Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER V WHAT IS SINGING? (continued) Recapitulation of first four chapters.—Nature comprehensive and purposeful.—Huxley and John Fiske on the word "natural." —Nature explains herself through "selection" and "progress."—The Artist a unit in the scheme, a means as well as an end.—Cultivation of means, clearness of aim, unity of design. —Bel-canto again.—Unnatural art.—Paganism and Pantheism in art.—Details of student's struggle for realisation of his ideals.—Relaxation.—Conservation of energy.—Breathing and soft use of voice, which is an instrument for characterisation.—Independence in art.—Caution.—Lyric and dramatic singing.—Voice-quality dependent on mind and its activity.— Dramatic timbre not flesh but spirit.—Independence justified. —Tone-worship is fetich-worship.—Instrumentalists an example to vocalists.—Mind plus muscle superior to muscle minus mind.—Effort in singing.—Constitutional singing and breathing.—Co-ordination of powers. A Rapid survey of the ground gained by the skirmishing in our first four chapters would now seem to be desirable, so that we may not only extend our operations, but also demonstrate the fact that we are in touch with our base. At the beginning of the first chapter we put a question—"What is Singing?" as do all students, consciously or unconsciously. Every singer is practically a definition-seeker. Our question is not easily answered, it calls for serious thought. As we look around us for aid, our glance falls upon the composer who, as such, strangely enough, seems quite a likelyperson to help us to an answer—and consequently to a definition. We therefore approach the composer rather than the historical voice-producer, because the latter has always been a little awe-inspiring. It takes a rebel to say it, but nevertheless it must be sai...