A Whole-Truth of Voice Culture

Here is one set of teachers insisting primarily upon tone being thrown forward in the mouth, directed against the front teeth, focussed upon the hard palate, as their different phraseology has it.

Another set speaks of nothing else in this connection than throwing the voice into the head, or, as Vanuccini, one of my instructors, used to say, "Let the tone lean against the eyes."

Which is right? Why, both are right. I will not stop to combat certain absurd notions of science generally mixed up with these instructions, but will admit that the phrases are convenient in teaching, and stand for real things. Putting the two departments together—that of bringing tone forward and that of putting it into the head—you have a whole-truth of voice culture. Use one of them exclusively and your voice is thin and hard, with a very imperfect upper register; or it is hollow and without power through most of its compass, and the lower register is much curtailed.

—Frederic, W. Root, "The Half-Truths of Vocal Culture: Literary Fuge Written for the Session of 1881 of the Music Teachers' National Association at Albany, N.Y., July 6," The Voice, Vol. 3, No. 7, July 1881: 102.