hysiological and psychological phenomena--the physical,
voice-producing organs acting within and for themselves, but also being
acted upon by a series of suggestive impulses from the mind and soul,
countless in number and variety. Indeed, one might say that while in
singing the vocal organs are the first essential, they must, in order
to achieve their full effect, be in tune with the infinite. Artistic
singing involves complete physiological control of the voice-producing
function, combined with complete command of the metaphysical resources
of art. Thus only can voice be produced with that apparent spontaneity
which we call artistic, and at the same time be charged with the
emotional quality which gives it individual significance.

These two factors of voice-production, the physical and the psychical,
should be recognized both by the teacher and by the student in striving
to develop the voice, and by the physician who seeks to restore an
impaired voice to its pristine quality. The substitution by teachers of
various methods, originated by themselves, for the natural physiological
method to which the vocal organs become self-adjusted and for the
correct processes of auto-suggestion originating within the well-taught
singer himself, is the cause of most ruined voices. The physician who
realizes this will, in treating an impaired voice, know how to maintain
the proper balance between the two factors--between medicine and surgery
on the one hand and considerations of temperament and mentality on the
other.

There have been written books on voice-method of which "be natural" is
the slogan; books on the physiology of voice-production, in which, as
far as the singer is concerned, too much importance is attached to the
results of laryngoscopic examination; and books on the psychology of
voice-production in which the other factors are wholly neglected. None
of these three varieties of book, however, covers the ground, but each
only a part of it. The three--nature, physiology and psychology--must
be combined in any book that professes to offer a synthetic method of
voice-production.

It is possible that knowledge of the structure of the vocal organs is of
more importance to the physician and to the teacher than to the singer
himself, and that too constant thought of them might distract the
latter's attention from the product to the machine, from the quality of
voice to be produced to the vocal apparatus producing it. Neverthel