Musical and expressive factors are difficult, if not impossible, to achieve unless the sound, that basic sensuous material of the singing art, is fluid and controllable. A stiff, barking sound is incapable of producing a musical line, although it certainly can be heard. On the other hand, a fuzzy, unfocused sound has only one color and very little projection. It may be fine for lullabies, but there’s more to life (and singing) than lullabies.
And it’s not new information. In 1938, John Redfield wrote, Of all musical instrument makers the voice builder is in greatest need for exhaustive and exact information about the instrument he makes, for the reason that the voice is of all musical instruments the most complicated in its method of tone production!
(From the Choral Journal article, “Breathing: The Motor of the Singing Voice,” by Barbara M. Doscher)
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