Musical progress would seem to have taken a peculiar direction when a voice need be raised in defense of the old art of pure singing. Several famous writers on musical subjects would have us believe that the love of vocal melody is outgrown by one who reaches the heights of musical development. This may be true; but if so, the world has not yet progressed so far. Music without melody may some day be written. But Mozart knew naught of it, nor Beethoven, nor Wagner. Melody is still beautiful, and never more lovely than when artistically sung by a beautiful voice. We have not reached a point where we can afford to toss lightly aside the old art of Bel Canto. For its future development, if not indeed for its continued existence, the art of singing depends on an improvement in the art of training voices. For this to be accomplished, mechanical methods must be abandoned. If this work succeeds in bringing home to the vocal profession the error of mechanical instruction in singing, it will have served its purpose. BIBLIOGRAPHY Pietro Francesco Tosi: _Observations on the Florid Song_. Bologna, 1723. Giovanni Battista Mancini: _Riflessioni pratiche sul Canto figurato_. Milan, 1776. Georg Joseph Vogler: _Stimmbildungskunst_. Mannheim, 1776. _Methode de Chant du Conservatoire de Musique_. Paris, 1803. Stefana Arteaga: _Le Revoluzioni del Teatro musicale italiano_. Venice, 1785. Adolph Bernhard Marx: _Die Kunst des Gesanges_. Berlin, 1826. Heinrich F. Mannstein: _Die grosse italienische Gesangschule_. Dresden, 1834. Manuel Garcia: _Ecole de Garcia_. The Ninth Edition (Paris, 1893) gives date of first edition, 1856. Grove's Dict. gives 1847. _Proceedings of the Royal Soc._, London, Vol. 2, May, 1855. _Hints on Singing_. (Trans. by Beata Garcia). New York, 1894. Ferdinand Sieber: _Vollstaendiges Lehrbuch der Gesangskunst_. Magdeburg, 1858. _The Art of Singing_. (Trans. by Dr. F. Seeger). New York, 1872. Stephen de la Madelaine: _Theorie complete du Chant_. Paris, 1852. Lennox Browne and Emil Behnke: _Voice, Song, and Speech_. London, 1883. John Howard: _The Physiology of Artistic Singing_. New York, 1886. Gordon Holmes: _A Treatise on Vocal Physiology and Hygiene_. London, 1879. Emma Seiler: _The Voice in Singing_. Philadelphia, 1886. J. Frank Botume: _Modern Singing Methods_. Boston, 1885. Francesco Lamperti: _A Treatise on the Art of Singing_. (Trans. by J. C. Griffith). New York. Original about 1876. Wesley Mills, M. D.: _Voice Production in Singing and Speaking_. Philadelphia, 1906. Dr. W. Reinecke: _Die Kunst der idealen Tonbildung_. Leipzig, 1906. William Shakespeare: _The Art of Singing_. London, 1898. G. B. Lamperti: _The Technics of Bel Canto_. New York, 1905. Paolo Guetta: _Il Canto nel suo Mecanismo_. Milan, 1902. Lilli Lehmann: _Meine Gesangskunst_. Berlin, 1902. David Frangcon-Davies: _The Singing of the Future_. London, 1906. Leo Kofler: _The Old Italian Method_. Albany, 1880.