are for the next
phrase. It is this exactitude that gives certainty to one's rendition
and authority in singing--something many artists do not possess. A
singer may make all the efforts he desires and still keep the time, and
he _must_ keep it.

Those who roar most loudly rarely sing in time. They give every thought
to the volume of tone they are producing and do not bother themselves
about anything else. The right accents in music depend very much on the
exact time. Tone artists, while still making all their desired "effects"
in apparent freedom of style and delivery, nevertheless do not ever lose
sight of the time. Those who do are usually apt to be amateurs and are
not to be imitated.

Good Diction a Requisite

Good diction, or the art of pronouncing the words of a song or opera
properly and intelligently, is a matter sadly neglected by many singers,
and indeed is not considered important by a large proportion of the
audiences in this country, who do not understand foreign language, at
any rate. And in an opera sung in a language unknown to most of the
audience it is apparently unimportant whether the words are understood
or not as long as there is a general knowledge of the plot, and the main
consideration is, of course, the music.

Yet for those who are conversant with the language in which the opera is
written, how common an experience it is (in concert, also) to be able,
in spite of their linguistic knowledge, to understand little of what is
being sung, and what a drawback this really is! How many singers there
are who seem to turn all their attention to the production of beautiful
sounds and neglect in most cases the words that often are equally
beautiful, or should be!

One hears a great deal just now about the advisability of giving operas
in the native language, as it is done in France and Germany, and the
idea would seem to have its advantages, as has already been demonstrated
in some excellent performances of German, French and Italian operas in
English. But of what avail would such a project be if, after all, one
could not understand the words of his own language as they were sung?

The language might as well be Sanskrit or Chinese.

In France the matter of diction is probably given the greatest
attention, and singers at the Opera Comique, for instance, are noted for
their pure and distinct enunciation of every syllable. Indeed, it is as
much of a sine qua non there as good singing, if not