A DRAMATIC CONTRALTO AND STUDENT OF MARIANNE BRANDY, RICHARD WAGNER’S FIRST KUNDRY, MADAM ADA SODER-HUECK (1874-1936) CAME TO AMERICA FROM AMSTERDAM IN 1910, HAVING ESTABLISHED HERSELF AS A CONCERT ARTIST, AND BEGAN A LONG AND SUCCESSFUL CAREER AS A VOICE TEACHER AT THE METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE.

Madam Soder-Hueck freely and liberally advertised her method as being that of Manuel García, taught both both men and women, and was forthright in her insistence on “tone placement” and “tone work,” —the former term synonymous with voice and vocal placement—one that was shared by her musical cousin Madam Anna E. Schoen-René.

The article below, which appeared in the Music Courier in 1919, is as much an advertisement (one wonders if the subject paid for the interview) as it is a source of Garcia School teaching.

Click on Madam Soder-Hueck’s label for more information.

How Young Singers “Go Through the Mill” and Are Started on a Successful Career

Judging from the continued activities of the Soder-Hueck studios in the Metropolitan Opera House building, it is at the present time rather doubtful whether the well known vocal teacher and coach will be able to steal away for her planned three weeks in the White Mountains.

interesting experience

When visited by a Musical Courier representative the other day she said: "There seems to be no end to my seasons these days, for I am still as busy as I can be and there is a continual going and coming of singers, all the time. - This summer I am having a rather interesting experience with my summer session pupils, a great number of whom are college students from out of town, who use their summer vacation to have their voices placed and to lay a foundation for future training; also men who have been mustered out of the service but a short time ago. Fine young voices they have and voices that with training ought to develop into something worth while. Previous summer months I have either gone abroad or only worked with professionals and teachers who came to New York to brush up on their tone work and add to their repertory, so you see this late experience is rather a unique one. In the instance of the young men who have a strong desire to sing, it only goes to prove that the war has developed a great love for music in our younger generation.

Tenor Pupil’s successes

"Today I received word from my tenor, George Reimherr, that he had had another enormous success at his concert at the Lake Placid Club on July 18. Over 1,000 people from various parts of the country and Canada, who are summering there and near by, were present, and many complimented him upon his finely trained voice and art.”

“Mr. Reimherr received his entire training with Mme. Soder-Hueck and still coaches with her. “That reminds me of a question that I wanted to ask you, Mme. Soder-Hueck,” the interviewer added. “What do you consider the basis of a singer's success?”

"Quality, which comes through correct tone placement,” she replied, “and through a firm technical foundation. One cannot lay too much stress upon the importance of lots of tone work, and that is why I spend so much time in making a stable foundation for beginners. Our young Americans are gifted with splendid voices as well as intelligence, but what they are lacking in is patience. And it takes patience to be sufficiently equipped for a vocal career. How long would twenty stories of a building endure if the foundation were not solid? Well, in the case of singing, the same principle applies. I am very glad that you happened to come in this morning,” Mme. Soder-Hueck continued, “for I have a number of my pupils coming and you can judge their work for yourself.”

The college type

The first of these was a distinct college type—Frederick Gahagen by name—who was having his fifth lesson in tone placement work. He showed great possibilities in his rich, natural baritone voice and was easily grasping the idea of a sustained note, resonance and the importance of the overtone.

“around and over”

Sing around and over,” cautioned Mme. Soder-Hueck, "and be sure to keep the body relaxed. No, my dear fellow! Like so many others, you still have a tendency to stiffen it. Listen to reason! Can you swim with a stiff body? Certainly not! Well, be simple and natural, and don’t think that in order to sing you have to use all the wind you have. Remember the sound vibrations must not be disturbed. The higher you go in pitch, the larger you must describe your circle. It is also important to keep in mind that your throat must not be interfered with and that the lips are the imaginary keyboard. The secret of a lovely overtone is the ability to keep the muscles of the mouth in a reflexible condition.” - The young man showed keen intellect and grasped his instructor's points, but her explanations were further made clear by demonstration. Mme. Soder-Hueck, who possesses a fine contralto voice of extended range, displayed what she meant when she ran through the varied technical exercises with remarkable ease.

Another youthful singer

Next came a charming young miss of seventeen, attractive in face and personality. In spite of the fact that Lillian Pursell had been studying but a few months, she sang pleasingly and gave evidence of an unusually full and promising soprano voice. Mme. Soder-Hueck uses some excellent exercises which, as she explained, start in the middle voice and run half way down and half way up and then away up in the upper register. In practising these exercises it has been found that the upper notes come with remarkable ease. Then a Sgambati number was rendered, first on Ah's and E's, instead of words, in order to get a little work on tone coloring.

“If a voice is placed in the mask of the face,” continued Mme. Soder-Hueck, “if I can learn to master my instrument and sing with perfect relaxation of the vocal cords, with ease and resonant overtones, I certainly ought to be able to interpret my work and play on the emotion of my hearers. Sing with ease, beginning with half voice; get the voice flexible and it will become richer and fuller and gradually grow in beauty and compass. Shouting will ruin the voice within a short time. Breath control is another important fact, and the breathing exercises should be separated from the voice practising. Learn to master and control your breath through daily exercises. When you sing do not fill yourself up like a balloon, as though you were ready to burst at any minute. That is a hindrance and not of any help. Galli-Curci is right when she says: 'Be natural, act natural, and sing natural.’ Relax every muscle of your body and your voice will float like a golden stream—that, and only that, is bel canto singing. Feel comfortable while you sing and make your hearers comfortable.”

Finally, the pupil was allowed to sing two simple songs— simply yet charmingly rendered—“Rose of My Heart” and a delightful Mana-Zucca song. The tonal quality of these was very sweet and her phrasing was unbroken and even.

Accompanies pupils

You notice, perhaps, that I do all my accompanying for the younger singers,” interrupted Mme. Soder-Hueck. “I have them in better control this way. I also am a firm Sembrich not only sang gloriously, but handled the violin with consummate skill, and I could name a number of other versatile artists.

“I might tell you that I started out to be a pianist. At the age of six I began my studies and continued with the piano until I reached the age of sixteen, when I developed a voice. My father was against my giving up the piano, and said that as he had spent his money educating me as a pianist, I would have to stick to the piano. And I did for a time in order to raise enough money so as to study voice.”

When the writer mentioned the fact that it was a shame that she gave up her public career, Mme. Soder-Hueck replied that she had done so at the request of her father at the death of her mother, as both had always disapproved of their daughter being on the operatic stage. Mme. Soder-Hueck, therefore, had to refuse a fine offer made to her by Conried after her Vienna successes, and since then she has devoted her life and art to the training and bringing out of the singing voice to its utmost beauty. “I love my art,” said Mme. Soder-Hueck, “but I also love my teaching. It is wonderful to have this gift of building up voices and making artists, as there are not a great many who understand the voice properly and are successful in their work.”

Judging from the success with which she is meeting and that which has come and is constantly coming to her pupils, she is doing a work of which she can well be proud.

Any language singable

“Do you find that your pupils have difficulty with their native language?” asked the visitor after she had heard the clear English diction of several of her singers. “No, not any more than any of the other languages. When I first came to America, about twenty-two years ago, I made a study of the English language, and discovered that the only great set-back was that most people had a tendency to speak gutturally. They threw their words to the back of the throat or swallowed them. If one learns to sing the overtones properly, English as well as any language may be made singable and beautiful. Italian and Spanish are the two most singable languages in the world. Say “Mia bella signorita'—well, every syllable falls almost into the mask of the face, and as a result we have the perfect overtone. I have taught people from various countries, and it is very interesting. E should be sung forward as well as the other vowels...”

The next pupil, Maude Critchley, has been transformed from a dramatic soprano into a silvery voiced soprano of rare warmth. She had worked diligently with the wrong teacher for several years, so that when she went to Mme. Soder-Hueck her voice had to be rebuilt, for she had lost all her natural upper tones. The voice, instead of being harsh and loud, had gotten light and sweet.

“Just such cases as these,” said Mme. Soder-Hueck, “illustrate what a crime it is for people who might have made a success as an artist, but who do not understand voices, hang out a sign and teach.

“Teaching is a special gift, as I said before. If you have this gift you will inspire, uplift and help the young singer. You will also have the needed patience required to train and polish the voice—to make the pupils confident and forget themselves. This is the secret of relaxation— the gift of securing the free tone.”

Edward Grey, the last pupil that the writer heard, was perhaps even more enthusiastic than the younger people, because he had been studying and singing for ten years and he did not know that he had been trained wrong and was, therefore, not progressing the way he should. A little over a year ago he met Mme. Soder-Hueck, and, as he explained, while he was a bit skeptical about having a woman teach a man, he decided to try her, owing to the success that other male singers had had with her. As a result, he is delighted to find that he is now singing with renewed interest and possesses an entirely different quality of voice. And he says that he “cannot endorse Mme. Soder-Hueck too highly, nor her wonderful Garcia Italian method.”

Upon leaving, the writer was shown the handsome lowing cup which was presented to Mme. Soder-Hueck, in 1913 by a number of her pupils, in grateful appreciation of the work that they had accomplished. The tribute serves to illustrate the fact that she is not only held in their high esteem as a vocal authority, but also as an inspiring and patient friend.

—”An Interesting Hour in the Soder-Hueck Studios.” Musical Courier, August 7, 1919, page 11.