United States or Cabo Verde ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
One is a poor work-woman, who rises before sunrise, and whose profile is shadowed upon her little muslin window-curtain far into the evening; the other is a young songstress, whose vocal flourishes sometimes reach my attic by snatches. When their windows are open, that of the work-woman discovers a humble but decent abode; the other, an elegantly furnished room.
She was a dark, thin little woman who had once been handsome, and was still striking in appearance. She had been an operatic singer in days gone by, and had taken up the profession of a teacher only when her vocal powers began to fail.
The gist of the whole thing is what the teacher's ear will stand for. If a tone does not offend his ear he will allow it to continue. If it does offend his ear he will take measures to stop it. More is known of vocal mechanism today than at any other time in the world's history, and yet who dares to say that voice teaching has been improved by it?
When words are to be used, the question as to which language should be employed is for the singer, at least, a very important one. The ideal vocalist who will bring before the ideal public the best in vocal music must sing in Italian, French, German, and English, at least.
His powers of endurance were evidently giving way, and his grief had become both vocal and fluent in the channel of his infant years. "What's the matter, my boy?" asked Chip, "locked out, hey?" "No, bo-hoo. No, Sir, the door's blowed to and froze up, and I can't git this pos'crip' up to the office." "Oh, oh! you're the telegraph-boy, are you?" "Yes, Sir." "Most froz'n, aren't you?"
The windpipe, requiring the support of a firm chest-wall, becomes unsteady, the singer loses his control of the air-column, and the vibrations of the vocal ligaments are uncertain, instead of tense and sure. To maintain the expanded chest during expiration, which also means during singing, is not difficult. There is nothing forced about it.
About all these early writers have left us, in the opinion of most modern students of their works, is the outline of an elaborate system of vocal ornaments and embellishments. On the side of tradition a slightly more coherent set of rules has come down to us from the old masters. These are generally known as the "traditional precepts."
Either of these young ladies is PERFECTLY QUALIFIED to instruct in Greek, Latin, and the rudiments of Hebrew; in mathematics and history; in Spanish, French, Italian, and geography; in music, vocal and instrumental; in dancing, without the aid of a master; and in the elements of natural sciences. In the use of the globes both are proficients.
This vocal organ was in itself a rich endowment; insomuch that a listener, comprehending nothing of the language in which the preacher spoke, might still have been swayed to and fro by the mere tone and cadence. Like all other music, it breathed passion and pathos, and emotions high or tender, in a tongue native to the human heart, wherever educated.
He received it in full measure; here and there, of course, a dissident voice was heard, one, that of Fielding, to be very vocal later; but mostly they were drowned in the chorus of adulation. Richardson had done a new thing and reaped an immediate reward; and as seldom happens, with quick recognition it was to be a permanent reward as well, for he changed the history of English literature.
Word Of The Day