We say of a man, he is a genius,
and we bow down to him accordingly. The genius is an artist by the grace of
God and his own efforts. Nature has given some men the power to easily and
quickly grasp and understand things which pertain to art, but if such men
do not apply their understanding they never become great or useful artists.
Talent is the ability to study and apply, and is of a little lower order
than genius; but the genius of application, and the talent to apply that
which is learned, have made the great and useful men, the great artists of
the world. As someone has said, "Art is not a thing separate and apart; art
is only the best way of doing things;" and while this is true of all the
arts, it is eminently so of the art of voice and of song.
Artistic tone, as we have found, is the result of certain conditions
demanded by Nature. These conditions are dependent upon form and
adjustment; and form and adjustment, to be right, must be automatic. All
writers and teachers agree that correct tone is the result of form and
adjustment; but here, as we have said, comes the parting of the ways. One
man attempts, by directly controlling and adjusting the parts, to do that
which nature alone can do correctly; result--hard, muscular tone. Another
attempts, by relaxation, to secure the conditions of tone; result--vocal
depression, or depressed, relaxed tone.
If artistic tone be the result of conditions due to form and adjustment,
and if form and adjustment, to be right, must be automatic, if these things
are true, and they are as true as the fact that the world moves, then there
is only one way under heaven by which it is possible to secure these
conditions; that way is through a flexible, vitalized body, through
flexible bodily position and action.
Pages:
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34