| Show yora mors musical Yim matters Mat terz EDIT JOURNAL since I 1 sent you my former letter I 1 have hail had to fulfill an engagement to sing at salt lake with my cho r which has prevented me from replying sooner to your correspondent A love of musical rau education whose letter came out in your isue iesue of aug ath after my letter was delivered if you will mildly kindly allow me little space in your valuable paper I 1 will endeavor to do so now as briefly as possible your correspondent frien dily advocates the use of the violin for voice training while at the same time lie he admits that tile the 1111 human mail voice is the only instrument made by the creator and that ill all other instruments are aie inferior it must therefore follow that a thorough knowledge of the capabilities of the human voice as being the supreme instrument must 6 give supreme results ultimately makin making the properly trained voice independent of all other instruments lie ile says ho he uses the violin in voice training because it is supposed to be the nearest to the human voice but if the human voice be the supreme instrument why not use the voice alone and throw aside the violin the vocalist who can read music at sight with his voice alone can teach his pupils to do the same but lie he who who cannot read music without a violin may be able to teach the latter but cannot teach vocal music as it should be tau taught tit and as the leading musical authora authorities of this county and the country that I 1 came from requires it to be taught viz by the voice alone your correspondent again states that one voice caffolo caff cannot llo train another as well as with an instrument and the only reason lio lie a gives give 9 is that a babau cannot very well teach a tenor nor a tenor a baso hut but ho be is mistaken in this thi for one voice voice can train another on the samo same principle that a leader of a choir j can call train his bo Lo pranas although I 1 they are an octave higher hiber th than all his own voice the cypre expressions being tho the same in both voices ile he also says when the teachers sing themselves they hear bear their own voices best and consequently tl they I 1 CY are arc apt to miss bially many places where tho the students ought lit to be correct corrected el but the teacher is not always singing ile he is 3 sometimes watching bia students etu dents and listening to hear if they are arc si singing correctly with nil all due respect rc to his hi high gh opinion of the violin there is no instrument more ready to no go out of turie tune than it is and requires much illich more winding up to keep keel it in tune it foils falls immediately short of the human burnan voice in teaching vocal music ile he alo aleci says pays that the different kinds kind of exi nession as given by the violin is the I 1 real cal music music if tire the different kinds of expression constitute the real music it follows that tile the vocalist who reads the with his voice is the only teacher who lias has the real music musi canil and teaches it to to liia his pupils for lie he not only sings the music as it is written hut but gives the very words and an thoughts C of the writer sines since my return from salt lake city I 1 find in your issue of the dinst a letter from my fraund professor fogelberg F 0 elberg expressing his gratitude for the letters oil vocal music that have appeared in your paper but still he be does not seem to understand the question involved viz viz whether vocal music should be tau taught tit bythe by the voice alone or with the aid of an instrument A lover of musical education under understood stool it thoroughly for lie he replied to A lover of music husic by defending 0 the use of the violin in i n teaching vocal voca music I 1 will here state that it matters not on how many instruments a man ma be e able to perform 1 when lie undertakes to teach vocal music lie should first train his own voice until he be has gained complete command over it and can do liis his work thoroughly 0 without the aid of any man made instrument I 1 appreciate prof fogel bergs talent as a violinist and love to hear liis bis performance on the violin and that of his pupils but I 1 have always considered vocal music to be a distinct branch of musical education and perfectly independent of instrumental music your correspondent A voice F from roin in your issue of the is correct in saying that the tonic sol fall fa is an easy method especially for children it is now tle the leading Z method in the schools in england scotland and wale and in the near future will be in the united states slates of america if it is not now at the celebrated contest at the world wold s fair the rhondda valley south wales male glee club who won the first prize there was taught in the sol fa system of whom prof stephens faid eaid in writing to the papers here from chicago that lie he never heard beard such music from mortal beings I 1 would like to hear aze more from A voicu voice prom from on the question involved respectfully ALEXANDER LEWIS |
