CHAPTER IV

The Relation of Technique to Rendering.


It is certainly true that the highest use of the voice is the revelation
of the soul. The most important and effective means of cultivation lie in
the exercise of the voice under such mental conditions as shall invite the
expression of the highest thoughts, but the voice is in one sense an
instrument which is capable of being attuned. Right technical study and
practice adjust the instrument in proper relations with the natural laws
of its use, and establish, or deepen, the tendency to obey those laws.
Hence the mind finds a more ready response in the instrument, and one is
able to express with greater facility all that the soul desires to reveal.
It would seem of little consequence that a person should be able to use
the voice well simply as an ornamental accomplishment; for these agents of
expression, these powers of the material being, have a higher significance
than the mere exhibition of any qualities, however admirable. Such a
motive in studying expression would be a very shallow one, for what would
it signify in comparison with the great purposes of living?

But so long as these instruments of ours do not serve us they are a
hindrance to the higher expression of our being and the accomplishment of
our highest mission to others. We do indeed desire to escape from the
material and transient into the world of eternal verities, but these
conditions are given us for a purpose. They have their use, and we cannot
escape from the imprisonment in which we find ourselves until we have
solved their meaning and conquered them for the service of the higher
mind. We therefore study, not for the attainment of particular feats, but