The correct use of the voice, that manner of vocal emission which leads through practice to technical perfection, is naturally acquired by exercise in the actual singing of correct tones. Provided the student have a clear mental conception of the type of vocal tone which results from a correct manner of tone production, the voice will gradually adapt itself to the correct form of action, through repeated efforts at imitating the correct tone as a matter of sound. In order to practise singing effectively it is necessary only that the ear shall be acquainted with the sound of a properly produced tone and that it shall demand tones of this character from the voice. Faults of production, whether throaty, nasal, or breathy tones be the result, will gradually disappear as the student learns to hear his own voice with greater keenness and accuracy. The correct use of the voice is gradually acquired and there is no time in the course of this progress at which any change takes place in the manner of directing and guiding the voice. A high standard of musical beauty and vocal excellence was always kept prominently before the minds of the pupils. The students were required to know how a correctly sung passage should sound, and all their practice was aimed at the imitation of this sound. The ear was expressly recognized as the sole judge of vocal correctness. When a pupil sang incorrectly the master would imitate the faulty tones, for the pupil to hear what was wrong in the sound. Then the master would sing the passage correctly, that the pupil might hear the perfect tones and adopt them as a model for imitation. So far as our present knowledge of the old method goes, it embodied no definitely stated principles for the management of the voice. Although the problem of tone production is, in present estimation, the most important topic of voice culture, the older system seems to have ignored this problem completely. It simply took for granted that the voice will operate correctly if it is guided by a keen ear and directed by a fine musical and artistic sensibility. No doubt it had its failures, but we have a record only of its successes. These were so many and so brilliant that we must accord to the old Italian method the recognition due to a complete and satisfactory system of voice culture. FOOTNOTES: [4] _Cf._ Vol. I, pp. 167-172. [5] For a fuller treatment of this phase of musical history, the rise of ‘monody,’ see Vol. I, chapters IX and XI. [6] _Cf._ Vol. I, chap. XI. CHAPTER III MODERN SCIENTIFIC METHODS OF VOICE CULTURE