The Psychology of Singing: A Rational Method of Voice Culture Based on a Scientific Analysis of All Systems, Ancient and ModernTaylor, David C. (David Clark)
Science
The Psychology of Singing: A Rational Method of Voice Culture Based on a Scientific Analysis of All Systems, Ancient and Modern
Taylor, David C. (David Clark)
Singing; Voice culture
There must be some definite reason for the failure of theoretical
investigation to produce a satisfactory Science of Voice Culture. This
cannot be due to any present lack of understanding of the vocal
mechanism on the part of scientific students of the subject. The anatomy
and physiology of the vocal organs have been exhaustively studied by a
vast number of highly trained experts. So far as the muscular operations
of tone-production are concerned, and the laws of acoustics bearing on
the vocal action, no new discovery can well be expected. But in this
very fact, the exhaustive attention paid to the mechanical operations
of the voice, is seen the incompleteness of Vocal Science. Attention has
been turned exclusively to the mechanical features of tone-production,
and in consequence many important facts bearing on the voice have been
overlooked.
In spite of the general acceptance of the doctrines of Vocal Science,
tone-production has not really been studied from the purely scientific
standpoint. The use of the word "science" presupposes the careful
observation and study of all facts and phenomena bearing in any way on
the subject investigated. Viewed in this light, the scientific study of
the voice is at once seen to be incomplete. True, the use of the voice
is a muscular operation, and a knowledge of the muscular structure of
the vocal organs is necessary to an understanding of the voice. But this
knowledge alone is not sufficient. Like every other voluntary muscular
operation, tone-production is subject to the psychological laws of
control and guidance. Psychology is therefore of equal importance with
anatomy and acoustics as an element of Vocal Science.
There is also another line along which all previous investigation of
the voice is singularly incomplete. An immense fund of information about
the vocal action is obtained by attentive listening to voices, and in no
other way. Yet this important element in Vocal Science is almost
completely neglected.
In order to arrive at an assured basis for the art of Voice Culture, it
is necessary in the first place to apply the strictest rules of
scientific investigation to the study of the voice. A definite plan must
be adopted, to include every available source information. First, the
insight into the operations of the voice, obtained by listening to
voices, must be reviewed and analyzed. Second, the sciences of anatomy,
mechanics, acoustics, and psychology must each contribute its share to
the general fund of information. Third, from all the facts thus brought
together the general laws of vocal control and management must be
deduced.
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