ut of single tones, and, in general, this whole false mode of vocal
execution, must continually shock the natural sentiment of a cultivated,
unprejudiced hearer, as well as of the composer and singing-teacher?
What must be the effect on a voice in the middle register, when its
extreme limits are forced in such a reckless manner, and when you expend
as much breath for a few lines of a song as a correctly educated singer
would require for a whole aria? How long will it be before your voice,
already weakened, and almost always forced beyond the limits of beauty,
shall degenerate into a hollow, dull, guttural tone, and even into that
explosive or tremulous sound, which proclaims irremediable injury? Is
your beautiful voice and your talent to disappear like a meteor, as
others have done? or do you hope that the soft air of Italy will in time
restore a voice once ruined? I fall into a rage when I think of the many
beautiful voices which have been spoiled, and have dwindled away without
leaving a trace during the last forty years; and I vent my overflowing
heart in a brief notice of the many singing-teachers, whose rise and
influence I have watched for twenty years past.

The so-called singing-teachers whom we usually find, even in large
cities and in musical institutions, I exempt from any special criticism,
for they would not be able to understand my views. They permit soprano
voices to sing scales in all the five vowels at once; begin with _c_
instead of _f_; allow a long holding of the notes, "in order to bring
out the voice," until the poor victim rolls her eyes and grows dizzy.
They talk only of the fine chest-tones which must be elicited, will have
nothing to do with the head-tones, will not even listen to them,
recognize them, or learn to distinguish them. Their highest principle
is: "Fudge! we don't want any rubbish of Teschner, Miksch, and Wieck.
Sing in your own plain way: what is the use of this murmuring without
taking breath? For what do you have lungs if you are not to use them?
Come, try this aria: 'Grace,' 'grace!' Produce an effect! Down on your
knees!"

There are again others who allow screaming,--"the more the better,"--in
order to produce power and expression in the voice, and to make it
serviceable for public performances. They may, indeed, require the
singing of _solfeggio_, and prattle about the requisite equality of the
tones; and they consequently make the pupil practise diligently and
strongly on th