Gymnastics of the Voice for Song and Speech

PREFACE

TO THE

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION.

TWENTY-THREE years have elapsed since the publication in Germany of my " Gymnastics of the Voice," which met with so much favor that a fourth edition has already appeared. At that time, I stood alone in the field, but many others have since taken up the subject. I have not been able, however, to discover a real system, not even in the United States, where I have passed sixteen of my forty-two years of study, acting and general experience as a teacher of oratory and the dramatic art.

At the request of many of my friends, I now venture to present, in the language of my adopted country, the system which has been followed by such favorable results my native land.

NEW YORK, 1882.

THE AUTHOR.

FROM THE

PREFACE

TO THE

FOURTH GERMAN EDITION.

WHEN I made the attempt, twenty-three years ago, to write "Gymnastics of the Voice," I was almost alone in this field. So far as I know, no one had published a method of vocal gymnastics for speakers and singers, based upon physiological laws. Some of my colleagues greeted my book with an ironical smile; others were unable to see the necessity of such a work, while only a few admitted its practicability. The press, however, judged differently. From all sides favorable criticisms were pronounced; "Gymnastics of the Voice" was declared to be, beyond all doubt, a most helpful book for oral expression in speech and in song, and it received greater praise than the author had even dared to expect.

Since that time others have had a great deal to do with the human voice. All sorts of books, by laymen and scientists, have appeared. Especially in the last ten years has this kind of literature grown to large proportions, containing much of value with much that is superficial and even positively erroneous and harmful. It would seem, on first thought, that all these new treatises would have superseded and driven out of the market a book which was first pub

Yet, during this passed through

lished nearly a quarter of a century ago. period, "Gymnastics of the Voice" has three editions; and so soon after the issue of the third edition, a fourth is demanded. This is certainly the best proof that in this book are treated topics which are wanting in other books, or which are passed over superficially, but which are of the greatest importance to the speaker and singer.

And this is the fact. Among the many, books on the human voice which have since appeared, there is none that can show such a system of breathing in song and speech as that given in "Gymnastics of the Voice." This distinguishing and indispensable feature was at once recognized and commended by the press, which declared such a method absolutely essential for the cultivation of voice and speech.

In regard to the new edition, the author can say that, without in the least injuring the pith, the book has been thoroughly revised and entirely re-written. Many additions and explanations have been made, they being the results of daily teaching and riper experience, as well as of recent scientific progress. Through the kind liberality of the publisher, illustrations are for the first time added, which will increase still more the practical usefulness and value of the book.

"Gymnastics of the Voice," in its new, enlarged and improved form, will serve, then, as my salutation from over the ocean to all of my friends, and all those who know of my efforts, and who, by their friendly sympathy and interest, encourage me to press on in this field of labor.

NEW YORK, 1882,

THE AUTHOR,

XIII. The form of the abdominal wall, freed from all
its insertions and stretched out flat, and the
position of the muscular fibres of the ab-
dominal muscles......

XIV. Diagrammatic section of the body. The dia-
phragm in inspiration and expiration.

XV. An anterior view of the thorax..

XVI. A posterior view of the thorax...