Martel, at seventy years of age, had a full, rich voice.

He focused all his tones alike, and employed deep abdominal breathing.
The whole matter of voice training has been clouded by controversy.
The strident advocates of various systems, each of them "the only true method," have in their disputes overcast the subject with much that is irrelevant, thus obscuring its essential simplicity.
The "scientific" teachers, at one extreme, have paid too exclusive attention to the mechanics of the voice.

The "empiricists" have gone to the other extreme in leaving out of account fundamental facts in acoustics, physiology, and psychology.
The truth is that no purely human function, especially one so subtle as singing, can be developed mechanically; nor, on the other hand, can the mere _ipse dixit_ of any teacher satisfy the demands of the modern spirit.
PRINCIPLES ADVOCATED The positions here advocated, because they seem both rational and simple, are: =1.

That the singing and speaking tones are identical, produced by the same organs in the same way, and developed by the same training.= =2.

That breathing is, for the singer, only an amplification of the correct daily habit.= =3.