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Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
(This file was produced from images generously made
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  TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE.

  The original print of this book uses Helmholtz pitch notation,
  where middle-C is represented by a lowercase c with one over-line,
  the C above with two over-lines, etc. For accessibility, I have
  used the alternative convention of using numbers after the note
  name, thus:

  C1... C... c d e f g a b c1 d1 e1 f1 g1 a1 b1 c2... c3... c4

  (C1 = 3 octaves below middle-C, c4 = 3 octaves above middle-C)

  A few corrections have been made to spelling and punctuation.
  A list of these amendments can be found at the end of the text.




THE VOICE IN SINGING


  TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF

  EMMA SEILER

  Member of the American Philosophical Society


  A NEW EDITION
  REVISED AND ENLARGED


  PHILADELPHIA
  J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO
  1879




  Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by
  J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.,
  In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.


  Lippincott's Press,
  Philadelphia.




CONTENTS

                         PAGE
  Translator's Preface     7

  Introduction            11

    I Vocal Music         15

   II Physiological       36

  III Physical            85

   IV AEsthetic           143

  Appendix               185




TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE


The translator of this book, desirous, in common with other
friends of its author, that her claims as a lady of rare
scientific attainments should be recognized in this country,
where she has recently taken up her abode, has obtained her
consent to the publication of the following testimonials to
her position in her own country from gentlemen of the highest
eminence in science:

  [TRANSLATED]

  Mad. Emma Seiler has dwelt for a long time here in Heidelberg,
  and given instruction in singing. She has won the reputation
  of a very careful, skilled and learned teacher, possessing
  a fine ear and cultivated taste. While engaged on my book,
  "Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen, &c.," I had the honor of
  becoming acquainted with Mad. Seiler, and of being assisted by
  her in my essay upon the formation of the vowel tones and the
  registers of the female voice. I have thus had an opportunity
  of knowing the delicacy of her musical ear and her ability to
  master the more difficult and abstract parts of the theory of
  music.

  I have pleasure in bearing this testimony to her worth, in the
  hope of securing for her the confidence and the encouragement
  of those who are interested in the scientific culture of music,
  and who know how desirable it is that an instructress in the
  art of singing should be possessed of scientific knowledge,
  a fine ear, and a cultivated taste.

          (Signed)          Dr. H. Helmholtz,

              Prof. of Physiology, Member of the Academies and
                  Royal Societies of London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam,
                  Stockholm, Berlin, Vienna, Munich, Goettingen.

  Heidelberg, Aug. 5, 1866


  [TRANSLATED]

  Mad. E. Seiler has made for herself an honorable name in Germany,
  not only as a practical teacher of singing, but also by her
  valuable investigations in regard to the culture of the musical
  voice. By her own anatomical studies she has acquired a thorough
  knowledge of the vocal organs, and by means of the laryngoscope has
  advanced, in the way first trodden by Garcia, to the establishment
  of the conditions of the formation of the voice. We owe to her
  a more exact knowledge of the position of the larynx, and of its
  parts in the production of the several registers of the human
  voice; and she appears especially to have brought to a final and
  satisfactory decision the much-vexed question respecting the
  formation of the so-called _fistel tones_ (head tones). She has
  been associated with the best powers possessed by Germany in the
  department of the theory of music and physiological acoustics,
  standing by the side of the celebrated physiologist, Helmholtz,
  while he was engaged in his physiologico-acoustic work upon the
  generation of the vowels and the nature of harmony.

          (Signed)          E. du Bois-Reymond,

    Professor of Physiology in the Royal University of Berlin.

  Berlin, July 17, 1866

In a letter, written in English, addressed to the President and
Members of the American Philosophical Society, Professor du
Bois-Reymond introduces Mrs. Seiler (italicizing the words) "_as
a lady of truly remarkable scientific attainments_." "Prompted,"
he states, "by a spirit of philosophical inquiry, not frequently
met with in her sex, she has made herself entirely acquainted
with all the facts and theories concerning the production of the
human voice. She has entered, deeper probably than any one else
before her, into the study of the problem of the different
registers of the human voice. Most of her results she has
published in a pamphlet under the title: Altes und Neues ueber
die Ausbildung des Gesangorganes (Leipzig, 1861), which has
received the approbation of both the physiologists and the
singing masters of this country."

       *       *       *       *       *

The translator takes the opportunity to state that, as he
makes no pretensions to any knowledge either of the science
or of the art of music, his translation has been carefully
revised by persons entirely competent to correct its musical
phraseology.

                              W. H. F.

Philadelphia, December, 1867.




INTRODUCTION


In giving to the public these fruits of years of earnest labor,
and in attempting to bring into harmony things which have always
been treated separately, the Science and the Art of Singing, it
seems necessary that I should state the reasons that prompted me
to this study.

As I had for many years the advantage of the best tuition, both
German and Italian, in the Art of Singing, and had often sung
with favor in concerts, I was led to believe myself qualified to
become a teacher of this art. But hardly had I undertaken the
office before I felt that, while I was able to teach my pupils to
execute pieces of music with tolerable accuracy and with the
appropriate expression, I was wanting in the knowledge of any
sure starting-point, any sound principle, from which to proceed
in the special culture of any individual voice. In order to
obtain the knowledge which thus appeared to be requisite in
a teacher of vocal music, I examined the best schools of singing;
and when I learned nothing from them that I did not already know,
I sought the most celebrated teachers of singing to learn what
was wanting. But what one teacher announced to me as a rule was
usually rejected by another. Every teacher had his own peculiar
system of instruction. No one could give me any definite reasons
therefor, and the best assured me that so exact a method as
I sought did not exist, and that every teacher must find his own
way through his own experience. In such a state of darkness and
uncertainty, to undertake to instruct others appeared to me
a manifest wrong, for in no branch of instruction can the
ignorance of the teacher do greater injury than in the teaching
of vocal music. This I unhappily learned from my own personal
experience, when, under the tuition of a most eminent teacher,
I entirely lost my voice, whereby the embarrassment I was under,
so far from being diminished, was only increased. After this
misfortune I studied under _Frederick Wiek_, in Dresden (the
father and instructor of Clara Schumann), in order to become
a teacher on the piano. But while I thus devoted myself to this
branch of teaching exclusively, it became from that time the aim
and effort of my life to obtain such a knowledge of the human
voice as is indispensable to a natural and healthy development
of its beautiful powers.

I availed myself of every opportunity to hear Jenny Lind, who
was then dwelling in Dresden, and to learn all that I could from
her. I likewise hoped, by a protracted abode in Italy, the land
of song, to attain the fulfilment of my wishes; but, beyond
certain practical advantages, I gathered there no sure and
radical knowledge. In the French method of instruction, now so
popular, I found the same superficiality and uncertainty that
existed everywhere else. But the more deeply I was impressed
with this state of things, and the more fully I became aware of
the injurious and trying consequences of the method of teaching
followed at the present day, the more earnestly was I impelled
to press onward in search of light and clearness in this dim
domain.

Convinced that only by the way of scientific investigation the
desired end could be reached, I sought the counsel of Prof.
_Helmholtz_, in Heidelberg. This distinguished man was then
engaged in a scientific inquiry into the natural laws lying at
the basis of musical sounds. Prof. Helmholtz permitted me to
take part in his investigations, and at his kind suggestion
I attempted by myself, by means of the laryngoscope, to
observe the physiological processes that go on in the larynx
during the production of different tones. My special thanks
are due to him that now, with a more thorough knowledge of the
human voice, I can give instruction in singing without the
fear of doing any injury. My thanks are due in a like manner
to Prof. _du Bois-Reymond_, in Berlin, who, at a later period,
also gave me his friendly help in my studies.

In 1861 I published a part of my investigations in Germany,
where they found acknowledgment and favor. That little work is
contained in the following pages, together with some account of
the discoveries of Professor _Helmholtz_ relating to the human
voice, and of their practical application to the education of
the voice in singing.

The practical sense of the American people enables them, above
all others, to appreciate the worth of every discovery and of
every advance. And therefore it is my earnest hope that the
publication of these investigations in this country may help
to elevate and improve the Art of Singing.




THE VOICE IN SINGING




I

VOCAL MUSIC

ITS RISE, DEVELOPMENT AND DECLINE


It is a matter of complaint among all persons of good taste, who take
an intelligent interest in art, and especially in music, that fine
singers are becoming more and more rare, while formerly there appears
never to have been any lack of men and women eminent in this art. The
complaint seems not altogether without reason, when we revert to that
rich summer-time of song, not yet lying very far behind us, in the
last half of the last century, and compare it with the present. The
retrospect shows us plainly that the art of singing has descended
from its former high estate, and is now in a condition of decline.
When we consider what is told us in the historical works of _Forkel_,
_Burney_, _Kiesewetter_, _Brendel_ and others, and compare it with
our present poverty in good voices and skilful artists, we are struck
with the multitude of fine voices then heard, with their remarkable
fulness of tone, as well as with the considerable number of
singers--male and female--appearing at the same time.

We first recall to mind the last great artists of that time,
whose names are familiar to us because they appeared in public
after the beginning of the present century:--_Catalani_, who
preserved to extreme old age the melody and enormous power of
her voice; _Malibran_, _Sontag_, _Vespermann_, &c.; the men
singers, _Rubini_, _Tamburini_, _Lablache_, and others; and,
still farther back, _Mara_, whose voice had a compass, with
equal fulness of tone, of three octaves, and who possessed such
a power of musical utterance that she imitated within the
compass of her voice the most difficult passages of the violin
and flute with perfect facility. Then comes the artiste
_Ajugara Bastardella_, in Parma, who executed with purity and
distinctness the most difficult passages from si (b) to si
(b3), and roulades with successive trills, with enchanting