It is a curious but revealing coincidence that specialized breathing exercises originated not only from the time of the heavy orchestrations of late nineteenth century vocal writing, but also from the era when the so-called “Bel Canto” tradition was lost. As the demand for full, opulent voices increased, less attention was apparently directed to the functional mechanics of vocal development, and more to the subjective impressions of singers (many of whom had “natural” voices) who possessed the requisite power to be heard in large houses over modern orchestras. Thus, the pedagogic concerns of training the singing voice were gradually diverted from the core of the functional process (i.e., registration) to secondary concerns such as resonance and volume.

Cornelius Reid, “A Dictionary of Vocal Terminology.”