r
culminating in the ability to submit them to severe exertions and keep
them under control. The prescribed tasks must be mastered so that they
can be done without exertion, with the whole heart and soul, and with
complete understanding.

How is this to be attained?

Through natural gifts, among which I reckon the possession of sound
organs and a well-favored body; through study guided by an excellent
teacher _who can sing well himself_,--study that must be kept up for
at least six years, without counting the preliminary work.

Only singers formed on such a basis, after years of work, deserve the
title of artist; only such have a right to look forward to a lasting
future, and only those equipped with such a knowledge ought to teach.

_Of what consists artistic singing?_

Of a clear understanding, first and foremost, of breathing, in and
out; of an understanding of the form through which the breath has to
flow, prepared by a proper position of the larynx, the tongue, and the
palate. Of a knowledge and understanding of the functions of the
muscles of the abdomen and diaphragm, which regulate the breath
pressure; then, of the chest-muscle tension, against which the breath
is forced, and whence, under the control of the singer, after passing
through the vocal cords, it beats against the resonating surfaces and
vibrates in the cavities of the head. Of a highly cultivated skill and
flexibility in adjusting all the vocal organs and in putting them into
minutely graduated movements, without inducing changes through the
pronunciation of words or the execution of musical figures that shall
be injurious to the tonal beauty or the artistic expression of the
song. Of an immense muscular power in the breathing apparatus and all
the vocal organs, the strengthening of which to endure sustained
exertion cannot be begun too long in advance; and the exercising of
which, as long as one sings in public, must never be remitted for a
single day.

As beauty and stability of tone do not depend upon excessive
_pressure_ of the breath, so the muscular power of the organs used in
singing does not depend on convulsive rigidity, but in that snakelike
power of contracting and loosening,[1] which a singer must consciously
have under perfect control.

[Footnote 1: In physiology when the muscles resume their normal state,
they are said to be _relaxed_. But as I wish to avoid giving a false
conception in our vocal sensations, I prefer to use the