are
certain things the voice can do and other things it cannot do, and these
things can be known only by those who understand the voice, and are
accustomed to working with it. To ignore them completely when writing
for voices is no evidence of genius. Composers seem to forget that the
singer must create the pitch of his instrument as well as its quality at
the moment he uses it. They also forget that his most important aid in
this is the feeling of tonality. When this is destroyed and the singer
is forced to measure intervals abstractedly he is called upon to do
something immeasurably more difficult than anything that is asked of the
instrumentalist. Many modern composers have lost their heads and run
amuck on the modern idiom, and their writing for voices is so complex
that it would require a greater musician to sing their music than it did
to write it.

But to return, I do not say that it is impossible to apply the
principles of _bel canto_ to Wagner's dramatic style of utterance. On
the contrary I believe it is possible to gain such a mastery of voice
production and enunciation that the Wagnerian roles may be sung, not
shouted, and still not be lacking in dramatic intensity, but it requires
a more careful study of diction and its relation to voice production
than most singers are willing to make.

A majority of singers never succeed in establishing the right relation
between the vocal organ and the organs of enunciation. Years of
experience have verified this beyond peradventure.

It is a very common thing for singers to vocalize for an indefinite
period with no ill effect, but become hoarse with ten minutes of
singing. The reason is apparent. They have learned how to produce vowels
with a free throat but not consonants. The moment they attempt to form a
consonant, tension appears, not only in those parts of the mechanism
which form the consonant, but in the vocal organ as well. Under such
treatment the voice soon begins to show wear, and this is exactly what
happens to those singers who find it difficult to sing the Wagner
operas.

The solution of this problem lies in the proper study of diction. The
intellectual elements of speech consonants are formed almost entirely in
the front of the mouth with various combinations of lips, tongue and
teeth. Three things are necessary to their complete mastery.

=First,=--consonants must be produced without tension. It will be well
to remember in this connection that con