CARUSO ON KEEPING TIME

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7111, 25 April 1910, Page 2

CARUSO ON KEEPING TIME

The highest-paid tenor in tho world I has been delivering a little free lecture on the value of time from the operatic standpoint, A larjjo number of amateur and professional singers think that the less regard they pay to time, the greater is their expressiveness. Such persons, it need scarcely be said, are neither artists nor musicians. The power of rous-ie lies not so much in. its notes as in its rhythm; and if this be distorted, no amount of so-called expression will even' make Tip for it. Persons who deliberately sing out of timo invariably find at least that they are. unable to sing in time. Listen to What 'Enrico Caruso has to say : "There are many singers who cannot or will not count the tirno properly. There are those.who sing without, me-thod,-who do net .fit their breathing', which is really the regulator of vocal performance, to tho right periods, and who'consequently axe never in time. They make all kinds oi ralleataudos where they are not nec-essa*~ to gain time to recover the breath thai thoy havo not taken when they ijVmld. It is not enough to give the notes their full value. Tho rests, above all, should be carefulry observed in order to have sufficient opportunity to get a good breath and prepare for the next phrase. It is this exactitude that gives certainty to one's style and authority in singing—something many artiste do not possess. A singer may make all the effects he desires and still keep the time—and he must keep it. Those who roar most loudly rarely sing in' time. They give every thought to tho vohitn<e of tone they are producing, and do not bother themselves about anything else. The right accents in_ music depend very much on tho exact time. Tone artists, while still making all their desired 'egects' in apparent freedom of. style and' delivory, nevertheless do not lose sight of the time. Those who do nvust be classed as slovenly and commonplace singers."