MUSICAL COURIER
30
June 29, 1922
“MUSCLE-BOUND THROATS THE CAUSE OF
MOST SINGERS’ TROUBLES,” DECLARES TORRIANI
Well Known Vocal Teacher States He Has Found the Correct Remedy—The Importance of the Process of Selective
Elimination—Results of This Training Twofold
sure and as unconscious as the result of ‘setting up’ exercises on blood circulation, digestion, etc. As the one is sure and safe, so the other is sure and safe. And, I may add, the correct control becomes as automatic and as fixed a habit as any ordinary action of life, and is not broken down by nervousness or any other normal, ordinary stimulus.”
Cecil Arden Discusses Temperament
“Yes, I’m bound for Europe for a little holiday after a strenuous season,” said Cecil Arden, of the Metropolitan Opera Company, just before the Empress of France sailed from Quebec for Cherbourg on June 13.
“You know I have a sort of feeling that American girls who are on the operatic and concert stages in this country,
CECIL ARDEN,
of the Metropolitan Opera Company, who sailed for Europe from Quebec on the Empress of France, June 13.
particularly those who received their entire musical education in America, in which class I fall, are more deserving of a good rest in the off-season. That is because they have to work harder while their season is on. The American public will stand for almost any display of temperament in a foreigner who comes to our shores to sing, and think it perfectly normal. They are perfectly willing to let him or her pose and pout and be petulant, but allow one of their own American singers to do it? I guess not. Thumbs down! American singers are supposed to kngw better than to be so childish.
“And what is the result? Well, we have to devote our entire time when before our audiences to singing. And did you ever stop to think that it is harder work to be paid for singing than for posing and pretending to be temperamental? I have no doubt but that many of the foreigners who cultivate temperament—of course, by no means all of them do—laugh up their sleeve to see how much of it they can display and still have their sincerity unquestioned. A good deal of lack of musical ability and a good deal of laziness can be hidden behind the cloak of temperament. But it is not possible for the American singer to use that cloak even if she or he were willing to.”
Miss Arden sailed for a trip to Paris, Vienna and Italy, which will bring her back the first of October. She took with her the contract for her fourth season at the Metropolitan, where her repertory includes over fifteen operas. In the fall Miss Arden will make an extended concert tour before the opening of the opera season.	K. R.
R. L. Huntzinger, Inc., the New Name
Within the last few weeks notice has been sent out from the firm formerly known as Huntzinger & Dilworth, Inc., that the name has been changed to R. L. Huntzinger. Mr. Dilworth resigned from the company the first of last January and for many months the firm’s name remained unchanged ; it was understood, however, that in the near future some such announcement would be forthcoming.
Mr. Huntzinger will have some interesting announcements to make later on regarding compositions recently secured, which he believes will be of great interest to musicians.
London Engagement for the McConnells
Mrs. E. B. McConnell, vocal teacher, and her two daughters, Harriet and Marie, sailed last week for Europe. During the week of July 10 the girls will fill an engagement at the Coliseum, London.
tone if he stuffed his instrument with cotton wool or if he dented in the sides! But that is just what muscle binding does—it stuffs the air passage and makes its shape irregular with dents, or, rather, with enlarged muscles.
“But—and herein lies the difficulty from the teacher’s point of view—the pupil does not have any control of these muscles, does not even know where they are or what they are. Even if they are pointed out on a chart, the pupil has no direct control over them unless trained by correct exercises. The cause of much unnatural singing is con-serious effort on the part of the pupil to control muscle-bound conditions.
“What, then, is to be done? What actually takes place in the studios of honest teachers is that they do nothing more or less than try to get their pupils into the right kind of habits, judging chiefly by tonal results and teaching mostly by imitation. But is this enough? It is not! It results in accidents. I have discovered the unit, so to speak, of voice production—the one element (or the single set of elements) which is always present in all trained throats, no matter what the shape or size of the cavity— just as sonority is an essential element in all musical instruments, whether.violin,_piano, brass or wood.
The Process of Selective Elimination.
“I have’ found that the one possible process is the process Of selective elimination. That which interfered with the voice is always, invariably, unnatural. The natural voice is good, the unnatural voice is bad. The point is, then, to train the natural voice without anything unnatural creeping in. And it is evident that there is a certain amount of muscular development necessary, just as there is muscular development in learning to play the piano and the violin— not enlarged muscles, but properly controlled muscles. Only, with the piano or the violin, one has to do with, so to speak, external muscles, muscles that are subject to direct control, while, with the voice, the muscles are nearly all inside the throat, chest and abdomen; and, as already stated, attempts to control them, unless properly directed, result in failure accompanied by bad habits and leading to fatal interference.
“There are certain external muscles connected with voice production, muscles one can see and feel and which may be talked about and trained, without any of that mysterious technical hocus-pocus which one so often finds in the vocal studio, especially of the quack.
The Results of This Training.
“What are the results of this training? The results are twofold:	First of all, interference of all sorts is abso-
lutely eliminated. The air column is opened wide and straight from the vocal cords to the mouth so that nothing prevefits the perfect passage of the sound from the generator to the resonator. Second, the pupil is never told to think, and never expected to think, of the action of any of the mysterious ‘internals,’ vocal cords, larynx, etc. If the visible exercises are properly carried out the rest results automatically. And, as there is no holding in of the breath, no restriction, cramping or interference (all of which become impossible), the breathing power is very quickly built up to its maximum, and the jaw, lips and tongue become active and controllable for articulation.
“Beauty of voice depends upon the texture of the vocal cords, the shape of the inside of the mouth, the entire vocal cavity. That cannot be changed. I do not pretend to make a voice where there is no voice, or to make voices better than nature intended them to be. All that I can do is to get the very maximum of results from any voice, and—mark this particularly—I do not judge of what is going on inside of the throat by the sound. I judge by what I actually see and feel from the external part of the throat and jaw. It seems to me absurd to tell a pupil to ‘open his throat’ when there is an evident interference of muscles. The direction may be correct, but how is the pupil to do it? It results only in harmful distortions and more interference.
Pupil Conscious of What He Is Doing.
“With this method of mine the pupil is always conscious of what he is doing. He does not know what the ultimate results will be, or what is taking place in the invisible muscles, any more than a person knows what is happening physiologically to him when he takes his ‘setting up’ exercises morning and evening. He only knows that they are scientifically correct and that they result in making him better for his work, better in health, better in every way.
“So it is with my pupils. Everything they are told to do is externally visible. The result on the singing voice is as
“I have made a discovery!” declared Mr. Torriani to the interviewer who called upon him in an endeavor to induce him to display and expose his methods.
“I have made a discovery. Many years ago I began asking myself what was the trouble with all the singers. They had this or that, they had ‘lost their voices,’ or their voices .were not giving the service they ought to give, they were husky, or had breaks, or short range, or lack of power.
“There were a thousand and one things always the matter, and the cures seemed to be largley a matter of luck. Many a natural voice got less and less or worse and worse with training, or broke down altogether after a year or two of public singing, and teacher after teacher would try his hand at putting it right again, with results that seemed to depend upon accident more than anything else.
“ ‘Rest,’ said the physicians, and after a year or two of rest the voices would sometimes come back, only to get as bad as ever as soon as the work starrted again. ‘Bad placement,’ said the teachers, and every teacher blamed it on some other teacher.
“But with all this there was nothing definite, and so I went to work to find out what was wrong with it all. You know, I was brought up in an atmosphere of music, voice culture, opera. My father was famous as an operatic conductor in the old days here in New York, and I heard all the discussion of the studios, of methods, of successes and failures, when I was a boy.
“As I became interested in the study of voice myself, I soon found out that nobody really knew much about it. After much study I finally came upon a truth that seemed to me to cover the matter pretty thoroughly. That was some years ago, but I was not then prepared to make it public. I had not proved to myself beyond any possible doubt the theory that I had evolved. I had to try and try and try again, on myself and on my pupils, on all sorts of chronic
TORRIANI
disorders and chronic bad habits, all sorts of voices and all sorts of temperaments, to become sure, myself, that I really had put my finger on the seat of the trouble.
“Well, then, first of all I found that the almost universal trouble with those who failed, or only partly succeeded, was due to muscle-bound throats—what the pianist or the violinist might call lack of relaxation—what the strong man, the pugilist, the swimmer or runner, would find an absolute bar to success.
Singer Needs Complete Muscular Freedom.
“It is an absolute bar to a singer’s success as well. What the singer needs is complete muscular freedom. Look —the sound begins at the vocal cords and passes up into the resonator of the mouth. Any interference in the throat, the air passage, or in the mouth itself, causes a loss of tone. The vocal cords may be perfect and the natural shape of the mouth cavity excellent, but, owing to interference throughout every step of the way from the vibrating cords to the point where the sound leaves the lips, the purity and ease of tone is destroyed.
“That is all simple enough. You would not expect a trombone player or a trumpet player to produce a decent
Coloratura Soprano
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