The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Psychology of Singing, by David C. Taylor

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Title: The Psychology of Singing
A Rational Method of Voice Culture Based on a Scientific Analysis of All Systems, Ancient and Modern

Author: David C. Taylor

Release Date: June 28, 2007 [eBook #21957]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SINGING

A Rational Method of Voice Culture
based on a Scientific Analysis of
all Systems, Ancient and Modern

by

DAVID C. TAYLOR

New York
1922
All rights reserved

Copyright, 1908,
by the MacMillan Company.
New York--Boston--Chicago--Atlanta--San Francisco
MacMillan & Co., Limited
London--Bombay--Calcutta--Melbourne
The Macmillan Co. of Canada, Ltd.
Toronto

Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1908.
Norwood Press: Berwick & Smith Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

To My Mother

WHOSE DEVOTION TO TRUTH AND EARNEST
LABOR HAS PROMPTED ALL MY EFFORTS
THIS WORK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

PREFACE

A peculiar gap exists between the accepted theoretical basis of
instruction in singing and the actual methods of vocal teachers. Judging
by the number of scientific treatises on the voice, the academic
observer would be led to believe that a coherent Science of Voice
Culture has been evolved. Modern methods of instruction in singing are
presumed to embody a system of exact and infallible rules for the
management of the voice. Teachers of singing in all the musical centers
of Europe and America claim to follow a definite plan in the training of
voices, based on established scientific principles. But a practical
acquaintance with the modern art of Voice Culture reveals the fact that
the laws of tone-production deduced from the scientific investigation of
the voice do not furnish a satisfactory basis for a method of training
voices.

Throughout the entire vocal profession, among singers, teachers, and
students alike, there is