work. At any
rate the combining of the registers was accomplished during this time.
Tosi's description of the registers is very concise. "_Voce di Petto_ is
a full voice which comes from the breast by strength, and is the most
sonorous and expressive. _Voce di Testa_ comes more from the throat than
from the breast, and is capable of more volubility. _Falsetto_ is a
feigned voice which is formed entirely in the throat, has more
volubility than any, but of no substance." He speaks of the necessity of
uniting the registers, but gives no directions how this is to be
accomplished. Evidently this seemed to him to present no difficulty
whatever.

In this early period of instruction the pupil was exercised in both
_portamento_ and _messa di voce_. "Let him learn the manner to glide
with the vowels, and to drag the voice gently from the high to the lower
note.... In the same lessons let him teach the art to put forth the
voice, which consists in letting it swell by degrees from the softest
_Piano_ to the loudest _Forte_, and from thence with the same art return
from the _Forte_ to the _Piano_. A beautiful _Messa di Voce_ can never
fail of having an excellent effect."

Only the first chapter of Tosi's book is devoted to this initial study.
That the student was expected to make steady progress as a result of
this study is evident from the closing sentence of this chapter. "The
scholar having now made some remarkable progress, the instructor may
acquaint him with the first embellishments of the art, which are the
_Appoggiaturas_, and apply them to the vowels." The remainder of the
work is devoted almost entirely to the embellishments of singing. Here
and there an interesting passage is found. "After the scholar has made
himself perfect in the Shake and the Divisions, the master should let
him read and pronounce the words." (Shake was the old name for trill,
and division for run.) Again, "I return to the master only to put him in
mind that his duty is to teach musick; and if the scholar, before he
gets out of his hands, does not sing readily and at sight, the innocent
is injured without remedy from the guilty." This injunction might well
be taken to heart by the modern teacher. Good sight readers are rare
nowadays, outside of chorus choirs.

Mancini begins his outline of the course of instruction in singing with
this striking sentence: "Nothing is more insufferable and more
inexcusable in a musician than wrong intonation; singing