To the seemingly endless contention around breathing for voice users, Hixon brings a lifetime of research and significant informational girth. This book is certainly an important step in the respiration debate, if only to set a bar for technical discussion. Though interpretations will certainly abound, Hixon offers enough critical data to help settle some questions. Still, his viewpoint is decidedly of the twentieth century. As such, some of the contextualizing language (e.g. "control", "hold", "fix"), and even some of the driving questions (e.g. "how much should the rib cage expand"), beg to be reborn in a twenty-first century paradigm that includes significant laryngeal, acoustic, neurological, physiological and body mapping research and experience. In a concise document, Hixon has summed up the breadth of understanding of a century or more of “breath wars” among well-meaning pedagogues and practitioners by offering decades of research data to support and refute the principal claims that drove those conflicts. It has also opened a door for refreshed thinking on the topic of respiration, and more user friendly, community-supported consensus on the topic.
