324 Dr. Felix Semon [Marcli 13, 



the different positions of the parts forming the resonator, i. e. the 

 tongue, the lips, the palate, and the epiglottis. What we call 

 '■ exwressiou " in singing is, therefore, the result of a combination of 

 the action of the bellows on the one, and of the resonator on the 

 other, hand. (Demonstration ) 



There are, of course, almost numberless particular qualities of the 

 voice upon which I should like to enter here at greater length, as the 

 definition and discussion of each of them possess a particular fas- 

 cination of their ovra, such as the compass, the volume, the sustained 

 power, the tellingness, the certainty, the freshness, the intonation, 

 facility, &c., of the voice, but time will not allow me to do so. I can 

 only refer my hearers to a most charming little book cf Dr. Walsh's, 

 called ' Dramatic Singing,' in which, although I do not agree with 

 everything that the distinguished author states, and esj)ecially not 

 with his curious manner of estimating the individual qualities of the 

 voice, they will find a most fascinating description of all those 

 individual qualities, and ample food for thought concerning the almost 

 incredible multitude of points which enter into the composition of 

 dramatic singing, couched in the most elegant and most picturesque 

 language. 



Coming now to the question of the culture of the singing voice 

 itself, two elements are absolutely necessary for proficiency, viz. first, 

 a certain amount of natural material, and, second, a good ear. With 

 regard to the first, this ought to be, as it were, a truism, but, indeed, it 

 is not. Often enough people mistake the inclination for the gift^ and 

 confound their love of singing with the decision of devoting themselves 

 to it. I see numbers of students deficient in the very elements of vocal 

 niaterial, who nevertheless have formed so grave and momentous a 

 decision as the devotion of their lives to the practice of singing. 

 There is a general tendency, under such circumstances, to attribute 

 the failure to some "disease" of the vocal organs, or, if the word 

 "disease" be not pronounced, at any rate to "weakness." The 

 physician, seeing many of these ailments, cannot help asking himself 

 what want of judgment can have induced such peoj)le to fight against 

 impossibilities. As a rule there is no disease at all, but simple 

 deficiency of the indispensable elementary material. I think it an 

 act of kindness to warn such people against an uphill fight, in 

 which, with the rarest exceptions, they cannot be successful. Cer- 

 tainly it is not my desire to discourage ardent lovers of music from 

 training their voices, however small, so long as they merely intend to 

 use them for their own or their immediate friends' pleasure, but 

 matters are widely diflerent when one sees young persons, who in 

 other walks of life might earn a decent livelihood, struggling under 

 the greatest difiiculties against unfavourable circumstances of every 

 conceivable sort, and all this in order to cultivate a 2)ractically non- 

 existent singing voice. Valuable years are often thus lost, and it is 

 finally with a leeliug of des]iair and bitterness that such people, after 



