It would be interesting to know what per cent of teachers and
singers can read properly the words of a song; to know how many of them, or
rather how few of them, have ever given this phase of the study, thought or
attention. Most of them act as though they were really ashamed to try, when
you ask them to read the words of a song, and when they read them, they
apparently have no thought of expressing, or no idea of how to express the
elevated thought or feeling, necessary to bring out the author's ideas. It
is almost impossible to make them idealize the words through the elocution
of singing; and yet in the artistic rendition of a song, a ballad, or a
dramatic aria, the words are often of more importance than the music. The
singer should study the story of a song by reading it aloud upon the
highest plane or level of emotional or dramatic expression. To do this, he
must know and apply the elocution of singing. Then he should endeavor to
bring out the same lofty ideals when applying the words to the music.
"Why do not singers read or talk as they sing?" was a question once asked
by a prominent elocutionist. "Why do not elocutionists sing as they talk or
read?" I replied. This, of course, at once suggests an interesting subject
for discussion. To give the reason in a general way, is simply to state
that singers, as a rule, do not apply the principles of their art to the
talking voice. Hence they often read and talk badly. The same is true, as a
rule, of elocutionists.
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