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THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
the coloring? In “ coloratour” perhaps. Well, how can we expect to have beauty, strength and ease on theories of diaphragmatic breathing, which kills natural respiration; on theories of forming tones where they are not indicated by a single natural reason, to be taught that the breath makes the tone, and then expelling the breath, which stops the incoming air? Rubenstein has made the statement that the human voice is a less perfect instrument than any string instrument. As a rule he is certainly right. I am just bringing conviction to a good many people that we have looked on the wrong side in training it, in judging it, in merely hearing it. In fact, what is it, what should it be?
In the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago the outcome was, I believe, love, truth, unity, form and color may vary; but love, which vibrates through the human voice, must be felt; and truth, which is expressed through the classic ideal as purity, must be observable. Then we shall hear the voice, made by no hands, superior to all other imitations of it; then methods and false foundations shall vanish; then the clashing of dissonances in the realm of harmony will be transformed into an earnest and successful endeavor to work out good and beauty through knowledge of Divine laws.