THE ART OF SINGING, ITS THEORY AND PRACTICE; FOR PERFECTING & SCIENTIFICALLY DEVELOPING THE t HUMAN VOICE, FOR ALL STUDENTS (AMATEURS AS WELL AS PROFESSIONALS.) BY F. DE COURCY, Accademia Reale di Musica. Le chant, nous, vient des anges, et la source "By angels, melody, to us, is given, And harmony has its pure source in Heaven."-OPS. LONDON: DIPROSE AND BATEMAN, 16 & 17, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. 18/0. 174.9.19. Although very many precepts on study generally will be found in this work-the Art of Singing-know that they are introduced, to rouse a laudable ambition in students to improve their minds, but without intending to make them pedants or blue-stockings, their true aim being to excite youth to seek honorable and deserved fame in the world. Still, understand, all that is here written, is not expected to be achieved nor even followed by any one; but assuredly, those, who aim the highest and strive to learn the most, will be far nearer perfection in knowledge, than those, who, devoid of all becoming pride, idle their time away, or follow trifling pursuits, or carelessly and inattentively employ the golden hours of youth in desultory study, as if they had no interest and took no pleasure in the delightful pursuit of literature, and only luxuriated their lives away amid sweet and empty sounds. To be a fine singer, and nothing more, is not very enviable, especially in the middle of the 19th century, when the schoolmaster is abroad and so actively engaged in disseminating knowledge everywhere. To the student at college, and to the child at the ragged-school-in the stately palace, and in the humble cottage-the peer and the peasant both feel his influence, and all society submits itself to his guidance and rule, and acknowledges itself the better for it that you, gentle reader, may follow that good example, is the sincere wish and desire of F. DE C. N.B. If tautology or repetition be found herein, let it be considered a new phase of the subject; a reiteration with a new light thrown thereon, so as to guard students, if possible, against errors, for defects acquired are difficult to eradicate, and, at times, become incurable. |