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Mademoiselle Idiale followed him slowly, and behind her came Von Behrling's companions. The details of the great singer's journey had been most carefully planned by an excited manager who had received the telegram announcing her journey to London.
She was also singing a new and strangely beautiful song. "Lay me to sleep in sheltering flame, O Master of the Hidden Fire; Wash pure my heart, and cleanse for me My soul's desire." Unconscious of the intruder and forgetful of everything else the singer's voice rose clearer and sweeter with the second verse.
In this important respect the singer's education presents a problem not encountered by the student of any instrument. Given the necessary talents, industry, and opportunities for study, the student of the violin may count with certainty on acquiring the mastery of this instrument. But for the vocal student this is not necessarily true.
A splendid dinner, improvised by Celestine, reminded the old man of the singer's banquets; he was dazzled by the splendor of his home. "A feast in honor of the return of the prodigal father?" said he in a murmur to Adeline. "Hush!" said she, "all is forgotten." "And Lisbeth?" he asked, not seeing the old maid. "I am sorry to say that she is in bed," replied Hortense.
True, beauty of tone is the first essential of artistic singing, but it is not the only essential. If song is speech vitalized by music, then speech, the words to which music is set, has some claim to consideration. In fact, the singer's diction should convey the import of the spoken word with the added emotional eloquence of music. Indeed, even some of the earliest Italians recognized this.
We all know how a singer's reputation may be more or less ruined should he fail to reach such a high note one, indeed, by which he may, owing to the vitiated taste of the public, have acquired a reputation beyond his artistic merits.
For the same reason the sympathetic sensations of tone tell us nothing whatever of the muscular structure of the vocal organs. When listening to a throaty voice, we feel that the singer's throat is tightened, stiffened, or contracted. But no matter how keen and vivid this sensation may be, it leaves us in complete ignorance of the names and locations of the muscles wrongly contracted.
Here is a typical expression of their views, couched in verse for the singer's better comprehension: The days of long-haired poets now are o'er, The short-haired poet seems to have the floor; For now the world no more attends to rhymes That do not catch the spirit of the times. The short-haired poet has no muse or chief, He sings of corn. Emerson says,
The highest and lowest notes possible to any voice can be reached only when the throat is entirely free from stiffness. So also with regard to the varying degrees of power, undue tension prevents the singer from obtaining the extreme effects. A throaty singer's soft tones generally lack the carrying quality. Louder tones can be produced with a normally relaxed than with a stiffened throat.
But often later in the evening he would ask the child to bring out her violin and play to him, or to sing one of his favourite songs, after which she would sing a hymn of praise; but as yet it was the sweetness of the singer's voice and not the beauty of the words that he loved to listen to.
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