"Many voices acquire a sharp tone, which is the precursor of decay."

_Answer._ All voices are, and will remain, more or less tender, if their
culture is correct.

"Only Jenny Lind and Henrietta Sontag were allowed by the public to give
out their voices naturally and lightly without straining them, and to
sing _piano_ and _pianissimo_, and their celebrity is a justification of
this privilege."

_Answer._ But how would they have obtained their celebrity, if this were
not the true, correct, and pure mode of singing?

"Our singers also try the _piano_ and _pianissimo_; but they can
produce no effect on their audiences by it, as you may see every day."

_Answer._ Good heavens! I should think so! With such a _piano_, with
strained voices, faulty attack, and the use of too much breath,--a
_piano_ which only gurgles in the throat, or deeper! That I do not mean:
I must refer you again to the three trifles mentioned in my eighth
chapter.

"But some voices have no _piano_, and many singers do not take the right
course to acquire it."

_Answer._ What a wide-spread, groundless excuse! Here we may see the
error of our times. People look for the fault outside of themselves, and
not in themselves. The inventive power of the age is here truly
astonishing! When, owing to false management, the voice soon degenerates
instead of improving with time, it is the consequence of a faulty