inger's education from the beginning and seem to assume, as a
matter of course, that the training in the art of music is coincident,
if not indeed identical, with the cultivation of the voice. But they do
not by any means neglect the subject of tone-production. Most modern
readers of these early writers overlook the simple directions given for
securing a proper use of the voice. This is, of course, due to the
current belief that directions for vocal management must of necessity
deal with mechanical and muscular operations. Finding nothing of this
kind in Tosi and Mancini, the modern investigator concludes that these
writers for some reason failed to record the means used for imparting
the correct vocal action. All that can be found by such an investigator
in the works of Tosi and Mancini is an outline of an elaborate system of
coloratura singing. Much more is seen when the meaning of imitative
Voice Culture is understood.

Let us consider first the "Observations" of Tosi. This writer devotes
his first few pages to some remarks on the art of singing, and to a
general consideration of the practices of Voice Culture. Almost at the
outset we meet this striking statement: "It would be needless to say
that verbal instruction would be of no use to singers any farther than
to prevent 'em falling into errors, and that it is practice alone can
set them right." That is certainly a sound principle.

Consider also this passage. "The faults in singing insinuate themselves
so easily into the minds of young beginners, and there are such
difficulties in correcting them, when grown into an habit, that it were
to be wished the ablest singers would undertake the task of teaching,
they best knowing how to conduct the scholar from the first elements to
perfection. But there being none (if I mistake not) but who abhor the
thoughts of it, we must reserve them for those delicacies of the art,
which enchant the soul. Therefore the first rudiments necessarily fall
to a master of a lower rank, till the scholar can sing his part at
sight; whom one would at least wish to be an honest man, diligent and
experienced, without the defects of singing through the nose, or in the
throat, and that he have a command of voice, some glimpse of a good
taste, able to make himself understood with ease, a perfect intonation,
and a patience to endure the fatigue of a most tiresome employment."

This brings out three striking facts. First, that the student learned t