Savage Klein

The original 1901 clipping at the New York Public library for the Performing Arts which I used for…

The cover of Hidden in Plain Sight: The Hermann Klein Phono-Vocal Method Based upon the Famous School of Manuel Garcia had an unusual appearance, with Klein appearing through a jazzed, slashing frame.

I wondered: was this nothing more than the fancy of an art director with a new printing process? Or was the frame saying something more?

I had no idea. But it did make me think.

Klein came to America to teach Manuel García’s method to the masses, which is why he wrote his manual with gramophone recordings in 1909, returning to London that same year when his effort to bring certification to voice teachers as chairman of the newly-formed National Association of Teachers of Singing fell on deaf ears.

(NATS became the New York Singing Teachers Association in 1917, the current organization with the moniker being founded in 1944).

With certification dead in the water and the failure of his Sunday concert series, Klein returned to London and gave a lecture which he turned into a book: Unmusical New York: A Brief Criticism of Triumphs, Failures, & Abuses (1910).

The New York Times weighed in with a review noting that Klein’s bark was worse that his bite, then asked: “Is that unsuccessful series of Sunday concerts still rankling in Mr. Klein’s soul to the extent of these 144 pages?”

The truth is that no one likes to fail or become irrelevant. Klein experienced both before he returned to London when he was 44, having arrived in New York at the age 36, looking fresh-faced and bright-eyed. Whatever the meaning of the frame, Klein doesn't know how bitter he will become.

Klein survived the 1918 pandemic and the First World War, changed his first name by dropping the second Germanic “N,” continued to teach voice, and wrote for The Gramophone until he died in 1934—reviewing recordings and giving the reader a wealth of information as a student of the Great García. He also published several articles on Bel Canto, which you can find on the download page.

He stayed faithful to his master’s teachings even if the world around him seemed to be going in another direction, noting hopefully, perhaps patiently, after a lifetime of work in the studio—10 years before his death—that the principles of Bel Canto seemed to be making a reappearance.

Savage Klein.

Defender of the García Gospel.