The sky-lark - National Library of Scotland

ON SINGERS AND SINGING. Vll
this caution may be useful,—if without, it, chance alone
can give him success. The company also whom he ad-
dresses, or the moving spirit of the times, may be consulted
with advantage.
4. Feeling and Imagination are necessary in deve-
loping the beauties of song, and bestowing upon their
appropriate passages the corresponding feelings of the
author. Those passages should be selected with care
which the singer may impress with his powers, they
should be marked with precision, but not be too uumerous>
and if at the end of a song, it will leave the more permanent
impression.
5. Becoming Confidence is essential. A singer
should be aware of his powers of pleasing, without pre-
suming upon them ; excessive diffidence has spoilt many
a good song, modesty may palliate an indifferent one, but
overweening impudence ruins every thing it undertakes.
Monitions. These are the essentials that make up
a singer, but a few cautions may not be thrown away.
It is requisite that the singer should know what class of
songs is best calculated for his powers, and incline to
those; and on this matter it would be well to have the
concurring testimony of a friend or musical adviser. Many
fancy the songs they hear well sung, they also can sing
well, and frequently find their mistake ; others with
powers that might rival Steutor, are passionately intent on
demolishing a ditty ; and a third class, whose auditors
almost require the aid of ear- trumpets, conceive they never
shine but in a " Storm."