Even if every thing else could be right, in such a culture of the tone,
which must very shortly relax the muscles of the voice, that one thing,
in itself, would be sufficient to destroy all promise of success.
The second evil endangers even the male voice, which is able to endure
much ill-treatment; while the female voice is quickly forced by it into
a piercing shrillness, or is driven back into the throat, soon to be
entirely exhausted, or is, at least, prevented from attaining a natural,
fine development. This second evil is the reckless and destructive
straining of single tones to their extreme limits, even to perfect
exhaustion. The poor singer urges and squeezes out the voice, and
quivers to the innermost marrow, in order that the two requirements of
"Boldness" and "Power" may be satisfied. But the "Spirit" is still
wanting, which should be shown in a light and well-shaded delivery. The
effect of extreme shading, however, is accomplished in a single
"romanza." The unfortunate, misdirected singer, who must aim at effect,
lays out so much force on single tones, or even on whole lines, and
that, too, in the best register of his voice (the other registers do not
permit this), that the succeeding tones are forced to retire powerless
into the throat; and the beautiful, fresh, youthful tenor or bass voice
concludes with exhausted groaning and mere speaking tones.
Pages:
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137