echanical features of tone-production is strongly indicated in the
German translation of Tosi's "Observations." In the original Italian
edition, 1723, and the English translation, 1742, there is absolutely no
mention of the anatomy or physiology of the vocal organs. But in
preparing the German edition, published in 1757, the translator, J. F.
Agricola, inserted a description of the vocal organs which he credited
directly to Ferrein.

Mancini followed Agricola's example, and included in this "Riflessioni"
(1776) a brief description of the vocal organs. But Mancini made no
attempt to apply this description in formulating a system of
instruction. He recommends the parents of a prospective singer to
ascertain, by a physician's examination, that the child's vocal organs
are normal and in good health. He also gives one mechanical rule, so
obvious as to seem rather quaint. "Every singer must place his mouth in
a natural smiling position, that is, with the upper teeth
perpendicularly and moderately removed from the lower." Beyond this
Mancini says not a word of mechanical vocal management. There is no
mention of breathing, or tone reflection, or laryngeal action. Although
Mancini borrowed his description of the vocal organs from Ferrein, his
notion of the mechanics of tone-production was very crude. "The air of
the lungs operates on the larynx in singing exactly as it operates on
the head of the flute."

Voice Culture has passed through three successive periods. From 1600 to
1741 instruction in singing was purely empirical. Ferrein's treatise may
be said to mark the beginning of a transition period during which
empirical instruction was gradually displaced by so-called scientific
methods. This transition period lasted, roughly speaking, till the
invention of the laryngoscope in 1855. Since that time vocal instruction
has been carried on almost exclusively along mechanical lines.

No vocal teacher had ever heard of a problem of tone-production previous
to 1741, and indeed for many years thereafter. The earlier masters were
not aware of any possibility of difficulty in causing the voice to
operate properly. Their success justified their ignoring of any
mechanical basis of instruction; but even of this justification the
later masters of the old school were only dimly conscious. They builded
better than they knew. When any teacher of the transition period was
called upon to explain his manner of imparting the correct vocal action