A QUAKER SINGER'S RECOLLECTIONS BY DAVID BISPHAM David Bispham Memorial Edition Issued Through the Courtesy of THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION A Heart to Heart Talk with Students of Singing—and their Teachers The possession of a real singing voice coupled with real musical ability is a very rare and, seemingly, a chance gift granted to but one in ten thousand. The voice may exist without the requisite intelligence, or the musicianship minus the necessary vocal equipment. The possessor of both voice and brains is a most fortunate mortal and should be afforded every opportunity to make a career; the partially endowed, however, while entirely at liberty to cultivate their talents for personal and amateur use, should be carefully steered away from all thought of a public career and not lured toward it. Children should hear and be taught to sing good music in all schools as a delightful natural pastime, not as a matter of dull routine, until Nature determines whether, in special instances, further musical study is advisable. Though more women than men turn to music for their livelihood, marriage and family cares divert many from further thought of it as a profession. Boys' voices, touchingly pellucid as they often are, seldom retain their former charm after the time of change; with manhood V and its cares come thoughts, desires and urges in other directions, until most youths consider singing, after all, not to be a man's work. So we see that the number of contestants in the field is rapidly being reduced by the operations of that same Power that gave the gift and still offers the prize to all such as are strong enough to persevere in the contest. Yet there are multitudes of all sorts and conditions of men and women pressing in, lured by the prospect of what they consider to be easy gain, but these require further weeding out if even a tolerably good standard is to be maintained in the profession. I once was, for a short time, President of an Association of Singing Teachers, and, during my speech at the annual banquet, my views upon two subjects caused such a storm of protest that I was good-naturedly hissed, and another reigned in my stead thereafter. The points to which exception was taken were, first, that no one should teach singing who could not sing, or who had not been a singer; and, second, that no one should teach people who had not enough voice to become, at least, fairly good amateurs. The outcry took the concrete form of "How are we, then, to earn a living?" To this my reply was"Do something else; that is what most pupils have to do after wasting time and money on an Art in which they never had even a remote chance of success."-Then came the hissing. I am uncompromising in my opinion upon these matters and try to make them plain early in my association with vocalists who seek my advice. |