Not only does the German method in this way secure a greater variety
of sonorous vowel sounds, useful for the expression of different
dramatic moods, but the registers are equalized, and there is a great
gain in the power and endurance of the voice, which is of immense
importance to-day in grand opera.
Prof. Stockhausen, the distinguished vocal teacher, recently remarked
in the _Frankfurter Zeitung_ that "the _mezza voce_ is the natural
song, the constant loud singing being only a struggle with unequal
weapons against our modern orchestra." No doubt he is right. But the
orchestra has become such an important factor in modern opera that
musicians would be unwilling to have it reduced in size--the tendency
being, in fact, the other way; and at the same time opera is such an
expensive luxury that it can only be made to pay in a very large
theatre, which obliges the singers to have stentorian voices.
Consequently, the German method, which develops the power and the
sonority of the voice on _every_ vowel, is the method of the future,
all the more because the English language, which is the world language
of the future, is even more difficult for vocal purposes than the
German, and calls for similar treatment.
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