Gluck, Schumann-Heink.  There is never any doubt about them; they always win their audiences.  What I have done has been accomplished by hard work, without backing of any kind.  Really of what use is backing anyway?  The public can judge—­or at least it can feel.  I know very well that when my chance came to sing Shanewis, if I had not been able to do it, no amount of influence would have helped the situation.  I had it in my own hand to make or mar my career.  I often wonder whether audiences really know anything about what you are trying to do; whether they have any conception of what is right in singing, or whether they are merely swayed by the temperament of the singer.

“Whether we are, or are not to be a musical nation should be a question of deep interest to all music lovers.  If we really become a great musical people, it will be largely due to the work of the records.  We certainly have wonderful advantages here, and are doing a tremendous lot for music.

“I had an interesting experience recently.  It was in a little town in North Carolina, where a song recital had never before been given.  Can you fancy a place where there had never even been a concert?  The people in this little town were busy producing tobacco and had never turned their thought toward music.  In the face of the coming concert what did those people do?  They got a program, studied what pieces I had sung on the Victor, got the music of the others; so they had a pretty good idea of what I was going to sing.  When I stepped on the platform that night and saw the little upright piano (no other instrument could be secured) and looked into those eager faces, I wondered how they would receive my work.  My first number was an aria from Orfeo.  When I finished, the demonstration was so deafening I had to wait minutes before I could go on.  And so it continued all the evening.

“How do I work?  Very hard, at least six hours a day.  Of these I actually sing perhaps three hours.  I begin at nine and give the first hour to memory work on repertoire.  I give very thorough study to my programs; for I must know every note in them, both for voice and piano.  I make it a point to know the accompaniments, for in case I am ever left without an accompanist, I can play for myself, and it has a great effect on audiences.  They may not know or care whether you can play Beethoven or Chopin, but the fact that you can play while you sing, greatly impresses them.

“In committing a song, I play it over and sing it sufficiently to get a good idea of its construction and meaning; then I work in detail, learning words and music at the same time, usually.  Certain things are very difficult for me, things requiring absolute evenness of passage work, or sustained calm.  Naturally I have an excess of temperament; I feel things in a vivid, passionate way.  So I need to go very slowly at times.  To-day I gave several hours to only three lines of an aria by Haendel, and am not yet satisfied with it.  Indeed, can we ever rest satisfied, when there is so much to learn, and we can always improve?