Harold Newton Clare

“ Inspiration can do a great deal toward this happy result without elaborate technique, but technique without inspiration, that is, without some feeling of the words used, results only in "woodenness."
For expression, the singer's aim should be to sing a word rather than make a tone.
A great hindrance in educating the people to a recognition of the emotional in music, either harmonic or melodic, is the stupid habit of making one tune, because of its meter, "do" for various strikingly dissimiliar poems and subjects, a fault common to many hymnals. ”

“ These three vowel-sounds must be gradually merged into one another, "oh" being felt in the same position as "oo." This exercise gives a boy a real feeling of breath-control, especially on the lower notes, as "ah" produces a much louder tone than "oo" if left to itself. ”

“ It is essential that only boys of good moral character should find a place in the choir. Once admit a troublesome or unruly boy, and the whole choir will suffer from inattention in practice and irreverence in church; parochial politics or social expediency should never be allowed to have weight in the claims of a boy or man in the choir. ”

“ The first essential of a good choirmaster is discipline; no amount of learning can compensate for the lack of it. A certain amount of self-confidence is necessary to impress those being taught that the choirmaster knows what he wants and is going to get it; at the same time, all appearance of conceit should be suppressed, and corrections should be made without any "showing off" at the expense of a chorister, avoiding all remarks likely to hurt feelings. "Suggestions" from adult members of a choir should be ignored, if offered in public ”

“ Exercise 24.
every interval could easily be sung as from the keynote C, according to the diatonic scale; but taking such notes as an interval above or below the note preceding it, it becomes plain (if only a major third has been learned, as a "line to next line," or "space to next space" interval) , that D to F, or E to G, will be sung major until the minors are taught, or rather the key-signatures. Then, if it is recognized that the key of D requires two sharps (F and C) , from D to F "natural" must be half a tone less. Intervals should be practised both from the keynote and back. ”

“ Too much standing is fatiguing, and one does not get such good results towards the end of practice.
On trying new music, it is advisable to take it at a slower tempo than indicated, and without regard to expression, etc., to begin with.
Begin practice with uninteresting items, as the choir is fresh, and, let us hope, keen.
Never repeat a piece in practice without giving a reason. Do not go through the whole composition to correct a single error.
Practise hynms piano, except where a special effect in expression is required. It saves the voice, and good piano singing is a rarity. ”

“ The mouth is the chief resonance-chamber, and the wider it is open the greater the resounding space and the louder the voice; the pharynx and head-cavities all act as resonators, reinforcing the tones by the addition of overtones. ”

“ The basis of true vocal tone is the management of the breath. It is not the amount of breath taken, but the amount controlled, that tells; but develop the lungs by every means.
Don't spend too much time learning to control the breath alone; take vocal exercises in conjunction with breathing-exercises.
The act of breathing is passive rather than active. ”

“ We can hardly exaggerate the effect of a consonant, unless it be "s" or "f," and such diphthongs as "ch" and "sh." Nevertheless, the final consonant of a word or syllable must never be heard unless the very end of the value of the note is reached on the vowel-sound. ”

“ Sing C, think D and E and sing F. The major Sixth and Seventh are always hard to sing. To reach a Sixth, strike the Fifth, already learned in the common chord, and go up one, then think the Fifth and sing the Sixth. When the Third, Fifth and Octave of the common chord are sung readily, the singing a Fourth becomes merely a matter—for the time being—of thinking the Third and adding a semitone; similarly with a Sixth—thinking the Fifth,—and with the Seventh, thinking the Octave and subtracting a semitone. In a short time the thinking of other tones will not be required. ”

“ This is often caused by the unprincipled advances, in the way of more generous fees, made by some other church, often by some layman interested in music, who fails to see how unfair it is to a choirmaster after he has expended great pains, trouble and time to secure good results, to rob him of the just fruits of his labor. ”

“ Phrasing. As a general rule, breath should never be taken during a phrase. The first note of a phrase takes an accent, and the last note is usually a trifle shorter than written; e.g.,
Sung:
Never allow the breath to be taken before accent in long passages; take it after the strong accent.
Make either one or two phrases in such a case; to sing as follows would spoil the effect of such a phrase:
The successful choirmaster will keep an eye on all the phrase-marks, which often occur differently in different parts ”

“ The question of color is determined a great deal by the use of the resonators, and must be studied privately. Nevertheless, if the right mental attitude is established, and the true sense of the words duly appreciated, a great deal of tone-color can be obtained by an appropriate shading of the voice—now bright, now sombre. The thing to be avoided is the "unemotional" quality of tone. ”

“ No two voices are alike, so after the main principles are grasped there is excellent opportunity for the application of original ideas.
Practice may be a benefit, or a detriment. It must be guided by understanding, if it is to benefit. An exercise has no value unless the principle involved be clearly understood. ”

“ Good attack is of vital importance. To accomplish a good attack, a slight, sharp inward movement of the abdomen is necessary. Practise notes of scale on "la." The advantage of "la" over "ah" as usually taught for attack is, that the consonant sends the tone forward with the tongue; the disadvantage is, that the consonant often deceives. ”

“ This is an invariable rule for two syllables. It is NOT advisable to mind stops in the ordinary way. A slight stress on words, as in reading, suffices to give point. * = breath-sign; and although minding of stops is often advocated, on no account must one be noticed after the accented note, or the "two-beat rhythm" will be destroyed.
Hymns. In hymn-singing a different view of phrasing comes to light. So many hymns without any stops at the ends of lines almost compel a stop, by reason of the cadence in the music, but in these cases no stop must be made. ”

“ Boys should now be made to fill up measures on the blackboard to which various time-signatures have been set, and when singing should beat time, commencing with two in a measure.
Always teach boys to accent the "down-stroke." ”

“ BLENDING THE REGISTERS
In Chapter III the head-tones were attacked and brought down the scale; on this principle all the registers are blended, and the voice made even.
Below are the various ideas held by some leading choirmasters as to the "division-notes" or boundaries of the various registers in the boy's voice:
The registers in a boy's voice are chest, medium (upper and lower) , and head. In the first example the word chest is used for medium tones; as before mentioned, the real chest-tone below E
has no place in a boy's voice. ”

“ As the breath leaves the body, care must be taken that the chest remains expanded, the waist-line alone shrinking by the use of the abdominal muscles, and the note should be finished with the mouth open and plenty of reserve breath. ”

“ Many other excellent works dealing with the theory of music, the physiological side of voice-production, and exercises for producing facility, etc., are in existence and may easily be obtained, if one wishes to pursue the study of voiceproduction further. ”

“ Many well-known writers have given an ideally balanced choir in numbers, but it is practically impossible for anyone to lay down a hard and fast law, for the simple reason that in speaking of tenors, one has to know whether they are robusto or lyric, the former having a much more powerful effect in choral work than the latter. ”

“ If a clear head-tone is not obtained by all boys, it aids the effort to place the right foot slightly forward, resting the weight of the body on it, at the same time lowering the head a little, and thinking of the top of the head. ”

“ All breathing should be deep (abdominal) , and while there should be absolutely no rigidity, the chest should be raised and remain so throughout the musical phrase; the shrinking should take place at the waist-line. ”

“ Any little help towards efficiency, such as medals or certificates, is to be encouraged, and a monthly examination in the course covered is also a great help in showing a choirmaster how much theory is really understood. ”

“ In small towns it is seldom necessary to pay the boys. The parents will probably be glad their boys have an opportunity to study singing without cost; but in larger towns, where there may be opposition, it often becomes a necessity to offer a payment based on the number of practices and services required of a boy. ”

“ To a stranger the service of the Church as sung and said by many choirs is wholly unintelligible; the common fault is the saying of the responses, etc., too quickly, on the reciting-note especially, owing to the inertia of the muscles of the tongue and mouth. ”

“ An accelerando should be an imperceptible quickening, as of a train moving out of a station; and a rallentando can be learned by watching the gradual ceasing of the drops of water when a tap is turned off. ”

“ The chief beat or accent in a measure is the first. Secondary accents occur on the odd beats afterwards. The first beat is always a down-stroke with the baton. The following diagram will show the more usual ways of beating times. ”

“ It is not so much a high standard of conduct that is required during services, as a general feeling of solemnity in and respect for the house of God whenever entered, that is necessary to inculcate into boys. ”

“ It is simply the effect of wrong direction in resonance, but is the cause of a great deal of unpleasantness, especially in men's voices, and is developed by many teachers through excessive practice on the syllable "ni." ”

“ Contraltos (or altos) use "chest" and "medium" registers only. The chest-note resonance is felt in the lower or upper chest, the change
occurring on Middle C for altos or contraltos only.
The principal break in the voice is between "upper medium" and "head," occurring on D; the break is very seldom noticed between lower and upper medium. ”

“ Exercise 11.
"Attack" first two notes, and after holding the upper octave a few seconds, glide to lower octave, striking note very softly, bringing upper register down. The soft ending is the test in this exercise. This exercise also prevents "scooping" in the first place, and teaches the use of high register on low notes. Exercise 12. ”

“ Sing second time mf.
Exercise 14.
and up.
Twice each vowel, slowly at first, or the notes will not be distinct.
Exercise 15.
and up.
Major thirds are very hard to sing. Boys often get a little flat on them. ”