Professional Documents
Culture Documents
students flocked to her studio from all over the world. Everyone
who studied with her was more or less injured vocally by her work.
who fell into her hands was forced to retire from the stage while
are today living in retirement, and these artists would still be sing-
ing if they had been trained properly. Despite all this, Lilli Leh-
mann liked a big tone and she wanted her pupils to be heard
artist pupils did succeed; despite the fact that their careers were so
pitifully curtailed.
The two teachers just discussed did a great deal of harm, but it re-
mained for Jean De Reszke—the great French tenor—to strike the final
blow which has been the main cause of the virtual elimination of all
tically all Frenchmen who lose their voices—"white," throaty and very
theories upon this sensation, which was solely a manifestation of the tech-
nical faults (throatiness, jaw-lock and neck tension) which had de-
stroyed his voice. He did not call this sensation nasality; he coined a
fancy phrase for it: "singing in the masque." For some obscure reason
this silly phrase took an overwhelming hold upon the popular imagination.
cavities. The mouth cavity also can be shaped, and is employed when
that, even if this cavity could be shaped, it could never act as an efficient
resonator. The frontal sinus is a small, fixed cavity, and its use as a resona-
tor is so completely out of the question that one need hardly consider it
of the line A-B, which could possibly be used as a resonator. The cavity
of the skull is filled with brains and is not, therefore, an air cavity. No!
the masque."
This illustration clearly indicates the utter absurdity of the idea that the
It will be seen that the nasal cavity is lined with thick folds of soft mucous
membrane which would act as a highly efficient damping material. The frontal
of the head is filled with brains, a soft, highly absorbent material. Further-
more, neither the nasal cavity, the sinus nor the head can change their size or
shape or, in other words, they cannot be "tuned." Thus, there is no cavity in
the front of the face which could possibly act as a resonator of the tone.
The bony structure of the nose or forehead might act as an efficient sound-
ing board if the vocal cords were attached there. However, the larynx is
The front of the face could be used as a sounding board, if the vocal
cords were rigidly attached to it. But to accomplish this the larynx
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The sensation of the voice being "in the masque," is then merely a
by the neck tension which controls the technic of the "masque" singer.
school, both from above and from below. As a rule the pupils of this
school of teaching deliberately drop their heads to guide the voice "up
and over" into the "masque." They often accompany this forward and
down movement of the head with a circular gesture of the hand which
goes in and out in a semi-circle. As they make these gestures, they auto-
Singers of this school are often taught "breath control," which gen-
erally centers upon the raising of the chest. They may be told to breathe
with the diaphragm and then draw the breath up into the chest, which
chest brings the neck muscles into tension from below. The depressing
of the chest, which ensues as they start to phonate, blows the breath out
means of the locking of the jaw and the tensing of the neck muscles,
before phonation. These singers will, then, very easily and completely,
face, and the sensation thus engendered is what "singing in the masque"
really means.
muscles transmits the sound, with great efficiency, directly into the singer's
own inner ear. (See Figs. 26 & 27.) With each increase in throatiness
and tension on the neck and jaw muscles, he hears what seems to him
throatiness.
improvement in quality to the pupil's own ear. The victims of this school
of teaching can definitely feel and hear themselves reaching the goal.
"singing in the masque" teacher that his voice is deteriorating and that
the theory upon which his teacher works is merely injurious nonsense.
increased richness in the tones they are producing, that they are utterly
unmoved by any statement of the scientific facts of the case. This conceit
which they have spent so much time and money to attain—that they
must start all over again and tear down the throatiness which has been
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teachers are right; or science is right and they have to tear down their
entire technic and build it up again by patient hard work. Think of the
blow to their sense of vanity! Think of the world of hope which was
built up and which must inevitably come crashing to pieces under their
feetl No! As a rule the victim of a "singing in the masque" teacher never
some sort of sound for several years, before he realizes the trap into
was a few years ago, before the radio and movies became so prominent.
Today an individual with a voice so constricted and "shut off" that it can
hardly be heard across a room, may be a big success over the radio and
in Hollywood, if he can put his words across nicely and has a pleasing
personality. Some of the highest paid singers of today are mere crooners.
actually higher intensity level than the one they attain when they
sing. Before the era of reproduction they could not have been even
as they are today, although all three of them originally had quite
fine voices. The fact that certain, very throaty singers have been
opera house in the world! Thirty years ago these singers would not
Nevertheless, the moment the public hears the singer with an even
half-way free voice, they love it. If one of the great singers of the
it hears one. Actually the two biggest and best voices in the world
don't last very long, either physically or in the public fancy. Their
careers are, as a rule, extremely limited even when they are able
to go on singing.