ARTICLE FOUR.

THE RENAISSANCE OF THE VOCAL ART.


We are in the habit of measuring time by days, weeks, months, years,
decades and centuries. The world at large measures time by epochs and eras.
While this is true in the physical world, it is equally true of the arts
and sciences, and it is especially true of the art of song. Thus we have
had the period known as "The Old Italian School of Singing." This was
followed by the modern school, or "The Local-Effort School" of the
nineteenth century, the period which may be called The Dark Ages of the
Vocal Art.

There is a constant evolution in all things progressive, and this evolution
is felt very perceptibly to-day in the vocal world. Great principles, great
truths, are of slow growth, slow development. Times change, however, and we
change with them. While the changes may be slow and almost imperceptible to
the observer, they are sure, and finally become evident by the accumulation
of event after event.

The prevailing systems of the nineteenth century tried to develop voice by
direct local muscular effort. These systems have proved themselves
failures. The vocal world is looking for and demanding something better. We
may say that we are now on the eve of great events in the vocal art. When
the morn comes, and the light breaks, we may confidently expect that
awakening or reawakening which may properly be called The Renaissance of
the Vocal Art.