Artists in general have strongly expressed themselves on this point:  most of them agree with Galli-Curci, when she says:  “There are as many kinds of voices as there are persons; therefore it seems to me each voice should be treated in the manner best suited to its possessor.”  “Singing is such an individual thing, after all,” says Anna Case; “it is a part of one’s very self.”  “Each person has a different mentality and a different kind of voice,” says Martinelli; “indeed there are as many qualities of voice as there are people.”

Granting, then, that there are no two voices and personalities in the world, exactly alike, it follows, as a natural conclusion, that the renowned vocalist, who has won his or her way from the beginning up to fame and fortune, realizes that her instrument and her manner of training and handling it are peculiarly personal.  As she has won success through certain means and methods, she considers those means belong to her, in the sense that they especially suit her particular instrument.  She is then a law unto herself and is unwilling to lay down any laws for others.  Geraldine Farrar does not imply there is only one right way to train the voice, and she has found that way.  In speaking of her method of study, she says:  “These things seem best for my voice, and this is the way I work.  But, since each voice is different, my ways might not suit any one else.  I have no desire to lay down rules for others; I can only speak of my own experience.”

Galli-Curci says:  “The singer who understands her business must know just how she produces tones and vocal effects.  She can then do them at all times, even under adverse circumstances, when nervous or not in the mood.  I have developed the voice and trained it in the way that seemed to me best for it.  How can any other person tell you how that is to be done?”

“It rests with the singer what she will do with her voice—­how she will develop it,” remarks Mme. Homer.  Martinelli says:  “The voice is a hidden instrument and eventually its fate must rest with its possessor.  After general principles are understood, a singer must work them out according to his ability.”  Florence Easton remarks:  “Each singer who has risen, who has found herself, knows by what path she climbed, but the path she found might not do for another.”

Instead of considering this reticence on the part of the successful singer, to explain the ways and means which enabled him to reach success, in the light of a selfish withholding of advice which would benefit the young student, we rather look upon it as a worthy and conscientious desire not to lead any one into paths which might not be best for his or her instrument.

In the beginning the student needs advice from an expert master, and is greatly benefited by knowing how the great singers have achieved.  Later on, when principles have become thoroughly understood, the young singers learn what is best for their own voices; they, too, become a law unto themselves, capable of continuing the development of their own voices in the manner best suited to this most individual of all instruments.