of artistic tone-production--the
removal of all restraint--is impossible.

As the breath is taken, so must it be used. Nature demands--aye,
compels--this. If we take (as we are so often told to do) "a good breath,
and get ready," it means entirely too much breath for comfort, to say
nothing of artistic singing. It means a hard, set diaphragm, an undue
tension of the abdominal muscles, and an unnatural position and condition
of the chest. This of course compels the hardening and contraction of the
throat muscles. This virtually means the unseating of the voice; for under
these conditions free, natural singing is impossible. The conscious, full,
muscular breath compels conscious, local muscular effort to hold it and
control it. Result: a stiff, set, condition of the face muscles, the jaw,
the tongue and the larynx. This makes automatic vowel form, placing, and
even freedom of expression, impossible. The conscious, artificial breath is
a handicap in every way. It compels the singer to directly and locally
control the parts. In this way it is not possible to easily and freely use
all the forces which Nature has given to man for the production of
beautiful tone.

Now note the contrast. The artistic breath must be as unconscious or as
involuntary as the vital or living breath. It must be the result of free,
flexible action, and never of conscious effort. The artistic, automatic
breath is the result of doing the thing which gives the breath and controls
the breath without thought of breath. The automatic breath is got through
the movements suggested when we say, _Lift, expand, and let go_.

When the singer lifts and expands in a free, flexible manner the body fills
with breath. One would have to consciously resist this to prevent the
filling of the lungs. The breath taken in this way means expansion,
inflation, ease, freedom. There is no desire to expel the breath got in
this way; it is controlled easily and naturally from position--the level of
the tone. When the breath is thus got through right position and action, we
secure automatic form and adjustment; and correct adjustment means
approximation of the breath bands, inflation of the cavities--in fact, all
true conditions of tone. Nature has placed within the organ of sound the
principle of a double valve,--one of the strongest forces known in
mechanics,--for the control of the breath during the act of singing. This
is what we mean by automatic breath-control--using the fo