Voice and Nerve Control

From the Introduction. Realizing that my book on the voice, "Health, Speech and Song," published in 1902, was inadequate to cope with the rapid progress in voice culture during the last few years, I decided that a more comprehensive and progressive work was essential, if my labors were to prove of any value. I have, therefore, written an entirely new book, embracing what I considered of vital interest in the earlier work and developing it to meet what I believe to be the need of today. I sincerely hope that the result of my added years of untiring investigation will both carry conviction and prove of service. Thirty years of practical experience as a lecturer and teacher of voice culture have led me to believe that there is but one reasonable way of training the vocal organ, and that its systematic development can be so practically presented in book form, that students, to a great extent, can do the fundamental work without the aid of a master. In this book I have attempted to bring elocution and song into much closer relation; hoping to prove that since both involve the progressive development of the same organ, they are closely related in their methods. In spite of the many advanced conceptions of vocal art, voice production still remains, to a very dangerous degree, a matter of guesswork, and this confusion springs largely from want of discrimination between the preparatory work needed for the adjustment of the organ and the art of playing upon it. It is because of this confusion that both the beauty and the endurance of the voice so often remain unrealized, both by the speaker and the singer. But even apart from the artistic values, it is time we should recognize that voice-culture is intimately related to health, wherefore it concerns not only the artist, but everyone. PERFECT VOICE TRAINING REQUIRES PERFECT BREATHING, which, in the twofold, scientific understanding of inhalation and control, influences not only our nasal cavities, our throat, our lungs and our digestive organs, but our nerves. For conscious breath control, in its scientific development, will prove to be the medium that stimulates our entire being. In Part III, ten consecutive lessons with explanatory diagrams have been added which will give a new and practical insight into this subject. The repetitions which these lessons of necessity must involve will, I hope, increase the students' knowledge to such an extent that breath control and the perfect use, at least of the speaking voice, can be conquered by all who conscientiously apply themselves to my instructions. In these ten progressive lessons, art will be made to go so consistently hand in hand with nature that its underlying principles will always be apparent. For voice will ultimately prove to be only a means to a greater, psychological recognition resulting in a new understanding of self-control and self-realization. We are advancing towards a great revolution in voice culture which will show that a far deeper and more significant mode of breathing than the muscular must be brought to bear upon the production of voice, otherwise students may fail not only in their art, but in developing the only power which can withstand the nervous strain that is forced upon us all in our present restless, yet wonderfully progressive age.