or teachers generally a sufficiently deep
conviction of the importance of forming the voice by long-continued
practice with vowels only, for which lack the spirit of the times is
largely responsible. Until a student of either speaking or singing can
form every vowel perfectly, which implies the recognition of these
sounds as pure and perfect, and the ability to sing them as the tones
of a musical scale, he should not take a single step in any other
direction. To do so is to waste tune and to lower artistic ideals.

When words are to be used, the question as to which language should be
employed is for the singer, at least, a very important one. The ideal
vocalist who will bring before the ideal public the best in vocal
music must sing in Italian, French, German, and English, at least.
Each of these languages produces its own effects through the voice,
and each presents its own advantages and difficulties; but all
competent to judge are agreed that Italian, because of the abundance
of vowels in its words, is the best language in which to sing, or, at
all events, to begin with as a training. Because of the prevalence of
consonants, the German and the English languages are relatively
unmusical. The English abounds in hissing sounds, which are a trial to
the singer with an exacting ear and perfect taste, and produce most
unwelcome effects on the refined listener who really puts music first
and the conveyance of ideas second in a vocal composition. It should,
of course, be the aim of the student to overcome these difficulties,
as German and English, the languages of Goethe, Schiller, and
Shakespeare, are for dramatic and some other purposes not equalled by
any other languages.

But the artist, and above all the musical artist, must be a citizen of
the world. He deals with those forms of emotion common to all mankind,
and not with the peculiar little combinations of ideas that grow up in
a province, city, or village; though of course he will not neglect
local coloring, so well illustrated in the folk-songs or popular
melodies that have survived for ages in different countries.

Though a vowel can be produced pure only when the resonance-chambers
assume a certain form, this is, of course, only one link in the chain
of production. The breathing apparatus and the larynx are also
concerned, and we are again brought back, as ever, to the triple
combination of the three sets of mechanisms so often alluded to, yet,
we venture to