er strain after an effect, never
labor, never grow red in the face, never employ excessive gesture to
help force out a note. With them respiration consists of inspiration and
expiration--never of perspiration. There is little danger that Caruso
ever will break his collar bone in producing high C, and his delivery
of the romance, "Una furtiva lagrima," in _L'Elisir d'Amore_, is a
most exquisite example of breath-control and of voice-management in
_cantabile_; while Plancon's singing from a chest absolutely immobile,
even in long and difficult phrases, is so effortless that his
performances are a delight to every lover of the art of song, his voice
flowing out in a broad, smooth stream of music. Physically, the reason
why an expanded chest retards the emptying of the lungs is apparent.
The pressure of a relaxing chest would accelerate their return to a
condition of repose and the breath would be expended too soon, with the
result that some or much of it would be wasted. Moreover, an expanded
chest is a splendid resonance-chamber, affords a firm support to the
windpipe and adds to the sure and vibrant quality of the tone produced.
The wobble, which at times causes disappointment with voices that had
seemed unusually fine, is the result of lack of attention to this
detail of vocal method. The windpipe, requiring the support of a firm
chest-wall, becomes unsteady, the singer loses his control of the
air-column, and the vibrations of the vocal ligaments are uncertain,
instead of tense and sure.

To maintain the expanded chest during expiration, which also means during
singing, is not difficult. There is nothing forced about it. For if there
is the correct pause after inspiration, if the breath is held for a brief
space of time, the pressure naturally exerted outward upon the upper
chest is readily felt. Accompanying it is a gradual drawing in of the
lower abdominal wall, not forceful enough to be called stringent but
simply following the return of the diaphragm to its natural position
as the lungs return to theirs. Therefore, when it is stated that if a
_crescendo_ is to be produced on a single tone or phrase, this is
accomplished by increasing the outward pressure on the chest and the
inward and upward pressure of the abdominal muscles; there is no thought
of prescribing a sudden and undue strain, but simply of employing more
potently and more effectively certain forces of pressure which Nature
herself already has brought in