Into our own day the influence of the Old Italian method has been projected through two distinct lines: that of Francesco Lamperti and of Manuel Garcia. Each has, perhaps, departed from the old rules, necessitated by the changed conditions of music. Before considering the work and vocal methods of these two men it is well to see if in the remark of Mancini, him self a great singing teacher and a fellow pupil of Farmelli, we may gain a little more definite knowledge of the principles of Porpora. Man cini says regarding Farinelli, °The art of tak ing and keeping the breath, so softly and easily that no one could perceive it, began and died with him. The qualities in which he excelled were the evenness of his voice, the art of swell ing.its sound, the Portamento, the union of the registers, a surprising agility, a graceful and pathetic style and a shake so admirable as it is rare.° So far as lcnown there is no more com plete description of vocal method of that day.
Latnperti, judging from his ptipils who are very well known, kept most closely to that method. He was born in 1813 and when seven years of age entered the Conservatory at Milan for the study of piano and composition. He was ambitious to manage opera companies when he became a man and shaped his training for the theatre. He associated himself, eventually, with the manager of the small theatre at Lodi. That seems to have been his only venture in theatrical management, but it served to shape his life in an unexpected manner. Financial resources being small he was forced to train the local singers for the solo parts. He was so successful that many of those peasants at tracted attention and were engaged for the theatres of London, Paris, Saint Petersburg and other European cities. It makes the most striking example in history of the power of one man to create a school of singing. Their successes led many great artists to visit Lam perti at Lodi, and his popularity caused the government to make him professor of singing at the Milan Conservatory in 1850. For the next 25 years many of the greatest singers studied with Lamperti and this made Milan the centre of the operatic world. In 1875, Lam perti was retired on a pension, but continued as a private teacher until his death in 1893. Even Lamperti did not write a vocal method. Mr. Griffith, one of his earnest pupils, gathered slips of paper on which he wrote comments for his pupils and from them has given us a little idea of the method. One remark by Mr. Grif fith is, °Basing his teaching upon the study of respiration, the taking and retention of the breath by means of the abdominal muscles alone, and the just emission of the voice, he thoroughly grounds his pupils in the produc tion of pure tone.' That is not unlike the remark of Mancini about Farinelli's method. If the Old Italian method has come into our day in any degree of purity it has come through the adherence of Lamperti to those principles of breath control.
Manuel Garcia, Sr., was born eight years after Porpora died. In 1812, when 37 years of age, he studied at Naples under Anzani, who was particularly zealous in preserving tradi tions. Garcia, too, was to be an impresario and
his thought was given to the training of singers for his own companies. But, with these duties, he saw the advantage of having a school at London. This W2S established in 1823. His own children were trained by him and three of them became celebrated. Maria, Icnown as Madame Malibran, was one of the greatest singers of anv age but lived to be but 28 years of age. Madame Viardot-Garcia (1821-1910), served as accom panist for her father and learned his method more from absorption than from actual lessons. She grew up in the highest musical life of the day. Manuel Garcia, Jr. (1805-1906), became one of the most important men in connection with vocal method. He sang for a few years in his father's companies, but elected to adopt teaching as a profession. He was one of the first men to become a vocal teacher who did not have special interest in producing his own operas or in preparing singers for his own companies. It is probable that he has the honor of establish ing the vocation of voice teaching on profes sional lines. Whether that be so or not he made scientific investigation of the voice on which be established a distinct vocal method. He invented the laryngoscope, a device for examining the throat, including the vocal chords and larynx. This has become universally adopted by phy sicians. Garcia was able, with his examina tions, to announce definite facts about the ac tion of the throat in singing. Action had been observed previously through sensation and be cause it had manifested itself through the outer flesh. It is worthy of remark that al though earlier teachers were obliged to walk by faith rather than by sight they had not gone far from correct ways. Nor did Garcia's discoveries add much knowledge. It permitted him and his followers to move with greater certainty. It led to the formation of vocal method on the idea of tone-placement. The registers of the voice assumed more definite position as factors in method. Whether Garcia became so interested in the scientific action of tone production and its reflection in chambers of resonance, as to obscure his views of respiration, or whether he became convinced that respiration was not important, does not appear. But he ignored very thoroughly that which was fundamental in Lamperti's work. He established a method with new basic prin ciples, and that method sprang into popularity. At that time in the history of vocal method there were two distinct systems: one based on empiricism; the other on science. The first took into account the sound of the tone and judged what would make it good; the other explained the scientific action which would produce good tone. As each method has pro duced many noted.artists there need be no com ment on the merits of either. The advocates of both schools have held quite closely to the tenets of the two great leaders, although modifications, as well as additions, have been made. Modern music continues its greater de mands and discoveries in science compel further adjustment of deductions based on scientific vocal research.