D. A. (David Alva) Clippinger

D. A. Clippinger, short for David Alva Clippinger, was an American author and voice teacher whose life dates are commonly listed as 1860–1938. Surviving library and public-domain records connect him with a steady run of instructional books on singing and voice culture, including Systematic Voice Training (1910), The Head Voice and Other Problems (1917), Collective Voice Training (1924), and Fundamentals of Voice Training (1929).

His writing suggests a teacher deeply engaged with the everyday realities of the studio and classroom. In the introduction to The Head Voice and Other Problems, he explains that the book grew out of his work with students who later became voice teachers themselves, and he presents it as a practical attempt to put his teaching principles into lasting form.

That practical spirit is what still makes Clippinger interesting. Rather than writing as a distant theorist, he comes across as a working instructor trying to make vocal training clearer, steadier, and more useful for singers, choirs, and teachers.