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CONCEPTS OF BREATHING 89 |
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no more." [368, p. 5] Dodds and Lickley maintain that breath economy and breath control are of utmost importance. Purity, ease and endurance of voice production in singing depend on them. [139, p. 34; also Valeri 623]
Advice to beginners in singing should include a word on breath economy. "Among the first and most important things to be learned is the spending of air uniformly—not in spurts—and economically." [Martino 375, p. 60; Wodell 681] In fact, the technique of effortless singing is built upon the habit of quick but unforced inhalation and economical exhalation. [Henderson 240, p. 54] Orton compares voice production with tone production on a large wind instrument like the trombone. A good player on such an instrument produces full and powerful tones "with no more expenditure of breath than would be needed for a soft note on die flute or fife," he says. [439, p. 123]
Breath economy as applied to volume. "In singing, never attempt to fill the lungs to their utmost capacity," says W. J. Henderson. [243, p. 44] It takes very little breath to sustain a long singing tone. [Shaw 538] "When the tone is rightly produced it is all tone and nothing else." Forced inhalation inevitably leads to forced exhalation and forced phona-tion. [Henley 248] Volume of breath is not required. In fact, "the intake of breath before attacking a note should be moderate." [Jacques 299, p. 34] Also avoid a strong exhalation of breath. Rather, breathe lightly, as if against a window pane. This was the method of the ancients. [Hagara 220, p. ^2] Observe what a tiny song bird can do with a tiny cubicle of air. The singer will soon be convinced that it is "not necessary to swell up like a balloon every time he sings a phrase." [Maurice-Jacquet 379] In other words, it is more important to economize the expenditure of a medium intake than to emit forcefully a large quantity of breath in singing. [Jacobus 298; Wharton 655, p. 25]
Curry reports that volume of air does not bear a close relationshsip to vocal intensity and that deep breathing frequently causes faulty phona-tion. It is true, however, that "singers in general have a larger lung capacity than the average." [124, p. 14] Sir Henry J. Wood conceives of voice production as the playing of a wind instrument. "The besetting sin of the modern singer is over-blowing," he says. [686, p. 12] Nor is the ability to sing long phrases "a matter of lung capacity," says Clippinger. "It is in knowing how to control the breath after it is taken." [104, p. 8; also Christy 97, p. 41] There is fairly close agreement on this point among vocal experts. All seem to agree with Mme. Lehmann, that the smallest quantity of breath must be emitted when singing [Sheley, 545] and that the use of too much breath Is a common error of singers. [Wood 685, p. |
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