Chapter I: Enrico Caruso, the Master of Natural Singing

On February 26, 1873, the most magnificent exponent of the vocal
art the human race ever possessed—Enrico Caruso—came into this
world. On August 2, 1921, at the height of his glory, his golden
voice was stilled forever; and the world, in its grief, is still
wondering what it was that Nature bestowed on this privileged
son to make him the most wonderful source of human melody of all
ages.

Scientists and voice experts vie with each other in trying to
explain the vocal phenomenon—Caruso—and, though they differ in
their conjectures, they all agree that a voice of such rare
beauty, and singing of such effectiveness have never been
paralleled in the history of vocal art.

In their various versions, scientists endeavored to trace the
striking factors of his rare singing to certain peculiarities of
his vocal apparatus, giving most of the credit for his wondrous
voice to his vocal cords. This conception, however, merely
follows an impression dominating the musical world which has
always associated the miracle of Caruso’s voice with some secret
magic power of his golden throat.

Other experts on voice believe that the principal feature of
Caruso’s singing was the striking power of his breath, due to
the exceptional strength of his diaphragm and intercostal
muscles.

A brief analysis can easily prove that the real reasons for
Caruso’s marvelous singing are not precisely those which have
been advanced. He was an exception, not for the rarity of his
vocal organs, but for their perfect function—faultless according
to natural laws—which made him the truest exponent of natural
singing.

Singers endowed with the same and even better vocal organs, on
the whole, than Caruso are not scarce, some of them having come
under the personal observation of the author. Singers with more
remarkable breath-power than Caruso have also existed and still
exist. (Tamagno is as yet in the memory of the present
generation, without mentioning other living singers.) Yet it is
the universal impression that none of them can stand comparison
with Caruso as singers.

The truth is that Caruso had nothing exceptional in his
laryngeal apparatus, and the larger size of his vocal cords or
other peculiarities which have been mentioned about his vocal
organs were certainly not the decisive elements in his
phenomenal singing. On the contrary, there were shortcomings in
his throat which were so evident that if he had had to rely on
his vocal organs alone for his career, he would perhaps never
have become a singer at all.

As a matter of fact, Caruso himself often commented on this,
relating an early experience of his. At the age of twenty he
went to one of the most famous laryngologists in Italy,
Professor Ferdinando Massei, of the University of Naples, to be
treated for tonsilitis at the hospital of Gesŭ e Maria. When
asked about his profession, Caruso said that he was studying
singing. The famous physician shook his head dubiously and
replied: Take up something else, you have not the throat for
singing.”

All laryngologists who had the opportunity of treating Caruso
know also that his throat was often much congested, and that he
smoked too much, although the beauty of his voice was never
impaired.

Therefore his throat was not the magic organ that gave rise to
his greatness. This strengthens our theory that the importance
given to the throat as the organ which characterizes exceptional
voices is greatly exaggerated.

What, then, were the really striking features responsible for
Caruso’s singing?

My intimate association with the great tenor afforded the
opportunity of examining constantly all facts relating to his
voice, and the advantage of discussing my impressions with him,
accurately studying his own point of view. I, therefore, feel
justified in expressing an opinion on this subject, founded on
close observation.

Not one, but several, qualifications, physiological as well as
psychological, harmoniously combined in one individual, were
responsible for making Caruso the most magnificent vocal
phenomenon of the human race. These qualifications are embodied
in the words _Natural Singing_.

His vocal organs, most obedient to Nature’s dictates, were not
anatomically exceptional, but in their physiological function
were the most balanced vocal machinery ever known to me. His
vocal cords, rather large and thick for a tenor, although not
the exceptional factor in the beauty of his voice, gave him the
range of a basso as well as tenor. But this is not unusual, as
tenor, baritone and basso ranges are conventional, not
scientific, divisions. Nature creates voices, the specific
qualities and ranges of which have no such scholastic
limitations. Cases of bassos singing as tenors, and contraltos
singing coloratura are not infrequent among singers who produce
their voices properly. Caruso had one of these rare voices,
which he used according to Nature’s dictates; thus it was not
difficult for him to sing baritone as well as tenor, if he chose
to do so. This, therefore, was not the striking feature of his
exceptional power. There have been other tenors who could do the
same, such as the famous Lablache, who used to sing basso as
well as tenor rôles.

One peculiarity worth mentioning, however, about his vocal cords
was their rather soft consistency, a circumstance which
accounted partially for the mellow and velvety quality of his
voice. The value of this is easily illustrated when compared to
the marked difference in tone existing between an E string of a
violin made of steel and another made of gut, the latter having
considerably more mellowness of tone due to its softer
consistency.

In reference to the other physical factor commonly conceded as
most prominent in connection with exceptional voices, namely,
the breath, Caruso certainly always had at his disposal the most
generous supply of air, which he supported wonderfully by his
control of the diaphragm, that was as strong as any muscle of
his body. His beautiful singing, however, was not the result of
breath-power, or brute force, but rather of his careful and
intelligent distribution of it, which was a remarkable feature
in Caruso’s style of singing. He always employed only the exact
amount of breath required for producing each tone, and no more;
and this was responsible for his precise intonation, his
remarkable legato, and his long-sustained tones.

Caruso almost unconsciously focused his voice in its most exact
pitch, guided by his natural instinct of giving to each note
only as many vibrations as were scientifically required. Thus
his voice, contrary to the style of singing predominating
to-day, was never under high pressure, and, therefore, never
sharp.

The natural placement of his voice in the very center of the
masque was a most striking feature. Its production was always
based on the fundamental tones of the voice, not on the
overtones. He used the overtones generously, but only for
enriching the fundamental tones, not for overshadowing them.
Generally when voices are forced, the overtones become more
prominent than the fundamental tones, resulting in singing which
is similar to a painting in which the shadows predominate over
the lines of the drawing, making the design indistinguishable.
In the singing of Caruso the fundamental design of the voice was
clear, solid, and imposing, and its many delicate shadows were
responsible for its rare beauty, blending in velvety softness
the masculine strength of his baritone quality.

But the exceptional physiological attributes which Caruso
possessed were the majestic freedom of his voice production and
the striking power of resonance of his body, which he utilized
to full advantage. The former was due to his use of the vocal
organs in perfect accord with physiological laws, his voice
production being so correct, and at the same time so natural,
that for the most part singing was for him merely talking. The
massive volume and the rare quality of his voice—its exceptional
characteristics—were due to the resonance of the body, which was
like that of a Stradivarius violin. The much-emphasized
properties of his vocal cords, when compared to the striking
feature of the resonance of his body, had no more value than the
string of a Stradivarius when placed on an ordinary violin. The
marked inferiority of tone of the second violin is equivalent to
the difference that the vocal cords of Caruso would produce in
the throat of another tenor.

Therefore the magic power of his voice lay in the correct
physiological mechanism of his voice production, on one hand,
and in the remarkable physical conformation of his body, on the
other, made up of tissues of exceptional resonant property,
acting as an immense resonating case for his tones.

His masque, chest, and all the cavities of his body, even in
their remotest corners, were producing sounding vibrations
during the correct, free, and expansive production of his voice.

His tongue, of remarkable flexibility, which he could shape in
any way, or keep relaxed in a concave form on the floor of the
mouth, thereby creating, with his well-arched palate, a larger
and rounder space, added not a little to the resonance of his
singing.

His nose and frontal sinuses, markedly developed, together with
his broad and rounded chest, were striking factors of resonance
also. His entire body, in fact, in its large and solid frame,
was a striking resonator for his voice.

Therefore all these qualifications, magnificently combined and
answering perfectly to the laws of physiology and acoustics,
made him the most wonderful exponent of natural singing.

The psychological endowments which lent to Caruso’s voice its
intense pathos, never before equaled, were supported by the
self-assurance of the correct mechanism of his voice production
which gave him the advantage also of devoting all care to the
details of his singing, and to the aesthetic beauty of his voice
molded on its natural sentiment.

For him singing was a pleasure rather than a technical struggle
for effects, therefore, audiences cried along with him or loved
along with him in his different rôles. His mind, freed from the
necessity of thinking high or low tones, was always open to the
inspiration of the words and the music he was singing. He was
the first in his class to abolish the conventional though
beautiful style of singing of the _bel canto_ school, refusing
to bend toward the traditional temptation of making the words
slaves to the tones. He sang the words for themselves—for their
significance—feeling and meaning them. Hence the pathos of his
voice, and his superb enunciation, which made the audience
understand and feel every word he was singing, added much to his
superior standing when compared with other singers.

Caruso was not a tenor, not a baritone, not a basso; he was a
singer who had the vocal characteristics of all three combined.
He had a voice which did not recognize scholastic, conventional
classifications of registers, and ignored all limitations in its
range. He covered all the possibilities of the human vocal
apparatus with the same colorful masculine voice, from the
lowest to the highest tone of his range. He covered all the
possibilities of the human and at the same time powerful. His
voice was a stream of gold. At the age of forty-eight, when most
singers are at the close of their careers, his vocal perfection
was at its height, and would have lasted however long he lived.

Caruso was a born singer, and a perfect one, by almost divine
and superhuman will. He obeyed the call of his heart rather than
technical influences, his sentiment being his only guide in
singing. Everything in him was instinctive and intuitive. If, at
the beginning of his career, he failed to do justice to his
vocal gifts, he was unconsciously the victim of technical
influences imposed on him by his teachers. His imperfections
were due more to psychological conditions than to the voice
itself. Surely, though, he did not fail to give the impression
that his voice was of rare beauty. When Nature, the real master
of his voice, took the lead in his vocal career, and his mind
and soul coöperated efficiently, he no longer encountered
obstacles in his singing. His evolution as a singer and artist
shows very clearly how only lack of artistic education and
confidence had held back the natural element which was as
powerful in him at the beginning as later.

This very element, though—the natural gift for song—existed and
still exists in many other singers, perhaps, as well as in
Caruso, but his strong ambition, love of hard work, and intense
desire to learn and improve are very seldom combined so
conspicuously in one person.

Thus, though Nature endowed him with the rare gift of a most
beautiful voice, he owed to himself alone the greater share of
his extraordinary success as a singer and artist.

The age of the famous motto of Rossini, that singing requires
only voice, voice, and voice,” is gone forever. This was
perhaps applicable to the music of his epoch. To-day, to meet
the modern psychology and progress, other qualifications are
necessary—those which made Caruso the wonder singer of our
time.