he first of these is
Nature; the second is Common Sense. Nature lays down the fundamental
principles of voice; Common Sense formulates the devices for development
according to these principles. Therefore we say, Go to Nature and learn of
her, and use Common Sense in studying and developing her principles. The
nearer the approach to Nature, the higher the art; hence the new school
must be founded upon artistic laws which are Nature's laws, and not upon
artificiality.

The coming school must teach the idealized tone. The ideal in its
completeness means the truth,--all the truth,--and not, as many suppose, an
exaggerated form of expression. The truth in tone, or the idealized tone,
is beautiful and soulful, and demands for its production and use all the
forces that Nature has given to the singer,--physical, mental, and
emotional or spirituelle. Unmusical, muscular tone is not the true tone. It
contains much that it should not have on the physical side, and lacks much
that it should have on the spirituelle. As a rule, it means nothing; in
fact, it is often simply a noise. The idealized tone always represents a
thought, an idea, an emotion; it is the expression of the inner--the
higher--man; it is, in reality, self-expression.

"The human voice is the most delicately attuned musical instrument that God
has created. It is capable of a cultivation beyond the dreams of those who
have given it no thought. It maybe made to express every emotion in the
gamut of human sensation, from abject misery to boundless ecstasy. It marks
the man without his consent; it makes the man if he will but cultivate it."

The coming school must be founded upon freedom of form and action, upon
flexible bodily movements, the result of vitalized energy instead of
muscular effort. There must be no set, rigid, static condition of the
muscles. Artistic singing is a form of self-expression; and
self-expression, to be natural and beautiful, must be the result of correct
position and action.

The first principle of artistic singing is the removal of all restraint.
This is a fundamental law of Nature and cannot be changed. Under the
influence of direct local muscular effort, the removal of all restraint is
impossible. Hence the coming school must be based upon free flexible
action. In this respect it will be much like the old Italian school, except
that it will be as far in advance of the old school in the science of voice
as the twentieth century is in adv