The advantage of the practice of whispering long vowels will now be realised. The pressure which sends out the breath is felt below the waist, while just above is realised a simultaneous hold back of the breath. The hold-back must not let the send-out gain the mastery or the result will be wasted. While singing, the breath feeling should be the same as during whispering. Jean de Reszke declared that "right singing depends on the hold-back of the breath." We realise with every good note a sensation as of "warming" some object; while the freedom of throat should be as of "yawning." The notes of the scale then join as "pearls on a string," the string being the breath.
Johannes Hiller (b. 1728) describes the "legato" as "consist ing of no gap in passing from one note to another." Johann Micksch (b. 1765) says : "The first study in training the voice is how to use the breath sparingly, never becoming breathless, by retaining some breath in reserve. Loud singing first becomes beautiful by rightly singing piano. The notes must be drawn out, never pushed out and taken so quietly that one may produce with the least breath a note that will gradually swell to the loud est degree and again die away. Tone is the material of all music. It has as much variety as the human countenance." Manstein (b. 179o) says: "It does not matter how much, but how we sing. By practice, art becomes second nature. The ex perienced artist, after long continued study, thinks not of the manner and means of execution but devotes himself to expression, with the aim of touching the innermost soul." Lamperti (b. 1813)
averred that "The eye is the mirror of the soul." It is impossible to express at the same time joy in the eye and sorrow in the voice. J. A. Hiller previously named said : " 'Well spoken, is half sung' is a motto which should be inscribed on the four walls of every school." The old style caused every vowel and consonant to be clearly enunciated. At the present day, owing possibly to the heavy or chestration, and the music of Wagner and the modern Italian composers, there is frequently difficulty in understanding the words, and sometimes in deciding even in what language the opera is given. Sonority of voice is not incompatible with richness of tone. Audiences are becoming critical over the quality of ex pression of the singers. They long for the bel canto which once carried sounds of living emotion to the far corners of the theatre.
The composer Ferdinand Hiller, writing about Rubini the tenor, said : "the sonority and overpowering beauty of his high notes combined with unerring precision in attack, thrilled all hearts. In dexterity of execution he excelled the most famous instrumental ists. Further, he had the most distinct pronunciation. Above all, however, a truly electrifying capability of expressing every shade of feeling, the sigh of pure devotion, the distress of the forsaken, the blissful agitation of the happy. Indeed, I believe he could have made all these immutable themes of the loving heart tell on his audience, while singing the simple scale." This is indeed, a summary of the Art of Singing. (W. SHA.)