How to Sing [Meine Gesangskunst]
MY PURPOSE My purpose is to discuss simply, intelligibly, yet from a scientific point of view, the sensations known to us in singing, and exactly ascertained in my experience, by the expressions "singing open," "covered," "dark," "nasal," "in the head," or "in the neck," "forward," or "back." These expressions correspond to our sensations in singing; but they are unintelligible as long as the causes of those sensations are unknown, and everybody has a different idea of them. Many singers try their whole lives long to produce them and never succeed. This happens because science understands too little of singing, the singer too little of science. I mean that the physiological explanations of the highly complicated processes of singing are not plainly enough put for the singer, who has to concern himself chiefly with his sensations in singing and guide himself by them. Scientific men are not at all agreed as to the exact functions of the several organs; the humblest singer knows something about them. Every serious artist has a sincere desire to help others reach the goal--the goal toward which all singers are striving: to sing well and beautifully.
"The first step of the digestive process is the breaking up of the food
in the mouth by means of the jaws and teeth. On this being done, the
saliva, a viscid liquor, is poured into the mouth from the salivary
glands, and as it mixes with the food, it performs a very important part
in the operation of digestion, rendering the starch of the food soluble,
and gradually changing it into a sort of sugar, after which the other
principles become more miscible with it. Nearly a pint of saliva is
furnished every twenty-four hours for the use of an adult. When the
food has been masticated and mixed with the saliva, it is then passed
into the stomach, where it is acted upon by a juice secreted by the
filaments of that organ, and poured into the stomach in large quantities
whenever food comes in contact with its mucous coats. It consists of a
dilute acid known to the chemists as hydrochloric acid, composed of
hydrogen and chlorine, united together in certain definite proportions.
The gastric juice contains, also, a peculiar organic-ferment or
decomposing substance, containing nitrogen--something of the nature of
yeast--termed _pepsine_, which is easily soluble in the acid just named.
That gastric juice acts as a simple chemical solvent, is proved by the
fact that, after death, it has been known to dissolve the stomach
itself."
ALCOHOL RETARDS DIGESTION.
"It is an error to suppose that, after a good dinner, a glass of spirits
or beer assists digestion; or that any liquor containing alcohol--even
MY PURPOSE My purpose is to discuss simply, intelligibly, yet from a scientific point of view, the sensations known to us in singing, and exactly ascertained in my experience, by the expressions "singing open," "covered," "dark," "nasal," "in the head," or "in the neck," "forward," or "back." These expressions correspond to our sensations in singing; but they are unintelligible as long as the causes of those sensations are unknown, and everybody has a different idea of them. Many singers try their whole lives long to produce them and never succeed. This happens because science understands too little of singing, the singer too little of science. I mean that the physiological explanations of the highly complicated processes of singing are not plainly enough put for the singer, who has to concern himself chiefly with his sensations in singing and guide himself by them. Scientific men are not at all agreed as to the exact functions of the several organs; the humblest singer knows something about them. Every serious artist has a sincere desire to help others reach the goal--the goal toward which all singers are striving: to sing well and beautifully.