ay work against successful
voice-training--worst of all, perhaps, the spirit of haste, the desire
to reach ends by short cuts, the aim to substitute tricky for
straightforward vocalization, and much more which I shall refer to
again and again. They hurt this cause; and I am deeply impressed with
the conviction that, if we are to attain the best results in singing
and speaking, we must betake ourselves in practice to the methods in
vogue at a time which may be justly characterized as the golden age of
voice-production.

We have advanced, musically, in many respects since the days of the
old Italian masters, but just as we must turn to the Greeks to learn
what constitutes the highest and best in sculpture, so must we sit at
the feet of these old masters. Consciously or unconsciously they
taught on sound physiological principles, and they insisted on the
voice-training absolutely necessary to the attainment of the best art.

However talented any individual may be, he can only produce the best
results as a singer, actor, or speaker, when the mechanisms by which
he hopes to influence his listeners are adequately trained. Why do we
look in vain to-day for elocutionists such as Vandenhoff, Bell, and
others? Why are there not actors with the voices of Garrick, Kean,
Kemble, or Mrs. Siddons, or singers with the vocal powers of a score
of celebrities of a former time? It is not that voices are rarer, or
talent less widely bestowed by nature. It is because _we do not to-day
pursue right methods for a sufficient length of time_; because our
methods rest frequently on a foundation less physiological, and
therefore less sound. Take a single instance, breath-control. In this
alone singers to-day are far behind those of the old Italian period,
not always because they do not know how to breathe, but because often
they are unwilling to give the time necessary for the full development
of adequate breathing power and control.

There was probably never a time when so much attention was paid to the
interpretation of music, yet the results are often unsatisfactory
because of inadequate technique. People seem to hope to impress us, on
the stage, with voices that from a technical point of view are crude
and undeveloped, and accordingly lack beauty and expressiveness.
Speakers to-day have often every qualification except voice--a voice
that can arrest attention, charm with its music, or carry conviction
by the adequate expression of the idea