Chapter III: Alere Flamman

"_His tongue was framed to music,
And his hand was armed to skill;
His face was the mould of beauty,
And his heart the throne of will._"
=Emerson.=

"_Slow, indeed, at times, is the will of the gods, but in
the end not weak._"

=Euripedes.=

III.

ALERE FLAMMAM.

Everyone Can Sing.

The culture of the voice has come to be looked upon as a great and serious undertaking, and of such magnitude that but few have time for it, and those only should attempt it who have exceptionally fine voices. This is a mistake. Nearly everyone can sing, and if all would attempt to improve the voices they have by observing a few common-sense rules, it would soon be apparent that there are many more good singers among the masses than it is supposed exist, and these singers will learn how much can be done to add to their own comfort, by a little outlay of thought. Culture of the voice has been made a mystery by charlatan teachers and for a purpose. Think out how the conversational voice works and then consider what difference there should be between that and the singing voice. Nature planned the speaking voice and in doing it, gave us the line of development to follow in bringing into use the singing voice. The change from speaking to singing voice is where the quack enters with his mystery. There is no mystery. Use the voice as in speaking but pitch it at higher and lower points than are used in speaking. This is the foundation of the singing voice. Only one caution is needed. Never strain the throat. If, after a little practice, fatigue is felt or the tone is husky, stop practice. Do not try to do it all at once. A little each day added, will, in a few months, do all that is wanted. Do not expect, however, that any amount of study by one's self will make an artist. One can sing, by self-study, so as to get much pleasure, and so as to give pleasure to friends; but something more serious and extended is needed to make the artist.

Sustain Perfectly.

Sustaining perfectly the reservoir of air is the greatest _desideratum_ in using the voice. Acquiring ability to do so is a puzzle often to students. The reason is in the fact that no muscles which are directly under the control of the will can be caused to act upon the air column. The chief organ of respiration is the diaphragm, and as years of teaching bring experience which is definite in results, we find that the diaphragm is the only muscle which holds the air column in check. That muscle situated within the body cannot be held by any visible power. The _thought_ of holding it still will make us hold our breath. Trying to assist such holding by muscles of the chest, abdomen or throat, only defeats our purpose and makes the diaphragm give way. That large muscle will do the whole work if we will let it. The thought, as said above, is what will make it remain quiet. That thought may take various forms. What assists one does not appeal to another. But here is an assisting thought which does much good to the majority of students. Of course when the breath is taken the diaphragm is down and the waist is spread. Then the chest, bronchial tubes, windpipe and mouth are full of air. Now allow that air to be as still as the air of the room. Practise sustaining tone with any vowel, preceding each effort by taking position suggested above, and with the thought of keeping the air in the body just the same as, and a part of, the outer air. Then allow tone to float in the air, permitting no force whatever.

Care of the Body.

Singers seem to think but little of the tools with which they carry on their life work. That is the rule. Now and then a singer takes the opposite course and becomes unreasonably careful of his tools. In that case he is worse off than the careless. The "happy medium" is in all things the desirable state.

Our tools as singers are enclosed within the body and are the body. To have the body ready to respond to the musical demands it must be well and strong. To keep it well should be our first care. Happily we are so made that by following a few simple rules of living the body goes on through a long term of years without getting seriously out of order. Some persons can boast that they are never ill while many report but one sickness during a decade. The needed attention to the bodily wants, has, in these cases, been properly given. If all were as careful to do the same and not overdo the matter, perfect health would be the rule and not the exception.

The body needs nourishing food, clothing to preserve nearly uniform temperature, sufficient sleep, generous exercise, and thorough cleansing. Nothing more. Neglect of these, or as is more often the case, overdoing some of the first, is cause of disorder and disease. A singer cannot afford to have the tools of his employment other than in first-rate condition. If he does he enters his work, unnecessarily handicapped.

General advice regarding the eating and drinking is often given. Making it more specific, we would say, eat only such food as is easily digested and insist that it shall be thoroughly cooked. Supply the body with enough such for its maintenance only. The singer, again, cannot afford to eat what is not needed, be that of kind or amount. Most persons in running a furnace will feed fuel twice a day, at night and morning. In specially cold weather giving the fire a little extra fuel at noon. This is a good rule for feeding the body. Avoid over-feeding. The object of eating is to nourish the body and not to gratify appetite. It makes little difference whether the palate is pleased or not. The body could be nourished on food which does not taste so good as some other. Eating, to most people, is more palate gratification than anything else. In doing so, the body is overfed and clogged. Singers cannot afford that.

Sleep. To recover the waste of body at each days' work, quiet restful sleep is needed. Eight hours, or better nine, out of each twenty-four. In a cool room where possible and with plenty of fresh air. People who eat rationally need not fear taking cold by sleeping in a room with a draught of air through it. Fresh air, fresh, good food and cleanliness are necessary to the best results in singing study.

No rule can be given about bathing. Some students can stand a thorough bath every day. Others, only once in ten days. A sponge bath, if no other, should be had daily, that the pores of the body may be kept open and clear.

Clothing should be sufficient to keep the temperature of the body even. No need of wrapping the throat even when going into the open air, if the temperature of the body generally is even. We do pamper our bodies and think we are uncomfortable. In one sweeping sentence, be vigorous and good-natured and the body will the better serve us. A long walk each day in the fresh air adds to that vigor, and also to our good-nature.

Friends Can Help.

Advice of friends is a source of value or injury to the singing student. Advice has its influence. Every word spoken about one's voice and singing helps or injures. If placed in a circle which condemns every effort we make we are held back by that very influence from doing our best. Every judicious word of praise helps us upward. A pupil who is struggling by himself, without a word of cheer in his own home circle has a hard fight of it. For that reason it is very necessary that pupils whose desires are similar, and whose aims are toward the highest, should be gathered together. They help by their words, and often by their looks, the anxious student. "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together," applies. After a pupil's recital, a judicious teacher will tell his pupils the kind things which the others have said. If unkind things should be said (but a teacher who is himself kind will not hear unkind things) he will keep those to himself, guiding himself, however, by those comments in the future treatment of that criticized pupil. In this connection, a word to the members of the family of the student. A mother, who steps into the practice-room occasionally when she hears good singing and says, "That was good. I see you are improving," aids the student as much as a half-dozen lessons will aid. A brother who banters his sister about her singing when he really enjoys it, knows not, oftentimes, that his banter hurts and harms. To be sure, the partiality of the home circle may foster false hopes, but since nearly every one can learn to sing well if rightly trained, that will do less harm than cold indifference and cruel banter.

Renew Thought.

The teacher who does not live in high thought, and who does not attempt to attain a high ideal, does poorer work than he thinks he does. It is an easy matter to settle into a rut and to follow certain lines. These wear themselves out. New ways of imparting time-honored teaching, although they may not change the principles of teaching, must be constantly sought. They will only come to mind by keeping the thought in the highest realm of intellectual possibility to that teacher. One who contemplates with restful care, in that higher realm, the beautiful in music, the way of influencing mind, and the most direct way of causing students to attain that which they need, will ever renew his method of teaching. Such renewal will contain something better than he had before. Unless constant renewal, or at least frequent renewal, takes place, the rut will be entered upon. The longer one follows it, the deeper he becomes settled in it, and the harder is it to get out from it.

Speaking and Singing.

The basis of good singing is good speaking. The speaking voice in common use during conversation covers a range of five or six notes. Frequently lower and higher notes are called into use, but the high and low notes of the singing voice are seldom used in conversation. The organs which produce voice, from their constant use respond involuntarily to the will. They also do correct work. It is seldom that a person, unless he has deformity, has trouble to pronounce any word or syllable, while talking. Would this were true of singers. The student would greatly lessen the amount of his labor and also reduce the cost of his musical education if he were able to speak the words as correctly and as easily while singing as while speaking. It is toward this imitation of the speaking voice that one must constantly strive if he would make rapid progress in voice development. When he has reached the point where he can sing every vowel and consonant perfectly, and with as little effort as when speaking, on every tone of his singing voice, and then have that voice loud enough to be well heard in any hall, the voice is completely and well cultivated.

Associates.

Singers cannot afford to miss the chance to be among great men. As a class, musicians are narrow and that arises from the necessity of giving so much time to technical study. When the chance to meet and associate with men of broad minds comes, take advantage of it. Even if the contact be not close some of the light shining from the great mind will illumine us, and will make us brighter. The great mind is drawing from inspired source, maybe, and the light which comes from that mind drives out darkness from whatever it covers. Light and darkness cannot remain together. Let the mind be thrown open to receptivity when one is in the presence of the acknowledged leader and good clear light, it may be from heaven, will flood the mind and illumine it.

Purity of Method.

Purity of vocal method must not be departed from by teachers. The introduction of new ideas is at best a hazardous undertaking. In the routine of teaching week after week and month after month the teacher finds himself casting about for a new idea. He finds something which pleases him and tries it on his pupils. Most teachers can look back at experiments which have failed. Better decide on a few basic principles and cling to them. The desire to try something new is very liable to be the result of fatigue from overwork. Better take a holiday; go away from the classroom and rest. Come back to first principles again and go to work. The result at the end of the year will be better. Every teacher as he grows older resolves his ways of cultivating the voice into something very simple but which, as it condenses, becomes more powerful. There is only one right way and deep thinkers settle on that alike in time.

Mental Recovery.

A teacher cannot do better for himself and his work than to occasionally close the office door and sit quietly by himself for a half-hour. At such time crowd out the thought of all work, all planning, all worries, and all demands. Bring the mind as nearly as can be into inactivity. One will find in the hour when work is resumed that more of value will flood into the mind, he knows not from whence, than he can catch and apply in a great many hours. How many of us have times of refreshing. It is work, work, hour after hour and the wonder is that we do so much and yet do so little. Leave out some of the work and call activity of mind to our aid and we will do more work with much less effort.

Profession or Trade.

An item recently seen reads, "we would rather be a music teacher in an obscure town than be a prosperous tradesman in a large city." That has the sound of enthusiasm, and is the feeling of one who has the good of his fellowmen at heart. Every man who enters a profession gives up his life to do good. But few men in any professional life ever make more than a good living. Some can, indeed, save enough to make occasional investments, and these (if judgment has been good) secure a moderate fortune. But no man ever became wealthy from his profession alone. A professional man, however, gratifies his better nature and satisfies cultivated tastes. A man in trade becomes so engrossed in business that his better nature (his refined taste) is dwarfed. That comfort of mind which the professional man has is more to him than the bags of gold of the merchant would be. Probably the writer who made the remark quoted, had in mind the opportunity which the music teacher has to do good. It is a grand field of work, and one who has been engaged in it for several years wants no other. To lead the public by teaching and by public performance into the knowledge of the highest art, is a privilege which should be prized. The music teacher, (even if not so placed by common opinion) stands with the minister and the physician in the good which he does the community.

Heart and Intellect.

Let not the heart be the ruling power all the time. If it is, art sinks into sentimentality. Allow the head to rule alternately with the heart. Intellect must be applied if any satisfying musical result is to be obtained. Emotion is good, but it needs curbing, shaping and restraining. Emotion, long sustained and unbridled, becomes nauseating. Emotion in itself is beautiful, but like fire and water, if it once becomes the master, wastes and destroys. Emotion, aroused by imagination and directed by intelligence, serves to give taste to all musical rendition. One without heart is non-satisfying as a singer. Be he ever so intellectual, his singing is cold. Intellect alone, unaided by heart, is like polished steel--cold, brilliant and dazzling. Intellect and heart combined are like the same surface engraved and enamelled in artistic design--chaste, delicate and finished.

Time Ends Not.

We may say with Emerson that "Time has his own work to do and we have ours," and with Wood, "Labor is normal; idleness, abnormal," but in music there must be times of cessation from labor. Call it change of work, if you choose rather than admit that labor has ceased, but experience shows that no musician can safely follow his calling year in and year out, with no regular period of rest, and save his mind and body. Sooner or later comes a collapse. The human machine breaks down. Then we shall think of Emerson and Wood as unsafe leaders. Time has his work, but he works in such deliberation and in such ever-changing form that were he one who could feel fatigue, he need not feel it. Time is from eternity to eternity. Time does not occupy a human machine. The music teacher does. Many a teacher has toiled beyond his strength this year. Many will next year. Who will take thought for himself and break loose, if but for a few weeks, and postpone the time of breaking down? One might say, that with Time, the human soul is from eternity to eternity and there is no breakdown. True, but the residence of that soul while it is in this period of existence, demands much of its attention. That cannot properly be given when the exacting duties of the class-room drag on week after week, till they number fifty-two, and then begin at once another weary round. Admit that there are limitations, and, in cordial co-operation with existing laws, select and use the days of idleness, even if one has said that idleness is abnormal.

Power of Thought.

The power of thought to exert influence is only in our day being understood. How to utilize it is not yet in such degree of comprehension that it can be told so that all are able to use the force which they contain. Thought is a tangible essence passing from the human mind and lodging upon the object toward which it is sent. Definite thought is more powerful than is illy defined thought. Speech enables us to crystalize thought and to empower it with added force. The time given to framing sentences enables us to put thought into definite form. A step beyond speech is obtained in singing. When learning our songs we revolve the thought to be expressed in mind. The measure of the music gives time to concentrate the thought contained into its most powerful form. The rhythm and vibration which accompany music and singing, enhance the power of thought. Whenever we sing in the true spirit of the sentiment uttered we send out shafts, so to speak, of pure thought. Not one of those is lost. It lodges somewhere, and as all good can never do harm, our good thought, sent in song, must do good to those who come within our influence to receive our good shafts. A singer who uses music for vain display loses the opportunity for good. There is no good thought in such singing. If there is any thought at all it is of the lower order. It lodges also, but it appeals to that which is vain and low in our hearers. What wonder is it, then, that ofttimes our hearers make unkind remarks about us and our singing! It is our fault that we have stirred up in them the spirit of vanity and criticism. Our thought has often challenged such spirit in them. Let our thought be changed, and only the good which is contained in poetic art sent out to them and their attitude toward us will change. There is no unpleasant thing which comes to us but that we stimulated it and created it. We can make our musical surroundings by sending out powerful shafts of pure thought.

Nature Seldom Jumps.

Nature seldom moves by jumps, and a student who reaches the best use of his voice learns that he must do that through natural laws. In other words, that he must acquire all things through naturalness. What wrongs have been done to students under the shield of so-called naturalness! Many teachers who claim that they are cultivating the voice by natural laws, know nothing of what it means to be natural. Naturalness means the expression of our own nature. If a teacher uses the natural method he but points out to his pupils their true natures and holds them to that correct use of such that they return to their normal condition. The necessities of our modern living have made most of us feel that we must put a side of ourselves outward which shows off well. In singing we develop abnormally something which we fancy will please our hearers and bring us applause. We try to hide our defects and admit that we do. Aside from the question of honesty, is it policy to do so. Most firmly, should be the answer, No! It destroys the naturalness of the singer and substitutes artifice. Any spurious issue will be detected sooner or later. Besides, is it not much more comfortable to have the real than the counterfeit? Be natural, then. Many students are impulsive. It was to these that the remark that "Nature seldom jumps," was made. In natural action everything is deliberate and restful; controlled and sure. Nature makes but few angles, but moves in graceful curves. Good quality of tone on one note and poor quality on the next, is not natural. Nature does not jump from one voice into another. Nature demands symmetric cultivation of the whole voice, and not the display of a favored part.

Be Perfect.

Do not be content to merely make progress. (If one feels that he is at a standstill, or worse, going backward, he should stop all study till he can go forward). Merely making progress means that to reach great result, a long time must elapse. To make a great artist requires years of musical and intellectual training; to be able to sing as perfectly as the body is capable of acting, requires but a few weeks, or at most, a few months. Why will students take lessons year after year and not sing any better than they did soon after they began? It is not necessary if the student is willing to go rapidly. "Be ye perfect," applies to singing as well as to anything else in life. If the injunction to be perfect has any meaning at all, and no one has any right to doubt but that it meant, when it was spoken, just what the words contain, that applies very thoroughly to singing. The very essence of life itself is more fully operative in singing than it is in anything else. If so, to be perfect in singing is to be perfect also in the essence of life. The injunction was not to become perfect by a long course of training. The present tense was used and it meant just what was said. "Be ye perfect," _now_. By proper mental conception of the true principle which underlies voice culture and by demonstration with concentrated thought, the possibility of any individual body can be at once brought out. On this account, the long years of wasteful practice which people use in cultivating the voice is not only unnecessary, but foolish and wicked.