work to enlarge on this; on the principle of sight-reading from probably a novel point of view, enough has been written for a choirmaster to proceed to the highest pitch of perfection.
CHAPTER IX
EXPRESSION
Light and shade are but two of many points that go to make up "expression" in music. Attack, rhythm, phrasing, color and tone, and balance, are essential factors of a good performance.
An author has described singing as the "interpretation of a text by means of musical tones produced by the human voice:"—interpretation!
Inspiration can do a great deal toward this happy result without elaborate technique, but technique without inspiration, that is, without some feeling of the words used, results only in "woodenness."
For expression, the singer's aim should be to sing a word rather than make a tone.
A great hindrance in educating the people to a recognition of the emotional in music, either harmonic or melodic, is the stupid habit of making one tune, because of its meter, "do" for various strikingly dissimiliar poems and subjects, a fault common to many hymnals.
A story is told of a certain person who insisted on singing "Nearer, My God, to Thee" to the tune associated with "Robin Adair."
For the initial expression of words, the choirmaster will do well to read aloud the text, and try to convey the intended expression.
