Show THE SCARCITY OF FINE VOICE one of the most moat remarkable things relating to song at the present resent day is the scarcity of really fine ne voices it will not I 1 suppose be seriously argued that the human voice is degenerating and never were the inducements to cultivate it more abundant or more powerful yet if we are to believe many competent authorities never were first rate voices so rare as at the present time the complaint is not altogether new and is in part at least nothing more than the inevitable moan of the tem poris aad over the decadence of things in general rossini at the zenith of his fame complained that there were so few good voices and quite at the beginning of last century we find tool Tosi speaking of his 0 ow n period r iod as one of decay mancini xo also 1774 says that vocal art had then fallen very low a circumstance which he attributes to singers having forgotten the old systems and the sound practice of the ancient schools I still modern writers on singing are agreed that there is a dearth of really beautiful voices at the present time and as this is one of the very few points on which these contentious persons are agreed there can be little doubt of the truth of the fact to which they bear bitnes good tenors are especially rare even among italians the chosen people of song there are no DO tenors now who can be compared with mario or rubini indeed one gathers from mr sims reeves reminiscences published not long ago that the world is at present blessed with only one really first rate tenor mr reeves leaves his bis readers in no doubt as to the identity of this triton among contemporaneous minnows of song we have no do basso that can stand beside La blache except madame patti whose glorious voice is now two seldom heard and madame christine Nils nilsson soh who to the regret of all lovers of song has quitted the lyric stage madame A albanians labant Albani and madame Semb are almost the sole inheritors of the renown of the great prama prima donna of old od it Is ignot enot only in compass and quality that our latter day voices are inferior to those of preceding generations but in endurance cent voice ned fied u nim pared up to extreme old age and aid Fari Farinell nellis Ps only died with him matteucci when past his bis eightieth year used to sing in church every sunday per mera devo sione and such was the freshness and flexibility of his voice that those who could not see him took it to be that of a young man in the flower of his age indeed this was not dot very uncommon in singers trained according to the best traditions of the old italian school which seems to have possessed the secret of perpetual youth as far as the voice was concerned now to what can our poverty in voices of the highest claw class be due I 1 believe to a combination of three different causes first I 1 inadequacy of training secondly the want of good teachers and thirdly the gradual gradual rise of the concert pitch which has taken place in recent years insufficient training arises from the breathless habte to isac BUC aeed isa characteristic of this feverish age voices are quickly run up by contract and as swiftly fall into decay the preference for supposed royal roads over the hard beaten path that has led former singers to fame is another error which has worked almost as much m mischief in song as it has in scholarship in the brave days ot of old singers never deemed their vocal education complete until they bad 1 given six or beven years to the ceaseless study of their art the want of good teachers is closely connected with the inadequacy of modern training for it is evident that a in in who has not himself had the patience or the industry to master his art cannot be a satisfactory guide aide to others show and super ajai brilliancy of execution are aimed at rather than solidity and thoroughness more attention is paid to vocal tours do de foroe force than to artis tic ornament the firm basis of experience peri fience ence has been abandoned for ralta fantastic methods of teaching which i are useless when they are not positively harmful I 1 would earnestly advise all those who profess to impart t the divine art of song like afro prospero spero to drown their books I 1 and study the production of the voice as an art and not as a branch of chinese metaphysics sir amorell mackenzie in the contemporary y re ke view |