free-verse153 lines

Lilli Alm

by Edgar Lee Masters

In Lola Schaefer's studio in the Tower,

Tea being served to painters, poets, singers,

Herr Ludwig Haibt, a none too welcome guest,

Of vital body, brisk, too loud of voice,

And Lilli Alm crossed swords.

It came about

When Ludwig Haibt said: "Have you read the papers

About this Elenor Murray?" And then said:

"I tried to train her voice - she was a failure."

And Lilli Alm who taught the art of song

Looked at him half contemptuous and said:

"Why did she fail?" To which Herr Ludwig answered

"She tried too hard. She made her throat too tense,

And made its muscles stiff by too much thought,

Anxiety for song, the vocal triumph."

"O, yes, I understand," said Lilli Aim.

Then stabbing him she added, "since you dropped

The Perfect Institute, and dropped the idea

Which stresses training muscles of the tongue,

And all that thing, be fair and shoulder half

The failure of poor Elenor Murray on

Your system's failure. For I chanced to know

The girl myself. She started work with me,

And I am sure that if I had been able -

With time enough I could have done it too -

To rid her mind of muscles and to fix

The thought alone of music in her mind,

She would have sung. Now listen, Ludwig Haibt,

You've come around to see that song's the thing.

I take a pupil and I say to her:

The mind must fix itself on music, say

I would make song, pure tones and beautiful;

That comes from spirit, from the Plato rapture,

Which gets the idea. It is well to know

Some physiology, I grant, to know

When, how to move the vocal organs, feel

How they are moving, through the ear to place

These organs in relation, and to know

The soft palate is drawn against the hard;

The tongue can take positions numerous,

Can be used at the root, a throaty voice;

Or with the tip, produce expressiveness.

But what must we avoid? - rigidity.

And if that girl was over-zealous, then

So much the more her teaching should have kept

Mind off the larynx and the tongue, and fixed

Upon the spiritual matters, so to give

The snake-like power of loosening, contracting

The muscles used for singing. Ludwig Haibt,

I can forgive your system, since abandoned,

I can't forgive your words to-day who say

This woman failed for trying over much,

When I know that your system made her throw

An energy truly wonderful on muscles;

And when I think of your book where you said:

The singing voice is the result, observe

Of physical conditions, like the strings

Or tubes of brass. While granting that it's well

To know the art of tuning up the strings,

And how to place them; after all the art

Of tuning and of placing comes from mind,

The idea, and the art of making song

Is just the breathing of the perfect spirit

Upon the strings. The throat is but the leaves,

Let them be flexible, the mouth's the flower,

The tone the perfume. And your olden way

Of harping on the larynx - well, since you

Turned from it, I'm ungenerous perhaps

To scold you thus to-day.

But this I say,

Let us be frank as teachers: Take the fetich

Of breathing and see how you cripple talent,

Or take that matter of the laryngyscope,

Whereby you photograph a singer's throat,

Caruso's, Galli Curci's at the moment

Of greatest beauty in song, and thus preserve

In photographs before you how the muscles

Looked and were placed that moment. Then attempt

To get the like effect by placing them

In similar fashion. Oh, you know, Herr Ludwig,

These fetiches go by. One thing remains:

The idea in the soul of beauty, music,

The hope to give it forth.

Alas! to think

So many souls are wasted while we teach

This thing or that. The strong survive, of course.

But take this Elenor Murray - why, that girl

Was just a flame, I never saw such hunger

For self-development, and beauty, richness,

In all experience in life - I knew her,

That's why I say so - take her as I say,

And put her to a practice - yours we'll say -

Where this great zeal she had is turned and pressed

Upon the physical, just the very thing

To make her throat constrict, and fill her up

With over anxiety and make her fail.

When had she come to me at first this passion

Directed to the beauty, the idea

Had put her soul at ease to ease her body,

Which gradually and beautifully had answered

That flame of hers.

Well, Ludwig Haibt, you're punished

For wasting several years upon a system

Since put away as half erroneous,

If not quite worthless. But I must confess,

Since I have censured you, to my own sin.

This girl ran out of money, came to me

And told me so. To which I said: "Too bad,

You will have money later, when you do,

Come back to me." She stood a silent moment,

Her hand upon the knob, I saw her tears,

Just little dim tears, then she said good-bye

And vanished from me.

Well, I now repent.

I who have thought of beauty all my life,

And taught the art of sound made beautiful,

Let slip a chance for beauty - why, I think,

A beauty just as great as song! You see

I had a chance to serve a hungering soul -

I could have said just let the money go,

Or let it go until you get the money.

I let that chance for beauty slip. Even now

I see poor Elenor Murray at the door,

Who paused, no doubt, in hope that I would say

What I thought not to say.

So, Ludwig Haibt,

We are a poor lot - let us have some tea!

"We are a poor lot," Ludwig Haibt replied.

"But since this is confessional, I absolve you,

If you'll permit me, from your sin. Will you

Absolve me, if I say I'm sorry too?

I'll tell you something, it is really true: -

I changed my system more I think because

Of what I learned from teaching Elenor Murray

Than on account of any other person.

She demonstrated better where my system

Was lacking than all pupils that I had.

And so I changed it; and of course I say

The thing is music, just as poets say

The thing is beauty, not the rhyme and words,

With which they bring it, instruments that's all,

And not the thing - but beauty."

So they talked,

Forgave each other. And that very day

Two priests were talking of confessionals

A mile or so from the Tower, where Lilli Alm

And Ludwig Haibt were having tea. You say

The coroner was ignorant of this!

What is the part it plays with Elenor Murray?

Or with the inquest? Wait a little yet

And see if Merival has told to him

What thing of value touching Elenor Murray

Is lodged in Father Whimsett's heart or words.