rowing the tone forward, but also of making the throat supple. Make
the experiment before a mirror and you will see the reason.

I should have pointed out in the course of this chapter that one of the
great secrets in the production of fine resonant and far-reaching tone
consists in using as little air as possible; and I conclude by advising
all those who want to be heard to open their mouths, a thing which,
curiously enough, many people in these islands seem to be determined not
to do.

_APPENDIX TO THE NINTH EDITION_

VOICE FAILURE.

A NEW CHAPTER, WRITTEN FOR THE NINTH EDITION, BY MRS. EMIL BEHNKE.

The large and ever increasing number of professional voice users of all
classes and of all grades who break down in voice is matter for serious
and earnest consideration. Innumerable students of singing of both
sexes, in England and abroad, suffer shipwreck of their hopes and
ambitions in the loss of their voices during the process of training,
long before the period arrives for professional and public voice use. In
some of these cases general delicacy of constitution has been the
principal factor in the failure; in others weakness of throat or lungs
may have been a cause. But after making ample allowance for such
physical contributories, we are still face to face with the fact that
voice failure, accompanied by throat ailments, more or less serious,
occurs with startling frequency, and no other reason is assigned for it
than the irresponsible, indefinite one that the voice broke down under
training. Of the infinitesimal number of successful students--that is to
say, of those who, having completed their studies, come before the
public as professional singers--so few escape the common lot that it
would almost appear as if a fatality attended the following of the
vocal art; yet from a health point of view, singing is an admirable
exercise, and abundant medical testimony has been adduced in proof of
this statement.

There are, of course, other causes of non-success in vocal students
besides break-down of voice. A fine voice and good musical knowledge are
but parts of the equipment of the singer; if he have not the soul of an
artist he will never rise above mediocrity. With musical and artistic
failures this chapter has nothing to do, but only with preventible
causes of break-down, such as have come under my personal observation
from close association with the work of my late husband, and also in my
own a