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CHAPTER I. Physiology of the Voice, 13 CHAPTER II. Registers of the Voice, 25 CHAPTER III. How To Secure Good Tone, 44 CHAPTER IV. Compass of the Child-Voice, 72 CHAPTER V. Position, Breathing, Attack, Tone-Formation, 81 CHAPTER VI. Vowels, Consonants, Articulation, 95 CHAPTER VII. Mutation of the Voice, 112 CHAPTER VIII. The Alto Voice in Male Choirs, 125 CHAPTER IX. General Remarks, 132

CHAPTER I.

PHYSIOLOGY OF THE VOICE.

In former times the culture of the singing-voice was conducted upon purely empirical grounds. Teachers followed a few good rules which had been logically evolved from the experience of many schools of singing.

We are indebted to modern science, aided by the laryngoscope, for many facts concerning the action of the larynx, and more especially the vocal cords in tone-production. While the early discoveries regarding the mechanism of the voice were hopefully believed to have solved all problems concerning its cultivation, experience has shown the futility of attempting to formulate a set of rules for voice-culture based alone upon the incomplete data furnished by the laryngoscope. This instrument is a small, round mirror which is introduced into the throat at such an angle, that if horizontal rays of light are thrown upon it, the larynx, which lies directly beneath, is illuminated and reflected in the mirror at the back of the mouth—the laryngoscope. Very many singers and teachers, of whom Manuel Garcia was the first, have made use of this instrument to observe the action of their vocal bands in the act of singing, and the results of these observations are of the greatest value. Still, as before said, the laryngoscope does not reveal all the secrets of voice-production. While it tells unerringly of any departure from the normal, or of pathological change in the larynx, it does not tell whether the larynx belongs to the greatest living singer or to one absolutely unendowed with the power of song. Also, the subject of vocal registers is as vexing to-day as ever.

While, then, we may confidently expect further and more complete elucidation of the physiology of the voice, there is yet sufficient data to guide us safely in vocal training, if we neglect not the empirical rules which the accumulated experience of the past has established.

The organ by which the singing-voice is produced is the larynx. It forms the upper extremity of the windpipe, which again is the upper portion and beginning of the bronchial tubes, which, extending downward, branch off from its lower part to either side of the chest and continually subdivide until they become like little twigs, around which cluster the constituent parts of the lungs, which form the bellows for the supply of air necessary to the performance of vocal functions. Above, the larynx opens into the throat and the cavities of the pharynx, mouth, nose, and its accessory cavities, which constitute the resonator for vocal vibrations set up within the larynx.

The larynx itself consists of a framework of cartilages joined by elastic membranes or ligaments, and joints. These cartilages move freely toward and upon each other by means of attached muscles. Also the larynx as a whole can be moved in various directions by means of extrinsic muscles joined to points above and below.

The vocal bands are two ligaments or folds of mucous membrane attached in front to the largest cartilage of the larynx, called the thyroid, and which forms in man the protuberance commonly called Adam’s apple; and, extending horizontally backward, are inserted posteriorly into the arytenoid cartilages, the right vocal band into the right arytenoid cartilage and the left band into the left cartilage. These arytenoid cartilages, by means of an articulation or joint, move freely upon the cricoid, the second large cartilage of the larynx, forming its base, and sometimes called the ring cartilage, from its resemblance in shape to a seal ring. The vocal bands are composed of numberless elastic fibres running in part parallel to each other, and in part interwoven in various directions with each other. The fibres also vary in length; some are inserted into the extending projections, called processes of the arytenoid cartilages, and some extend further back and are inserted into the body of the cartilages. The vocal bands, then, lie opposite each other, on a level, raised a little in front, and with a narrow slit between, called the glottis.

The muscles controlling the action of the vocal bands, and which regulate the mechanism producing sound, are of three groups, viz., abductors (drawing-apart muscles), adductors (drawing-together muscles), and tensors.

The abductors act to keep the bands apart during respiration, while the function of the adductors and tensors is to bring the bands into position for speech or singing. They are, since phonation is at will, voluntary muscles; but it is an interesting fact that the laryngeal muscles of either side invariably act together. It has been shown that it is not possible to move one vocal cord without the other at the same time executing the same movement. It is