n athlete--rower,
runner, boxer, wrestler--not only perfects his technical skill, but
also, by a process of gradual development, enables him to endure the
exceptional strain he will eventually have to bear in a contest, so
some of a singer's early studies prepare his voice for the tax to
which hereafter it will be subjected. If those studies have been
insufficient, or ill-directed, failure awaits the debutant when he
presents himself before the public in a spacious theatre or
concert-hall and strives, ineffectually, to dominate the powerful
sonorities of the large orchestras which are a necessity for modern
scores. A sound and judiciously graduated preparatory training, in
fact, is essential if the singer would avoid disappointment or a
fiasco.

The vocal education of many students, however, is nowadays hurried
through with a haste that is equalled only by the celerity with which
such aspirants for lyric honours return to obscurity.

CHAPTER II

THE VALUE OF TECHNIQUE

Briefly defined, the singer's Technique may be said to consist
principally of the ability to govern the voice in its three phases of
Pitch, Colour, and Intensity. That is, he must be able to sing every
note throughout the compass of the voice (Pitch) in different
qualities or timbres (Colour), and with various degrees of power
(Intensity). And although the modern schools of composition for the
voice do not encourage the display of florid execution, a singer would
be ill-advised indeed to neglect this factor, on the plea that it has
no longer any practical application. No greater error is conceivable.
Should an instrumental virtuoso fail to acquire mastery of
transcendental difficulties, his performance of any piece would not be
perfect: the greater includes the less. A singer would be very
short-sighted who did not adopt an analogous line of reasoning.
Without an appreciable amount of _agilita_, the performance of modern
music is laboured and heavy; that of the classics, impossible. In
fact, virtuosity, if properly understood, is as indispensable to-day
as ever it was. As much vocal virtuosity is required to interpret
successfully the music of Falstaff, in Verdi's opera, as is necessary
for _Maometto Secondo_ or _Semiramide_ by Rossini. It is simply
another form of virtuosity; that is all. The lyric grace or dramatic
intensity of many pages of Wagner's music-dramas can be fully revealed
only through a voice that has been rendered supple by t