Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/240

* SINGING. 196 SINGLE TAX. through the infinitesimal degrees of pitch lying between two notes. This is opposed to the legato and is often so niueh abused as to preclude all possibility of singing in tune. The legato is the foundation of all good vocal style, and it was in this that the famous singers of the eighteenth century surpassed all their successors. The messa di voce is the swelling of a tone from a pianissimo to its full power and then diminishing it again to the starting point. This is accomplished entire- ly by control of the breath, though some mistaken singers try to reach the result by straining the muscles of their throats. The messa di voce is of the greatest importance in expression, as it enables the singer to vitalize his song with minute dynamic gradations of tone, similar to those employed in speech. The vowels present many difficulties to the singsr. as the position of the throat and tongue in sounding some of them, especially at full voice, is inimical to good tone production. Much study is necessary to learn how to give the effect of the vowel sounds to an audience while preserv- ing the essentials of good tone. The articulation of the consonants, which is greatly neglected by Englisli singers, and greatly exaggerated by the Wagnerian school of German declaimers, is abso- lutely neees.sary to intelligil)le delivery of the text. The problem to be solved is how to enunci- ate clearly consonants which naturally cut off the flow of vowel sounds, on which alone tones can be made, and yet not interrupt the fluency of a pure legato style. The problem is solved by learning how to separate the articulative appa- ratus from the sound-producing mechanism and to operate the two independently without letting them disturb each other. This, like all the rest of singing, requires long and patient self-study under the guidance of a skilled teacher. Bibliography. Mackenzie. Hygieiir nf the Vocal Organs (London, 1888); Bach. The Prin- ciples of Singing (London, 1897) ; Botume. Mod- ern iSinging Methods, Their Vse and Abuse (4th cd., Boston. 1896) ; Garcia. Ecole de Garcia. Traitc romplet de I'art du chant en deux parties (9th ed., Paris. 1893); .Jadassohn, Practical Course of Ear Training (trans, from the Gennan, Leipzig, 1899) ; Lavignac, h'educalion musicale (Paris, 1902) ; Marchesi, Ten Singing Lessons (New York, 1901) ; Rockstro. Jenng Lind. A Rec- ord and Analysis of the Method of (London, 1894) ; Shakespeare, The Art of Singing (ib., 1899) ; Taylor, How to Sinq at Sight from the Staff (ib., 1897) ; Panseron, T/ie A B G of Music, or Easy Solfeggi irith Exercises hy Concone (trans, from the French, New York, 1865) ; Fer- rari, A Concise Treatise on Italian Singing (Lon- don, 1818). The exercises of Concone, for the various voices, are probably the most practicable for the student. SINGING BEACHES. See Musical Sand. SINGING FISH. See Sapo. SINGLE TAX. A tax designed to meet all or the principal needs of government, levied upon a single object of taxation. The single tax on the rent of land was introduced into general economic discussion about the middle of the eighteenth cen- tury by the Physiocrats (q.v.), and was popular- ized by Henry George (q.v.), particularly in his Progress and Poverty (1879) and his speeches in the New York Mayoralty cani])aigns of 1S8G and 1897. George advocated the abolition of all taxes upon industry and the products of industry, and the taking, by ta.xatioii upon land values, irrespec- tive of improvements, of the annu;il rental value of all those various forms of natural opportuni- ties embraced under the general term land. Three classes of arguments are adduced in sup- port of the appropriation liy the State of eco- nomic rent:( 1 ) The etliical argument rests upon the theory of natural rights. JIan, it is asserted, has an absolute, inalienable right to life, to equality of opportunity, and to private property. By virtue of the right to live he may claim ac- cess to those natural opportunities — land — which are necessary for the maintenance of life. This is an individual right. But land differs in fer- tility and value. By virtue of the right of equality, then, men have a joint claim to the dif- ference between the annual values of the worst and the better lands in cultivation; this differ- ential value is economic rent and it belongs to the community. Finally, man has an absolute and inalienable right to tlie property created by his own exertions, and this property cannot be rightfuUj' taken from him for any cause whatso- ever. As the private appropriation of land was and is wrong, George held that neither the ac- tion of the State nor the passage of time could justify it, and that in consequence no compensa- tion could be claimed by existing landholders for the appropriation of land values. Single tax- ers of course made frequent use of the familiar argument that economic rent is created by the community, not by the labor of the individual owner, and that in consequence it cannot in jus- tice be appropriated by the owner. (2) The second general arginnent rests upon the economic theory of distribution. With some modifications George followed the Rieardian the- ory of economic progress. ( See Rieardo. under Po- litical EcoxoMY. ) With the increase of popula- tion, George held, mankind is forced to resort to poorer and jioorer lands in order to produce the necessary food supply. But as the margin of cultivation is thus forced down, economic rent — which is the difference between the productivity of the worst and the better lands in cultivation — increases, and wages decrease, because wages in general are fixed by the income which can be earned by the occupiers and tillers of the free land which pays no rent. The share of capital in the product of industry. George also main- tained, would follow the same course as wages, capital being in all essential respects simply labor impressed or congealed into matter. Wages and interest, therefore, rise and fall together, varying inversely as rent. Not only does rent increase with the increase in population, but every invention involves a further demand upon the soil for raw produce, and thus increases rent. Everything that lowers interest de- presses wages and exalts rent; every new in- crement of capital, being a demand for land, has the same effect ; the accession of eveiy new laborer acts similarly; time that increases the population, science that stimulates invention, frugality that multiplies capital, in short mate- rial Progress itself, under the regime of the pri- vate ownership of land, is synonymous with Poverty. Hence the title of George's principal work. (3) The third class George designated as the arguments from expediency. Some of the most important may be briefly summarized as follows: