his mastery with
certainty and unfailing effect in the different fields of Oratorio and
Opera. In the recitative "Deeper and deeper still," with its
subsequent aria "Waft her, angels, through the skies" [Handel], he
ranged through the entire gamut of tone-colour. As Edgardo in
Donizetti's _Lucia di Lammermoor_, he launched the "Maladetta" phrase
of the curse with a voice that was almost "white" with frenzied rage;
while the pathetic sombre quality he employed in the "_Fra poco a me
ricovero_" fitly accorded with the despairing mood and gloomy
surroundings of the hapless Edgardo.

Some singers control but two colours or timbres--the very clear (open)
and the very sombre (closed), which they exaggerate. In reality,
however, the gradations between them can be made infinite by the
artist who is in possession of the secret--especially if he has the
ability to combine Colour with Intensity.

An illustration of this is found in the example cited in the opening
paragraph of the present work:--"For now is Christ risen." Not only
did Mme. Tietjens make a gradual _crescendo_ from the first note to
the climax, but the tonal colours were also subtly graduated from a
comparatively sombre quality to one of the utmost clearness and
brilliance.

[Music: As sung by Mme. Tietjens

For now is Christ risen, for now is Christ risen from the dead.]

As contrasting examples in which the two principal colours may be
employed effectively, I may cite the Bacchic air, "_O vin, dissipe la
tristesse_," and the pensive monologue, "_Etre, ou ne pas etre_," both
from the opera _Hamlet_, by Ambroise Thomas. The forced, unnatural
quality of the first calls for the use of a clear, open, brilliant
timbre.

[Music:

O vin, dissipe la tristesse
Qui pese sur mon coeur!
A moi les reves de l'ivresse,
Et le rire moqueur!]

But for the second, "To be, or not to be":

[Music:

Etre, ou ne pas etre! o mystere!
Mourir! dormir, dormir!]

a sombre, closed timbre is necessary. The opening recitative of
Vanderdecken in _Der fliegende Hollaender_ by Wagner would be absurd,
and utterly out of harmony with the character and his surroundings, if
sung in the open timbre. Perhaps I ought to explain that "open" (_voix
claire_, Fr.), and "closed" (_voix sombre_, Fr.), are technical terms,
of which the equivalents are accepted in all countries where the art
of singing is cultivated; terms that apply to _quality_ of tone, not
to the _physical_ process by which