SINGING PROFESSORS: THEIR ERRORS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 20, Issue 68, 27 August 1909, Page 2

SINGING PROFESSORS: THEIR ERRORS.

A paper by Dr. Bonnier has just booh read before the Academy of Medicine It dealt with the physiological value of certain methods of singing. Dr Bonnier protested against the odious custo'm of professors who incite then pupils to increase the volume (grossir) of their voices. In every instrument where the sound is produced by stretched strings, he tells us. the strings get thinner in passing from the bottom to the top of the scale so as to avoid the excessive tension which would be caused if the strings were of the same thickness throughout Every instrument maker works on this principle, but, according to Dr. Bonnier, professors o* singing ignore it. In an instrument thin striiin-s give a brilliancy and delicacy "tc the high notes by as much as they lose m fatness. High notes are, moreover, dull when they are produced by thick strings at a very high tension, as, for instance, the extreme high notes of a double bass In man the high notes, if forced and produced “tightly” (sorres), have no brilliancy, do not carry. a nd are very tiring. The fatuous amount of attention given to ‘■registering” the voice—-that is to say, making the pupil sing both high and low notes with the vocal cords a t the same thickness and with the same quality of "fatness,” is a fruitful cause of destruction of the voice.