SINGING AS AN ART 679 



How then is an artist to touch his audience when they have become 

 accustomed to notes that are not commenced in the centre of the 

 sound, and to a forcing of voice and sentiment alike? There is only 

 one possible way of attaining the desired result. He must do what 

 Verdi has asserted to be essential, namely ritornare all' antico, i. e., 

 return to the old Masters, and he must begin afresh to educate his 

 audience to a higher appreciation of the art of singing. If the artist 

 only perseveres he is bound to succeed in this, and we shall see a 

 restoration of the true art of singing. 



It is time now to give a short sketch of the technique of singing as 

 practised by a past age. 



Singing is a prolonged talking, and must be higher and louder 

 than the voice we use in ordinary conversation, and more especially 

 is this the case when the voice has to be used in a large hall. 



Some people say " breathe naturally." One may as well tell the 

 gymnast to perform naturally. His wonderful feats may appear 

 natural, but they are the result of a vast extension of that which is 

 natural to us. 



If when we draw in the breath we feel expansion about the soft 

 place under the breast bone, we have done so by using the diaphragm. 

 Another mode of drawing in the breath is to expand the ribs. Now 

 the ribs, when we raise them move outwards and the cavity inside is 

 made larger than before. A singer must use both these methods; 

 he must feel an expansion of the body at the soft place, and he must 

 also feel an expansion of the sides by lifting the ribs. Perhaps the 

 greatest fault that we can make is to raise the ribs by the muscles 

 which are fixed to the points of the shoulders in front. We should 

 avoid this error by the use of very powerful muscles which are felt at 

 the back under the shoulder-blades and under the arms, and so expand 

 enormously the sides of the body. The muscles by which we drive 

 out the breath are principally situated in the abdomen. They perform 

 a double duty : one is to pull down the ribs, and the other is, by 

 their pressure inwards, to cause the diaphragm to ascend again. 



By the control of the breath we mean that we can regulate the action 

 of the muscles which draw in the breath, at the same time that our 

 expiratory muscles are sending it out. There is then a struggle be- 

 tween these two forces, the one force causing a continuous steady pres- 

 sure while the other regulates, controls and economizes this same 

 pressure, which if not regulated would let the breath escape altogether 

 and the phrase sung would come to a premature end. 



We see the result of a clumsy way of breathing in the unpleasant 

 gaspings and noisy breathing produced by those who rely on the rais- 

 ing of the chest and shoulders. The poet puts this correctly when he 

 says, " My bosom heaved with many a sigh." On the other hand, the 

 result of a right method of drawing in the breath is a noiseless and 



