orchestra, we daily hear the
complaint that the good old times of artistic singing are gone by, and
have been superseded by an instrumental era, in which the voice merely
plays the part of the second fiddle and is maltreated by composers,
who do not understand its real nature. So far is this opinion from the
truth that it must be said, contrariwise, that it is only within the
last century--I might almost say the last half century--that composers
have begun fully to recognize the true function of the human voice and
its principal advantage over instruments.

What is this advantage? It is the power of articulating, of uniting
poetry with music, _definite words with indefinite tones_. Every
instrument, as I have just said, has a characteristic emotional
tone-color. But the emotions expressed by them are vague and
indefinite. A piece of instrumental music can express an eager,
passionate yearning for something, but it cannot tell what that
something is--whether it is the ardent longing of an absent lover, or
the heavenward aspiration of a religious enthusiast. The vocalist, on
the other hand, can clearly tell us the object of that longing by
using definite words. And by thus arousing reminiscences in the
hearer's mind, and adding the charm of poetry to that of music, he
doubles the power and impressiveness of his art.

Now, a very brief sketch of the history of solo singing will show that
this special advantage of the human voice over instruments was, if not
entirely overlooked, at least considered of secondary importance in
practice, until Gluck and Schubert laid the foundations for a new
style, in which the distinctively _vocal_ side of singing has
gradually become of greater importance than the instrumental side; as
we see in the music-dramas of Wagner, and the Lieder, or parlor-songs,
of Schumann, Franz, Liszt, and others.

Although _folk-song_ appears to be as old as the human race, the
history of _artistic_ song, or song written by professional composers
for the concert hall, can be traced back only about three centuries.
Before that time vocal music was generally polyphonic, that is, for
several voices; and a contrapuntal style of music had been introduced
into Italy from the Netherlands, which was so complicated and
artificial that the poetic text had no chance whatever of asserting
its rights and being understood. Now, the modern opera, which was
originated about three hundred years ago by a number of Florentin