Harris on the Pig: Practical Hints for the Pig Farmer

INTRODUCTION The following chapters are the outgrowth of an enthusiasm for the work of voice training, together with a deep personal interest in a large number of conscientious young men and women who have gone out of my studio into the world to engage in the responsible work of voice teaching. The desire to be of service to them has prompted me to put in permanent form the principles on which I Iabored, more or less patiently, to ground them during a course of three, four, or five years. The fact that after having stood the grind for that length of time they are still asking, not to say clarnoring, for more, may, in a measure, justify the decision to issue this book. It is not an arraignment of vocal teachers, although there are occasional hints, public and private, which lead me to believe that we are not altogether without sin. But if this be true we take refuge in the belief that our iniquity is not inborn, but rather is it the result of the educational methods of those immediately preceding us. This at least shifts the responsibility. Words are dangerous things, and are liable at any moment to at a verbal conflagration difficult to control.…