21
MUSICAL COURIER
3 anua.r y 18, 1923
LICENSING MUSIC TEACHERS
subject to voluntary control. Correct action of the voice mechanism must be induced and not forced. Interference, being under control of the will, can be eliminated. Every form of interference by undue tension of the false vocal chords, or soft palate, or muscles of chin and tongue, etc., leaves its impress on the quality of tone.
XVI.	The art of 1mice production is based upon the facts of anatomy, physiology and physics. The facts apply to every voice mechanism with equal force and in precisely the same way, and are therefore impersonal.
XVII.	The art of singing is composed of four elements: breathing, tone production, diction and interpretation.
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MUSIC AT U. OF P.
Under the name of the Musical Club, the University of Pennsylvania has united the Glee Club Chorus, 165 men under the direction of H. Alexander Matthews; the University Orchestra, eighty men; the University Band, ninety men, under the leadership of Richard L. Weaver; the Instrumental Club, fifty men who play lighter music, and a sight singing society. Of a recent concert by the glee club and orchestra, Samuel L. Laciar says in the Philadelphia Public Ledger:
The great change which -is taking place in the trend of music in the United States has been nowhere more strongly shown than in the concert of the newly organized Musical Club of the University of Pennsylvania which .was given on Wednesday evening at the Academy of Music and when for the first time in the history of the University a program of music in which every number was chosen for its musical value alone was performed.
With the passing of what has heretofore been known as “college music,” an innovation made some years ago by Harvard, the college glee club takes its departure from college life as a social organization, and the audiences throughout the country before which it appears will no longer be the alumni, many of whom attended out of a feeling of loyalty for alma mater, but they will be composed of music lovers who attend to hear a form of music which they cannnot otherwise hear.
This, however, is one of the very minor features of this important change; it is in the effect upon the students themselves, as well as upon the music of the city and country as well as the University, that the major influence will be exerted.
It is no exaggeration to say that the example of Harvard in putting its glee club on a purely musical basis has had a profound influence upon male choral work all over the United States. With Pennsylvania following the same example, and in an even broader way if the plans of the club are carried out, it will show the prospective college student who has sufficient interest in music to want to “make” the glee club that he has to be considerably more of a musician now than those who achieve that honor a few years ago were obliged to be.
It is not essential to dwell upon the requirements of making a college glee club of a decade or more ago; suffice It to say that the requirements were by no means all musical. But it will take considerable of an amateur musician to make the glee club of the University of Pennsylvania or Harvard under the new regime. If the ability to. read notes is not there the applicant will be obliged to enter the sightsinging classes before he is eligible for the glee club proper.
This is in itself a good thing, for it automatically raises the standard of the organization at the start, besides the psychological factor of having an organization membership in which is based upon something more than the ability to sing fairly well.
Everyone knows how the young American, whether college student or not, loves to belong to something which is difficult to enter, or at least to which there are certain restrictions. But membership in such an organization will have rewards far beyond those of the old college glee club.
Not only will the glee club as now being carried out at the University teach the members a lot about the literature of vocal music of the better class, but the orchestra, which is affiliated with the glee club under the care of the musical club, will give them by association and practice a working knowledge of instrumental music. Between them there is assured the “graduation” each year of a large number of trained and critical listeners—the best asset that any country which hopes to rise high in the art of music can possibly have.
In dropping the “rah-rah” music and taking up that of the best class the University of Pennsylvania has shown itself to be thoroughly abreast of (he musical times in this country. No art is making the popular progress here that music is making. The college glee club of days gone by served perhaps a college purpose, but after all, its success was largely social; the new college musicai organization is serving the best interests of art. And there is still the mandolin club for purely college purposes.
There was a vigorous protest by many of the alumni some years ago when the Harvard Glee Club made the break for better music, but the results secured showed so clearly that the college spirit was really the gainer by it that there has, I understand, been little of that feeling shown at the University. The undergraduates are for it strongly and the “old grad” who came to a concert of the Harvard Glee Club, prepared to scoff and perhaps to weep at the “vanishing of the college spirit” when the club of his college gave a program of high art, remained to be very proud of the fact that he was an alumnus of a college which could do so admirable a thing.
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PRIZES AND PRIZES
When one considers the size of the prizes usually given for musical competitions it is instructive to read that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is offering $15,000 in prizes “for better methods of humane slaughter in abattoirs; of which, $10,000 for an apparatus to produce instant, insensibility, and $5,000 for a device that will cast and hold an animal with the least degree of suffering, for the purpose of slaughter,”
7.	The ordinary act of expiration is merely passive, the resilience of the ribs and the elasticity of the lungs being sufficient to produce it.
8.	As the vibration of the vocal cords, which originate the tone, and the continuation of this vibration, depend entirely on the breath, and as the breath depends on the lungs and respiratory muscles, it follows that it is of the greatest importance that the lungs be in a healthy condition, and the respiratory muscles be rtrong, and well under the control of the singer; for without mastery of the motive power, all' else is unavailing.
9.	To achieve this control as quickly as possible, physical exercises, apart from singii.o• are necessary for the developing and strengthening of the entire breathing apparatus. Such exercises have also a great value in building up the general health, the possession of which is an essential for the successful . inger.
10.	In order to give the lungs the greatest possible freedom to expand, the chest should be held erect to a condition of buoyancj without strain.
11.	As the bony structure of the chest is largely suspended from above, being attached to other bones at the neck, shoulders and back, and as it is free and unattached below, the greatest motion, during respiration, should take place about its lower portion, where there is the greatest freedom.
12.	Therefore during singing, if the chest is held erect and buoyant, the point of greatest motion, caused by breathing, should be in the region of the diaphragm.
13.	The control of the breath would most logically and most naturally be accomplished by the control, independently, of the muscles of inspiration and the muscles of expiration, or by a balancing or opposition of one set against the other.
14.	No attempt to control the breath should be made at the larynx.
15.	In general, no action of the breath mechanism should be allowed which would tend to produce interference with the voice mechanism.
16.	Perfect control of the breath means:
(a)	Ability to fill the lungs to their capacity either quickly or slowly;
(b)	Ability to breathe out as quickly or as slowly as occasion demands;
(c)	Ability to suspend inspiration with the throat open, whether the lungs are full or not, and to resume the process at will, without having lost any of the already inspired breath;
(d) Ability to exhale under the same restrictions;
(e) Ability to sing and to sustain the voice on an ordinary breath;
(!) Ability to breathe quietly as often as text and phrase permit;
(g)	Ability to breathe so that the fullest inspiration brings no fatigue;
(h)	Ability so to economize the breath that the reserve is never exhausted;
(i)	Ability to breathe so naturally, so unobtrusively, that neither breath nor lack of breath is ever suggested to the listener.
SOME FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF VOICE PRODUCTION
(Original submitted by Dr. Floyd S. Muckey and amended as follows, 1915-1916).
From the standpoint of the listener
I.	Sound is a sensation produced through the organ of hearing by means of air waves.
II.	Pitch is that characteristic of the sensation of sound which depends upon the rate at which the air waves strike the ear drum.
III.	Volume is that characteristic of the sensation of sound which depends upon the extent of motion of the ear drum.
IV.	Quality is that characteristic of the sensation of sound which depends upon the ma׳ er of motion of the ear drum.
From the standpoint of the producer.
V.	The voice is sound or air waves. Vocal tone is always complex, being composed of several simple tones (fundamental and over-tones), varying in pitch and intensity.
VI.	Sound, air wave, or voice production necessitates the use of a mechanism which has three essential elements:
1.	A vibrator, which is set in motion by impact of breath against the vocal chords and establishes the air waves.
2.	A pitch mechanism to determine the rate at which the air waves are originated.
3.	A resonance mechanism to reinforce the air waves established at. the vibrator.
VII.	In the voice mechanism the vocal chords serve as vibrator; the cartilages and muscles of the larynx form the pitch mechanism; and the cavities of the pharynx, mouth and nose, the resonance mechanism.
VIII.	Pitch of the voice is determined by the length, weight and tension of the vibrating portion of the vocal chords.
IX.	Volume of voice depends upon the extent of vibration of the vocal chords which is caused by breath pressure, and upon resonance.
X.	Quality of voice depends upon the vibration of the vocal chords as a whole and in segments, and upon resonance.
XI.	Vocal resonance, which is an important factor in voice production, is due to the sympathetic vibration of the air in the resonance cavities.
XII.	Correct voice production, or that action of the mechanism which produces perfect vocal tone, includes the free vibration of the vocal chords, the free motion of the cartilages and muscles of the larynx, and the full use of the resonance space. This action, under the influence of the properly controlled breath, produces the voice for which nature intended this particular mechanism.
XIII.	Any muscular contraction which prevents the free vibration of the vocal chords, the free motion of the cartilages and muscles of the larnyx, and the full use of the resonance space, is termed an interference.
XIV.	Every form of interference leaves its impress on quality of the tone.
XV.	The vocal muscles are involuntary in their true action for voice production. The interfering muscles are
Frederick H. Haywood very kindly calls our attention to an error which was made in our issue of January 4 in not crediting him with the article entitled Licensing vs. Standardization in which Mr. Haywood offered a few valuable thoughts in support of the observations of William A. C. Zerffi which appeared in an earlier issue. It was our understanding that Mr. Haywood wanted his article to appear anonymously and it was so printed. However, it is with satisfaction that we now learn that he intended his name to be signed to his remarks, because a name of such standing in the musical world naturally adds to their significance. Our apologies.
Standard of Ethics
The following letter from George E. Shea, president of the New York Singing Teachers’ Association, explains itself and introduces the comments appended by Louis Arthur Russell, Walter L. Bogert and Dr. Floyd S. Muckey:
New York City, January 4, 1923. To the Musical Courier:
At the recent hearings in City Hall, New York, on the question of licensing music teachers, education towards higher ethical standards was advocated as a means of eliminating, “from within,” some measure of the undesirable conditions .said to exist in our profession.
Already in 1917 the New York Singing Teachers’ Association was alive to the importance of formulating a body of ethical principles for the conduct of singing teachers toward the public and toward one another. And it adopted unanimously the subjoined standard of ethics which I truly believe will be of great interest to all your readers, and likewise of much value as giving precise form to the aspirations of, I am sure, ׳many in the voice teaching profession.
Furthermore, I ask most hopefully and with real appreciation, that you publish at your convenience in future issues, first the enclosed Some Fundamental Principles of Breathing, and then the Some Fundamental Principles of Voice Production. These principles were given majority votes in the same New York Singing Teachers’ Association in 1915 and 1916, after much thoughtful discussion. They show the noteworthy point that there can be agreement among vocal teachers upon certain elementary facts of singing, and that, in so far, a minimum of exact (standardized) knowledge of the physiology of the voice can very well be expected of every serious teacher of singing.
(Signed) George E. Shea,
President, N. Y. S. T. A.
STANDARD OF ETHICS
(Original submitted by Louis Arthur Russell and amended as follows, 1917).
1.	The relations between all honest teachers of singing should be, fraternal, cordial, and •trictly sincere, and without reserve as to teaching principles and ethical relations, as are the nominal relations of members of other profession־.
2.	It is unprofessional and contrary to correct principles of ethics for a teacher to make any claims, as to himself or as to his pupils, which are not strictly true; to attempt in any way to defame the reputation of fellow teachers or to lead his pupils into any habits of ungenerous criticism; and, while he should always expose the charlatan or the misguided practices of the incompetent, careless, or dishonest teacher, he should never adversely criticise his fellow teacher unless he positively knows the history of the case and can substantiate with proof whatever testimony he advances.
3.	The teacher should by precept and example cultivate among his pupils a respect for the opinions of others and a generous consideration of the worth of all artists. He should also endeavor to impress upon all with whom he comes in professional contact, the difficulties of accurate judgment, of criticism of singers, or of coming to correct conclusions without experience and knowledge. He should do all in his power to arouse public sentiment against “quick processes” in voice study, and endeavor to lead his pupils and their friends to an appreciation of the above facts, and of the impossibility, in many cases of young students, of naming positively the character of the voice and of promising honestly the results of study, before the voice has matured.
4.	The teacher should inform his pupils of the many elements for success or failure, and should explain the most important sources of success. He should emphasize the fact that a full artistic success is due to the student’s personal attributes, physique, mentality, vocal organs (natural voice), musical nature (tempe- ament, etc.), musicianship, general education, good instruction, surroundings and opportunity.
This broad consideration will insure a more honest system of credits in the ultimate estimate of the teacher’s worth.
5.	The teacher who will exploit as his own the results of other teachers’ instruction, or allow his pupils to do so, is unworthy of a place among honest teachers and should be branded as a charlatan.
SOME FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF BREATHING
(Original paper submitted by Walter L. Bogert, and amended as follows, 1916)
1.	In voice production the breath is at once the motive power and support.
2.	The lungs are spongy, elastic bodies having no activity of their own.
3.	The breath is provided through the lungs which are controlled by the muscles of respiratioi.
4.	There are. two sets of respiratory muscles, one for inspiration, and the other for expiration; twenty-two or more in all.
5.	The principal muscles of inspiration are the diaphragm, and the intercostal muscles that elevate the ribs and avert their lower borders. (The diaphragm is not a muscle of expiration.)
6. The chief muscles of expiration are the four sets of abdominal muscles and the intercostal muscles that depress the ribs.