Historical accounts: Caruso and Daniel Sorano
Period clinical accounts reported by Christophe Besson
These two texts are not contemporary testimonies but period clinical accounts, reported in the contribution of Christophe Besson to the book TOMATIS — Une expérience à partager (TOMATIS — An Experience to Share, chapter “Genesis and evolution of the Electronic Ear”). They illuminate the history of the method and of the first applications of the Electronic Ear.
The singer and the Caruso secret
The book reports the case of a French singer who, after recovering his voice thanks to Tomatis’s treatment, stumbled obstinately over a passage of La Forza del Destino — a precise note that constituted for him an insurmountable obstacle. Comparing his vocal emission with that of Enrico Caruso, Tomatis noticed that the great tenor introduced, before the difficult passages, a brief click — a slight discontinuity that gave the ear the moment it needed to prepare itself to listen. This observation is at the origin of the switching principle of the Electronic Ear.
Daniel Sorano recovers his voice
Around 1954, Tomatis received Daniel Sorano, a former singer who had become a great actor, and who had lost the modulation of his stage voice. Tomatis applied to him the treatment he reserved for his singers, and Sorano recovered his voice. The account also retains an observation decisive for the understanding of the method: by experimentally neutralizing the actor’s right ear, Tomatis found that he immediately began to stammer — confirmation that it is the right ear that directs the audio-vocal loop.