physical tone and physical effect. Common tone makes common singing. A
great artist must be great in tone as well as in interpretation.

The disciples of the local-effort school lose sight of the fact that when a
muscle is set and rigid, either in attempting to hold the breath or to
force the tone, it is virtually out of action; that instead of actually
helping the voice it is really preventing a free, natural production, and
that other parts are then compelled to do its work; this accounts for many
ruined voices. "To make a part rigid is equal to the extirpation of such
part. While it is in a state of rigidity it ceases to take part in any
action whatsoever: it is inert and the same as if it had ceased to exist."

The local-effort school is accountable for many errors of the day. The
incubus of this school is fastened upon the vocal profession with
octopus-like tentacles which reach out in every direction, and which strive
to strangle the truth in every possible way; but, while "life is short, art
is long;" the truth must prevail.

* * * * *

As an outgrowth of the local-effort school, and as an attempt to counteract
its evil tendencies, there is to-day in existence another school or system
known as the limp or relaxed school, or the system of complete relaxation.
The object of this relaxation is to overcome muscular tension and rigidity.
This is the other extreme. The followers of this school forget that there
can be no tonicity without tension. Flexible firmness without rigidity, the
result of flexible, vitalized position and action, is the only true
condition. The tone of the school of relaxation is nearly always depressed
and breathy; it always lacks vitality.

ARTICLE FOUR.

THE RENAISSANCE OF THE VOCAL ART.

We are in the habit of measuring time by days, weeks, months, years,
decades and centuries. The world at large measures time by epochs and eras.
While this is true in the physical world, it is equally true of the arts
and sciences, and it is especially true of the art of song. Thus we have
had the period known as "The Old Italian School of Singing." This was
followed by the modern school, or "The Local-Effort School" of the
nineteenth century, the period which may be called The Dark Ages of the
Vocal Art.

There is a constant evolution in all things progressive, and this evolution
is felt very perceptibly to-day in the vocal world. Great principles, great
truths, are of