SINGING AS AN AET 687 



write some songs specially for a tenor voice. I told him I found hii 

 lovely songs too low. He said, " Transpose them higher, for I like 

 them to be transposed according to the voice." " But," I said, " if I 

 put them up, then there are notes which will be too high, for the 

 tenor voice is only good between the two A flats. Your songs are too 

 extensive in compass." " Ya, ya ! " he said, " that is what my friend 

 Walther, the tenor, tells me." What a loss to singers it is, then, that 

 the beautiful songs of Brahms, as well as those of other great com- 

 posers, were not written for some particular voice, like the music 

 of the Italian composers. 



The question suggests itself, Why do not composers study singing 

 before writing for the voice, just as they must study the pianoforte or 

 the violin before writing a concerto for these instruments? It is well 

 known how much Mendelssohn was indebted to his friend David for 

 the excellence of his violin part in the Concerto, one of the most grace- 

 ful works ever written for any instrument. Brahms, too, sought the 

 assistance of Joachim when engaged in composing his violin Concerto. 



In the olden times, singers were frequently composers and com- 

 posers were singing-masters. Furthermore, Handel and Mozart both 

 went to Italy and studied singing, and associated with singers. I 

 believe the time is fast coming when there shall spring up composers 

 who will study singing and singers, and find the legato style of sing- 

 ing the long, expressive notes, the invocation and all the charms 

 of a classic school as worthy of their attention as the pianoforte, violin, 

 and other instruments. There exist the same splendid voices now as 

 ever, and the same poetic imagination. There are already signs every r 

 where that an inquiry is being made relative to singing and singers, 

 which augurs well for the art. 



The more the subject is discussed, the better. Such discussions can 

 not fail to be the means of bringing together the composer, the singer, 

 and the singing-master, and it is only by the constant association of 

 these three that we shall realize the great object on which the hopes 

 of all of us are set, namely, great works of art that shall open to us 

 new fields of beauty through the medium of the only instrument that 

 is at once human and divine. 



