inary relation has ever
existed between the scientific knowledge of the voice and practical
methods of instruction. To cause the summits of the arytenoid
cartilages, for example, to incline toward each other is entirely beyond
the direct power of the singer. How many similar impossibilities have
been seriously advocated can be known only to the academic student of
Vocal Science. Vocal teachers in general have ceased to attempt any such
application of the doctrines of Vocal Science. Even if these doctrines
could be shown to be scientifically sound it would still be impossible
to devise means for applying them to the management of the voice.
Accepted Vocal Science has contributed only one element of the practical
scheme of modern voice culture; this is the erroneous notion that the
vocal organs require to be managed mechanically.

CHAPTER VIII

THE MATERIALS OF RATIONAL INSTRUCTION IN SINGING

Practical methods of instruction in singing may be judged by their
results fully as well as by a scientific analysis of their basic
principles. If the progress of the art of singing in the past fifty
years has been commensurate with the amount of study devoted to the
operations of the vocal mechanism, then the value of present methods is
established. Otherwise the need is proved for some reform in the present
system of training voices. Judged by this standard modern methods are
not found to be satisfactory. There has been no progress in the art of
singing; exactly the contrary is the case. A prominent vocalist goes so
far as to say that "vocal insufficiency and decay are prevalent." (_The
Singing of the Future_, D. Frangcon-Davies, M.A., 1906.) It is perhaps
an exaggeration of the condition to call it "insufficiency and decay."
Yet a gradual decline in the art of singing must be apparent to any
lover of the art who has listened to most of the famous singers of the
past twenty or twenty-five years. Operatic performance has been improved
in every other respect, but pure singing, the perfection of the vocal
art, has become almost a rarity. This is true not only of coloratura
singing; it applies with almost equal force to the use of the singing
voice for the purpose of dramatic and emotional expression.

Musical critics are beginning to comment on the decline of singing. They
seek naturally for the causes of this decline. Many influences are cited
by different writers, each of which has undoubtedly contributed
something towa