. The larger the wave form 
 created, the harder it is to make two wave 
 forms follow one another in quick succession. 
 The breath is vibrated and the larynx shakes 
 the vibrations that are thrown to the lips to be 
 formed into tone. It is much harder for the 
 larynx to shake a big vibration than a small 
 one. Some may say, "Then the wave has form 
 in the throat?" Yes, but not vocal form, or 
 at least it should not have vocal form until the 
 lips have given it the vocal form. The lips are 
 the vocalizers. 
 
 The first exercise for making the trill is to 
 
 97
 
 produce two tones slowly and decisively one 
 after the other with the syllable Pee. The top 
 note should be accented and on every repeti- 
 tion should feel as tho produced farther for- 
 ward on the lips than the preceding tone. At 
 first the two notes should be sung with a great 
 deal of intensity. One note should be made to 
 follow quickly upon the other and the speed 
 constantly increased. But the tones must ever 
 be kept decisive and without a tremble. As 
 the speed increases the intensity should be 
 moderated. We begin with intensity in order 
 to make the two tones separate and distinct. 
 As soon as the tones can be produced in quick 
 succession, the consonant P of the syllable Pee 
 must be dropped, as the P is only an aid to 
 keep the production of tone on the lips. Be- 
 ginning slowly at first with Pee-Pee-Pee-Pee 
 and as the succession of tones comes nearer 
 the trill, drop the consonant P and complete 
 the exercise with the "ee." The larynx be- 
 comes so flexible that it takes up the movement 
 of its own accord. It must be remembered 
 that every tone should be produced on the 
 outer edge of the lips thruout the exercises, so 
 that when the trill becomes a reality the tones 
 will be clear, distinct and free from all tremolo. 
 If the larynx at any time becomes stiff, a 
 little increase and decrease in intensity will aid 
 to set it in motion again and to keep the tone 
 
 98
 
 on the lips. The student, too, can always re- 
 turn to the first part of the training and pro- 
 duce the two tones slowly and decisively. 
 
 The beginner must not be discouraged if, 
 during the first week's practice, he finds the 
 top note falling a little short of pitch. This 
 simply shows that he does not get the upper 
 tones of the trill far enough forward. Again, 
 the two tones may become blurred. A little 
 slower practice will right the difficulty almost 
 at once. The two tones of a trill must always 
 be distinct, separate and without tremolo. The 
 trill must at first be practiced within the octave 
 that is easiest in the range of the voice. Sotto 
 voce work and trill work must be kept apart 
 until both come easily from the lips. If the 
 sotto voce and trill are taken up at the same 
 time, it is wise to practice them in alternate 
 lessons. 
 
 The crescendo and diminuendo of the trill 
 should be attempted only after it can be made 
 with a great degree of dexterity. By crescendo 
 and diminuendo is not meant from the least 
 to the loudest tone that can be produced, but 
 such intensity as is judged by the ear to be 
 in proportion to the resonant space. Swelling 
 the trill and bringing it back again into the 
 finest of sotto voce is a bit of art that can only 
 be acquired after long and concentrated prac- 
 tice. The question as to how much intensity 
 
 99
 
 must be given to the sotto voce of the trill 
 again becomes a matter of best artistic judg- 
 ment. It should be remembered that the 
 minimum of intensity in large halls is very 
 small. Many degrees of greatness or fineness 
 of tone from the mezza voce to the last of the 
 sotto voce can be expressed by opening or 
 closing the lips. 
 
 100
 
 Wordal Placement 
 
 The human voice, if properly trained, has 
 possibilities for sound production that place 
 it far beyond any mechanism for creating 
 musical tone. The production of human tone 
 will always remain the finest of expressions. 
 In its form alone it speaks to its auditors thru 
 the feeling that it conveys. Besides the human 
 quality, however, it possesses the power to in- 
 fluence the intellect. In grouping sounds of 
 different duration in a series of shadings the 
 voice transfers the thought from one intellect 
 to another. Every sound of the alphabet is a 
 shading of the element of tone in a more or less 
 rounded form from the keenest "e" sound to 
 the fullest, roundest sound of "o." These 
 groups of tone shadings which are known as 
 words, must not only be clear and distinct in 
 themselves but also cleanly-cut and separate in 
 each of the groupings that is part of a word. 
 Not only pronunciation but also articulation is 
 necessary for effective conveyance of feeling 
 and translation of thought. 
 
 In the decisive differentiation of each tone 
 shading, we have articulation. But before a 
 
 101
 
 student can articulate clearly he must learn to 
 understand tone-form and how to create it. 
 Correct and clear pronunciation in turn de- 
 mands clear and distinct articulation clear 
 and distinct but not disjointed. The correct 
 pronunciation of the Italian language has 
 made many fine singers in Italy. It carries 
 with it a correct placement of tone which 
 comes thru the peculiar combinations of con- 
 sonants and vowels and again of syllables that 
 force the lips to do their duty in expression. 
 When, however, we try to translate the nat- 
 ural fluency of the Italian to the English 
 tongue it is found that many difficulties 
 arise from the peculiar construction of the 
 English words that is so different from the 
 Italian. In the Italian the syllables are so 
 combined that the consonants of one syllable 
 always place the vowels of the next. This in 
 turn habituates .the correct expression so that 
 it is never lost even when the open vowel 
 sounds are made to follow one another. 
 
 From this example we get the idea of what 
 will give correct placement. Certain syllables 
 formed by a consonant and a vowel will force 
 the lips to vocalize the breath. For as we have 
 vseen there are certain syllables that can be 
 created only on the lips and with only a certain 
 amount of vocalized breath. Following out 
 the order of consonants and combining with 
 
 102
 
 them the vowel sound to which the consonants 
 first lead, and then developing the gradual 
 shading and rounding of the vowel from its 
 thinnest and keenest sound "ee" to the full, 
 rounded "o," we find that the consonants lead 
 the vowels to their true sounds. So, even when 
 a word does not begin with a consonant, by 
 placing before it an inaudible consonant the 
 vowel is perforce placed upon the lips. For ex- 
 ample, the word earth preceded by an inaudi- 
 ble "d" [(d) earth] will fall clearly and dis- 
 tinctly from the lips. 
 
 In order, therefore, to educate the ear to the 
 true musical sound of the English language in 
 song, we must study the combinations of con- 
 sonants with the vowel sounds from the keen- 
 est to the roundest form in succession. The 
 first syllables that we practice are the Pee, Cee 
 and Lee as already explained. Then, the syl- 
 lables Fee, Ghee, Chee and Yee. On these 
 follow in order Yen, Yu, Yo, Bo and Ro. The 
 first grouping of sounds and shadings are 
 taken up in the combinations of these syllables: 
 
 Pee-yeu, Pee-yu, Pee-yo, Pee-bo, Pee-ro. 
 
 Cee-yeu, Cee-yu, Cee-yo, Cee-bo, Cee-ro. 
 
 Fee-yeu, Fee-yu, Fee-yo, Fee-bo, Fee-ro. 
 
 Ghee-yeu, Ghee-yu, Ghee-yo, Ghee-bo, Ghee- 
 ro. 
 
 In the practice of these combinations of dif- 
 ferent shadings the lips should be moved not 
 
 103
 
 only in and out but also up and down, opening 
 and closing, spreading and pursing to shape 
 the sounds as the ear calls for them. In order 
 to train the lip muscles further and habituate 
 them to the natural response at sight of a syl- 
 lable that is to be transformed into a tone, the 
 following exercise practiced on a scale will be 
 very beneficial : 
 
 Pee-Bee-Cee-Fee-Ghee-Yeu-Yu-Yo. 
 
 With the very first syllables we have in 
 reality learned how to pronounce correctly the 
 words, Pea, Bee, See, Fee, Lee, Ye, You, 
 Bow, Row. It will also be found that all 
 words shaded but slightly from these will place 
 themselves upon the lips readily with but little 
 practice. In fact words of one syllable, here- 
 after, will cause no difficulty for we have taken 
 up all sound from its keenest to its roundest 
 forms as expressed by the English language. 
 We must then train the ear and the lips to 
 create the combinations of shadings as they 
 follow each other quickly in one word, and to 
 separate these combinations from those in a 
 successive word. In the table of combinations 
 we have taken up the nearest elemental sound 
 as led to its true form by the different conso- 
 nants that encourage lip service, and the 
 gradual rounding of this element in the natural 
 order. 
 
 The ear by this time has learned to judge to 
 
 104
 
 what shading of the element a new combina- 
 tion of consonants and vowels belongs. If such 
 a combination presents a difficulty the judg- 
 ment of the student should decide which of the 
 placing syllables, that he has learned to pro- 
 duce, will aid his lips to the correct creation of 
 the new tone shading. 
 
 In order to aid the student still further to 
 overcome unforeseen difficulties with the rarer 
 and more awkward combinations, the follow- 
 ing explanation of the characteristics of the 
 placing syllables is added. He will find that 
 certain syllables will aid him to modify or 
 acquire certain qualities. As to this his own 
 ear must be his guide. 
 
 Pee. 
 
 The syllable Pee, besides being the most ef- 
 fective in creating the element of tone in its 
 less rounded form upon the lips, has another 
 characteristic that strongly influences the tone. 
 The snap of the consonant P gives the tone 
 neither a hard nor a too soft sound, and for 
 that reason, as experience has proven, it is the 
 easiest consonant to pronounce in the right 
 place. 
 
 Lee. 
 
 The L in Lee gives a harder sound than P. 
 Lee must be snapped forward with vigor. 
 
 105
 
 Cee. 
 
 The consonant C gives the tone a softer 
 sound than Lee. 
 
 Bee. 
 
 The consonant B acts very nearly the same 
 as P, but it gives the tone a harder sound than 
 the consonant P. 
 
 Fee. 
 
 The consonant F forces a forward placement 
 by pressing the under lip under the upper teeth 
 and pressing the upper lip down hard. Those 
 who find it difficult to snap the P will thus find 
 it impossible to enunciate the F without snap- 
 ping it. Fee carries with it a rich quality. Its 
 forceful snap, too, will clarify tones that have 
 become puddingy. 
 
 Dee. 
 
 The consonant D gives the tone a thinness 
 and proves very useful when the tones become 
 thick. It forces the student to spread his lips 
 at every repetition and, hence, also aids flexi- 
 bility. 
 
 Chee. 
 
 When Chee is placed before a vowel or a 
 combination of a vowel and consonant it en- 
 riches the body of a sound. Chee gives a free- 
 dom and forces the lowering of the under jaw 
 
 106
 
 when it is placed before such combinations as 
 are apt to cloud or muffle. 
 
 For the sake of analysing a word we take 
 "pi-e-ta-(o)," used in the Advanced exercise 
 book. In the Italian "pi" we recognize the 
 Pee sound; in the "e" we recognize Yeu 
 rounded more to the Yu sound; in the "ta-(o)" 
 (the "o" is to show the full, round sound of the 
 "a") the sound Yo with a short sound of "o" 
 broadened which gives the Italian "a." The 
 "o" is held after the "ta" in the exercise for the 
 purpose of keeping the "a" forward. If the 
 student finds difficulty in placing the "ah" 
 sound on the lips, let him first use "teu" (the 
 yeu sound) instead of "ta," i. e., pi-e-teu-yu. 
 After the "teu" answers readily, use "tyu-yo." 
 From the "tyu-yo" the sound "tyao" can be 
 used with good results. 
 
 The "ah" sound, so commonly used in sing- 
 ing exercises for teaching the art of creating 
 tone, is really the most difficult of all sound to 
 produce upon the lips. A musical "ah" tone 
 can only be produced after all the other 
 tones come naturally and easily in a round, 
 full form. It may account somewhat for the 
 misunderstanding that has arisen about the 
 general use of "ah" to say that there are but 
 few who know its proper sound, and fewer 
 who know how to create it. Suffice it to say 
 here that the "ah" is a sound derivation of the 
 
 107
 
 "o." By this we mean the not quite rounded 
 form of "o," i. e., just a step beyond the "u" 
 in its roundest, fullest form. This, of course, 
 is a very close boundary line, but if the student 
 keeps in mind the strength of the element of 
 every tone and combines that ringing, silver 
 sound with his best conception of the "ah-(o)" 
 he will not fall far short of producing a musical 
 tone. For a more minute analysis I refer 
 the student to my book on "Wordal Place- 
 ment." 
 
 In order to aid to a clearer and more dis- 
 tinct pronunciation of words of more than one 
 syllable it is well to remember the following 
 rules. Whenever a short vowel is followed by 
 a single consonant, double the consonant and 
 pronounce one consonant with the following 
 syllable. For example: 
 
 Forest is pronounced for-rest. 
 Lily is pronounced lil-ly. 
 Ever is pronounced ev-ver. 
 Never is pronounced nev-ver. 
 Bower is pronounced bow-wer. 
 
 If the first vowel is long, pronounce the con- 
 sonant that follows with the succeeding sylla- 
 ble. For example: 
 
 Below is pronounced be-low. 
 Hero is pronounced he-ro. 
 Bridal is pronounced bri-dal. 
 Rival is pronounced ri-val. 
 Saviour is pronounced sa-viour. 
 
 108
 
 Each syllable of a word should be given a 
 value in proportion to its shading and dura- 
 tion of sound. For example, in the pronuncia- 
 tion of the word "society" the "ety" is short 
 and abrupt. If the "ety" were long we would 
 put greater value on it. But as it is not, the 
 "so" receives as great a value as the "ciety." 
 The entire word should be sung in an even, 
 rythmical swing. In articulating the syllables 
 of a word clearly and distinctly the syllables 
 should never be disjointed, altho a heavier 
 shading may be given to one syllable more 
 than to the other. Every word should be a 
 wave of rhythm in itself. It is splendid prac- 
 tice for wordal placement to sing words singly 
 or in groups of two or three on melodic exer- 
 cises. Where a word or combination of words 
 in a song are especially difficult, repeating 
 them up and down the scales will aid to make 
 their placement easy and secure. For this 
 there is no better practice. 
 
 109
 
 WORDAL PLACEMENT 
 
 CARL PREETORIUS 
 
 easy and distinct articulation and for the 
 beautifying of words in ipeech and song, the 
 singer or speaker will find this book an invaluable 
 instructor. There has been nothing published on 
 the correct articulation of a word thru the right 
 production of combinations of consonants and 
 vowels. To give the proper shading to each 
 syllable is a matter of very little practice and yet 
 of greatest artistic importance. The correct artic- 
 ulation and pronunciation as outlined in this book 
 will bring a musical quality in any voice. There is 
 no need of singing nor speaking affectedly, but there 
 is need of singing and speaking words correctly. 
 
 Price, 11.25. 
 Bound in cloth. 
 
 Box 1 68, EVANSTON, ILL.
 
 Vocal Exercises 
 
 FOX 
 
 Placing and Developing the Voice 
 
 BY CARL PREETORIUS 
 Elementary Intermediary Advanced 
 
 SHOWING the application of the principles 
 of placing and developing the tone to logic- 
 ally arranged studies. 
 
 The exercises are so composed that the inter- 
 vals overcome easily and naturally, with the aid of 
 special syllables, all the difficulties that a developing 
 voice may encounter, such as : lack of immediate 
 response of tone ; want of flexibility ; shortness of 
 breath, etc. 
 
 These exercises are pronounced unusual in 
 their practicability and melodic form. They are 
 unequalled for placing the tone. 
 
 Elementary, $1.25. 
 Intermediary, 1.25. 
 Advanced, . 2.00. 
 Bound in cloth. 
 
 Box 168, EVANSTON, ILL.
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed.
 
 A 000 728 880 6
 
 
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