“Only Jenny Lind and Henrietta Sontag were allowed by the public to give out their voices naturally and lightly without straining them, and to sing piano and pianissimo, and their celebrity is a justification of this privilege.”

Answer. But how would they have obtained their celebrity, if this were not the true, correct, and pure mode of singing?

“Our singers also try the piano and pianissimo; but they can produce no effect on their audiences by it, as you may see every day.”

Answer. Good heavens!  I should think so!  With such a piano, with strained voices, faulty attack, and the use of too much breath,—­a piano which only gurgles in the throat, or deeper!  That I do not mean:  I must refer you again to the three trifles mentioned in my eighth chapter.

“But some voices have no piano, and many singers do not take the right course to acquire it.”

Answer. What a wide-spread, groundless excuse!  Here we may see the error of our times.  People look for the fault outside of themselves, and not in themselves.  The inventive power of the age is here truly astonishing!  When, owing to false management, the voice soon degenerates instead of improving with time, it is the consequence of a faulty formation of the throat, and of the neglect of London throat brushes!  If such badly educated voices can no longer produce a piano, it is owing to the unskilfulness of nature, and to the false construction of the necessary organs!  If the piano is only a wheeze, the reason is found in the deficiency of palate, and excess of muscles!  If several times in the month, the worn out, weary voice can only groan and sigh, or cannot emit a sound, it is the result of a change in the weather, or other meteorological conditions!  If we complain of unpleasant, shrieking tones, occasioned by the mouth being too widely stretched, then “the rays of sound take an oblique, instead of a direct course”!  If the poor, strained medium voice, even with the help of a great deal of breath, can only produce dull, hollow, veiled, and unpleasant tones, that is said to be a necessary crisis, of which cruel Nature requires a great many in the course of her development of the voice!  Finally, if from long and forced holding of the chest-tones, they are changed into noises like the bellowing of calves and the quacking of ducks, and the instructor finally perceives it, then again we have a crisis!  And, alas! no one thinks of “the three trifles.”

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What occasions the want of success of our singing-teachers, many of whom are musical, possess a delicate ear, fine culture and feeling, have studied systems of singing, and exert themselves zealously to teach rightly?