The mind must be trained to the perception of beautiful vocal sounds; it must hold these sounds as ideals while practising with the voice. It is at this point that the chief difficulty in vocal culture arises, viz., that of keeping the mind constantly and exclusively concentrated upon its ideals. If a person holds the right ideal steadily before his mind while properly practising, repetition will cause this ideal to take dominating possession of the tones, and thus shape them to itself and become incarnated in them.
I once heard a most interesting conversation between two gentlemen, one of whom was a Russian violinist. A young Italian had been entertaining a company by playing upon a violin. The Russian asked to see the instrument, and said to a gentleman sitting near, “This is a very old violin—probably a hundred years old.” The other replied, “I suppose it must be very valuable, then, for we are told that the longer a violin is played upon the better it becomes.” “Ah, my friend,” continued the Russian, “that all depends upon what kind of music has been played upon it. The tone of this violin indicates to my mind that it has deteriorated in value in consequence of its having been compelled to discourse music of an inferior quality.”
What a revelation in nature! The molecules that compose the wood of a violin can be marshalled into harmony by the music played upon it! If in the mind of the violinist there is melody and harmony of a high order, it finds its way through his fingers into the bow that touches the strings, and all the molecules of the resounding wood waltz into harmonious forms. What a spectacle for the eye of reason to see all these molecules begin to form into line and step out to the concord of sweet sounds born of the mind of the musician!
If this principle is true of the violin, is it not pre-eminently true of the vocal organism which was designed by its infinite Creator for the especial purpose of responding to the activities of the mind that inhabits it? As the mind thinks mystery, grandeur, or solemnity, the vocalized breath is shaped into corresponding forms of expression. In the throat is a beautiful instrument, made by Him who made the soul to require such an organ for its expression.