Having this uncertain quality, one singer stirs an audience;
having it not, the hearer remains unmoved. If by temperament, intelligence
and emotional richness of nature are meant, I do not believe that anyone
who is not to some extent possessed of these faculties can stir the
feelings of his hearers to any considerable degree. But surely many, almost
all people capable of conquering the physiological, psychological,
technical, and musical difficulties to be overcome before learning to sing
at all well, possess these qualities. And even if modern songs of the best
type abound in subtle, emotional expression and varying shades of
intellectual significance, it is, I believe, possible for most singers to
gain in interpretative facility by learning to connect the thought and
feeling underlying the song with the spoken words which are their natural
outlet and expression.
I say spoken words; for speech is the more spontaneous expression of
thought and feeling, through which individuality attains its simplest and
most complete expression. Speech is the normal method through which we make
clear our ordinary thoughts, feelings, desires, repulsions, and attractions
to those about us. Song is the finer flower of artistic expression, one of
the means through which imagination and the creative and interpretative
faculties find an adequate medium and outlet. But the words of the poem,
whether spoken or sung, must first be thoroughly understood before the
reader or singer attempts to make anyone else comprehend or feel them.
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