y--for the
production of artistic voice, and nothing but artistic voice can
result--no click, no aspiration, no tremolo, no wobble.

The vocal tone in its passage strikes against the walls of the vocal
tract. That part of the tract upon which it last impinges before issuing
from between the lips determines the placement of a tone. The singers
should think of the tone as focussed upon the front of the hard
palate--behind the upper front teeth at about the point where the roof
of the mouth begins to curve down toward them. If the tone is placed
further forward than this, its quality will be metallic; if too far
back, throaty. To impinge the tone near the nasal passage gives it a
nasal quality, a fault most common with the French, acquired probably
through the necessity of singing certain French words--_bien_, for
example--through the nose. When, however, the French speak of singing
_dans le masque_, they should not be understood as implying that tone
should be nasal in quality, but that it should be projected both
through mouth and nose and not unduly through either. As a rule, nasal
placement should be avoided by all but the most experienced singers, and
even by them employed only sparingly and only for passing effects in
tone-color.

The individual formation of the lips would seem to have much to do with
their position in singing. Some singers advocate a lip formation that
gives an opening like an O; others lay the O on its side [Illustration:
O turned sideways] like an ellipse. The former represents the lip
position of Nordica, the latter of Sembrich--so that, as I have said,
it is largely a matter to be determined by the individual. But the singer
who uses the elliptical position must guard against exaggerating it, as
it then results in the "white voice," another frequent fault of French
singers.

After all, the final test of tone-production, tone-placing and
position of the lips is the quality of the tone produced; and this is
determined at first by the sensitive ear of the skilful teacher, and
eventually by the trained mental audition of the pupil. The old
Italian singing-teachers have been greatly praised because they are
said to have reasoned from tone to method and not from method to tone.
Those who praise them thus, usually intend their praise to be,
incidently, a condemnation of anything like a scientific method of
voice-production. In point of fact, however, the modern physiologist
of voice-production is n