free from faults; it has also, on the
positive side, a peculiar character which renders it entirely different
from any wrongly used voice. The cultured hearer is impressed with a
sense of incompleteness and insufficiency in listening to a voice which
does not "come out" in a thoroughly satisfactory manner. This is true,
even though the voice is not marred by any distinct fault.

A voice absolutely perfect in its production awakens a peculiar set of
sympathetic sensations. In addition to its musical beauty such a voice
satisfies an instinctive demand for the perfect vocal action. An
indescribable sensation of physical satisfaction is experienced in
listening to a perfectly managed voice.

On further consideration of this feeling of physical satisfaction
awakened by a perfectly produced voice, it seems a mistake to call it
indescribable. A beautiful description of this set of sympathetic
sensations has been handed down to us by the masters of the old Italian
school. This description is embodied in two of the traditional precepts,
those dealing with the open throat and the support of the tone.

Mention of the traditional precepts leads at once to the consideration
of another aspect of the empirical knowledge of the voice. Vocalists
have been attentively listening to voices since the beginning of the
modern art of singing. Although many of the impressions made by the
voice on the ear cannot be expressed in words, one set of impressions
has been clearly recorded. A marked difference was evidently noticed by
the old Italian masters between the feelings awakened in the hearer by
a voice properly managed and those awakened by an incorrectly produced
voice. These impressions were embodied in a set of precepts for the
guidance of the singer, which are none other than the much-discussed
traditional precepts.

In other words, the traditional precepts embody the results of the old
masters' empirical study of the voice. Considered in this light, the old
precepts lose at once all air of mystery and become perfectly
intelligible and coherent. To a consideration of this record of the
empirical knowledge of the voice the following chapter is devoted.

CHAPTER IV

THE TRADITIONAL PRECEPTS OF THE OLD ITALIAN SCHOOL

There should be nothing mysterious, nothing hard to understand, about
the empirical precepts. It was pointed out in Chapter V of Part I that
these precepts contain a perfect description of correctly produced voc