For in order to
offer an interpretation to an audience, the singer must have a
complete command of the technique of his art. The singers of today are
not so skillful as they were in the eighteenth century, because they
are not patient enough to study the essential tone production which
must be produced to make tones that are satisfying to themselves and
also to the sensitive and cultivated ears of the listeners. A singer
must reject any unmusical sound and, above all things, rule out any
departure from the pitch. Singing out of tune is not singing at all.
They can never be relied upon and are therefore unsatisfactory for any
use at all. It seems simple enough to sing, yet to get the correct,
pure tone one must work daily to accomplish perfection. There are many
singers who attain a certain amount of distinction on the operatic
stage that cannot produce a full, round, sympathetic tone. They may
have powerful tones and astonish the public, yet in a short season the
tones become dull or heavy or sharp, ear-splitting and their
victorious career is finished and oblivion mercifully covers them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
TREMOLO
In writing about one of the greatest faults in the teaching of vocal
music I wish to put my most emphatic criticism upon the Tremolo in the
voice and condemnation upon those who vitiate the human voice with the
most intolerable fault that any one who pretends to sing could
practice.
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