nsible in this or that singer to indulge in this vibration,
while in reality it is the tremolando which is blamed. The vibration
of the voice is its inmost life-throb--its pulse--its spring. Without
it there is only monotony. But if the vibration is changed to
tremolando the singer falls into an intolerable fault which is
warranted only in very rare cases when it serves as a means to express
the very highest degree of excitement.'

"W.J. Henderson in the Art of the Singer, says of messa di voce, 'It
is by the emission of tones swelling and diminishing that we impart to
song that wave-like undulation which gives it vitality and tonal
vivacity.' But when speaking of the rendition of Handelian arias, he
evidently uses the term vibrato in the same sense as Sieber does
tremolando. He declares it probably hopeless to plead for the
abolition of the cheap and vulgar vibrato in the delivery of these old
arias, remarking further that there is no account of its use in the
writings of the contemporaries of Caffarelli and Farinelli and that
master singers of their day were praised for the steadiness of their
tones and the perfect smoothness of their style. He asserts also that
vibrato is a trick invented after that day and out of place in the
music of that period.

"Referring to Rubini, the originator of the fault, he leaves the
impression that this singer used the vibrato only occasionally (which
may at first have been the fact) and that as a means of heightening
the dramatic effect. Grove, however, puts the matter somewhat
differently. 'Rubini,' he says, 'was the earliest to use the thrill of
the voice known as vibrato (the subsequent abuse of which we are all
familiar) at first as a means of emotional effect, afterward it was to
conceal the deterioration of the organ.'

"Imitators brought great discredit upon Rubini and his name is
associated with an impure, corrupt vocalization. This with other
influences, brought about a sentiment in composers as well as singers
favoring vocal declamation, rather than singing in the sense in which
that word was understood by the great tenor. In 1852 there was a cloud
of imitators and it became so prevalent almost all singers of the day
indulged in it.

"Ferri, a baritone who sang at La Scala in 1853, made such effective
use of it upon any note as to secure a place in the records of that
day as one whose whole song was a bad 'wobble.'

"Even the great Mario, whose voice is described as 'ri