Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/260

248 of the piano or violin, and it is recognized that to excel with either of these instruments seven or eight hours of laborious practice every day are necessary. Yet many seem to fancy that the voice can be trained in a few months. How preposterous such a notion is must be evident to any one who takes the trouble to think about the matter. In the case of the violin or piano the instrument is perfect from the outset, and the student has only to learn to play it; the singer, on the other hand, has to develop in some cases almost to create his instrument, and then to master the technique of it. The human larynx is, as already said, a musical instrument of the most complicated kind, for its two reeds are susceptible of almost infinite modification in size, shape, manner of vibration, etc. A distinguished surgeon not long ago edified the public by a calculation of the number of muscular movements executed by a young lady while performing a simple piece on the piano; it would be hopelessly impossible to count the movements of the muscles which work the vocal cords.

The details of vocal training I must leave to the singing-masters; I can only touch on one or two points which lie more or less within my own province. In the first place, the vocal organs must be strengthened and developed by exercise. The excellent maxim, Memoria excolendo augetur, which we learned from the Latin grammar, is equally true of muscle, and a singer's thyro-arytsenoidei should be in as good condition as a pugilist's biceps. Such modes of life as are good for the general health will also help to improve the voice by expanding the chest and keeping all the organs at their maximum of efficiency. In order to "know the stops" of the vocal instrument, so as to be able to "command it to any utterance of harmony," training must be directed to each of the three factors of voice. The art of so governing the breath that not a particle of it shall escape without giving up its mechanical equivalent of sound must first of all be acquired. The vocal cords must use the breath as Jacob did the angel with whom he wrestled; they must not suffer it to depart till it has blessed them. The first thing the singer has to do is to learn to breathe; he must fill his lungs without gasping, and empty them quickly or slowly, gently or with violence, according to his needs. Much has been written on this matter with which I need not perplex the reader. The problem is how the lungs can be replenished most advantageously for the purposes of the singer. The chest is expanded by pulling up the ribs, and by pushing down the diaphragm, or muscular partition which separates the chest from the abdomen. In violent inspiratory effort the collar-bone may be forcibly drawn up by the muscles attached to it, but this mechanism is seldom brought into play except in the dire struggle for breath when suffocation is impending. It is a curious fact that