PRINCIPLES AND METHODS IN VOCAL TRAINING S. S. CURRY, PH.D., LITT.D. PRESIDENT OF THE SCHOOL OF EXPRESSION BOSTON EXPRESSION COMPANY PIERCE BUILDING, COPLEY SQUARE PREFACE In all departments of education teachers are suffering from misuse of the voice. Aside from hindrance to the progress and injury to the health of pupils, most teachers fail to do their best work from lack of control of the organic instrument which all must use. Many preachers shorten their lives, to say nothing of the loss of efficiency, from causes which could be remedied by a little attention to vocal training and expression. Over thirty years ago I stood before an audience, in the middle of an address, unable to speak a word for some minutes. The horror of those moments has never been blotted from memory. That failure was a climax of several years, during which I had sought help from over twenty teachers. I determined to search still more diligently to find the cause of my condition. I made earnest studies in this country and in Europe. As I began to grasp the problem, sufferers began to come to me, and I was led to give my life to endeavors to do for others what was not done for me. I owe much to my teachers to Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, who first inspired me with the possibility of a science of voice, and to his father, Alexander Melville Bell, who helped me to conquer many defects, and to the elder Lamperti, of Milan, who instilled into my heart the spirit of the old masters of song. No one, however, must be held responsible for the views here expressed. Good or bad, they are the product of my own observations and experiences during thirty years of earnest study. 306434 The general reader will doubtless feel that there are too many exercises, but to me the exercises are the necessary means of demonstration. These have also been arranged to aid teachers who are often compelled to change the point of view and to assign different exercises to different students according to individual needs. To those who believe that more attention should be given in modern education to expression and the use of the voice and especially to the few who have sustained me in my efforts to advance the neglected but important subject of Vocal Training and Expression, the work is committed with the hope that it may prove helpful. |