he New
Testament. Verily the situation is difficult. Nevertheless it is not
altogether hopeless. The impulse to sing still remains. More people are
studying singing, and more people sing well today than at any other time
in the history of the world. The impulse to sing is as old as the human
race. When the joy of life first welled up within man and demanded
utterance the vocal instrument furnished by nature was ready to respond
and the art of singing began, and if we may venture a prophecy it will
never end in this world or the next. It cannot be destroyed even by the
teachers themselves. It is this natural, inborn desire to sing that is
directly responsible for the amazing perseverance of many vocal
students. If after a year or two of study they find they are wrong they
are not greatly disturbed, but select another teacher, firm in the faith
that eventually they will find the right one and be safely led to the
realization of their one great ambition--to be an artist. It is this
that has kept the art alive through the centuries and will perpetuate
it. This impulse to sing is something no amount of bad teaching can
destroy.

THE REFORM

Everything in the universe that has come under the scrutiny of mortal
man has been subjected to a perpetual reformation. Nothing is too great
or too small to engage the attention of the reformer. Religion,
politics, medicine and race suicide are objects of his special
solicitude, but nothing else has been forgotten. No phase of human
activity has been allowed to remain at rest. So far as we know nothing
but the multiplication table has escaped the reformer. There is a
general feeling that nothing is exactly right. This may be the operation
of the law of progress, doubtless it is, but it occasions a mighty
unrest, and keeps the world wondering what will happen next. This law of
progress is but another name for idealism to which the world owes
everything. Idealism is that which sees a better condition than the one
which now obtains. The process of realizing this better condition is in
itself reformation.

As far back as we have any knowledge of the art of singing the reformers
have been at work, and down through the centuries their energies have
been unflagging. We owe to them whatever advance has been made toward a
perfect system of voice training, but they are also responsible for many
things pernicious in their nature which have been incorporated in
present day methods of teaching,