PHONATION 327 



All these with the exception of the hard consonants (e.g. B 

 and D) can be pronounced quite well without the use of the 

 larynx. The hard consonants are accompanied by phonation. 

 Thus, although in pronouncing D there is a check at the teeth, 

 the production of the laryngeal sound goes on. 



II. Phonation, or the production of sound, is not so simple as 

 articulation. At least two essential factors are concerned. The 

 mechanism for producing sounds consists of a bellows or blower 

 the lungs ; a vibrating structure the vocal chords ; a cyclone 

 chamber the ventricle or space between true and false vocal 

 cords ; the wind pipe or trachea ; and resonating chambers 

 the cavities of pharynx, mouth and nose. Musical notes can be 

 produced without the intermediation of the vocal cords. It has 

 been shown that the sudden expansion in bore of the windpipe 

 at the ventricle is quite sufficient to produce a cyclonic distur- 

 bance of the air, and sound is the result. Most people are of 

 opinion, however, that the vocal cords play the major part in 

 sound production. 



Loudness is due to amplitude of vibration and depends, in part, 

 on the force and volume of the blast of air emitted. 



In part, it depends on the size of the larynx and of the resonating 

 chambers, and on the tension of the vocal cords. ,A true cres- 

 cendo is obtained by relaxing the tension of the vocal cords. 



Pitch, or tone-height, is a function of the rate of vibrations. 

 This may be proved by running a gramophone record at various 

 speeds. When running at its slowest the plate of the sound-box 

 is receiving and transmitting vibrations at the rate of about 

 100 per sec., and one hears a bass voice. As the speed is increased 

 the voice rises in pitch till it may be a distinctly light tenor with 

 500 vibrations per second. 



The limits for the human voice are given in Table LIII. 



TABLE LIII. 



Bass F t to D, 85 to 288 vibrations per second. 



Baritone - A, to Fg 106 to 340 

 Tenor - C., to A 9 128 to 424 



Alto E,to C 4 160 to 512 



Soprano B.^ to G 4 240 to 768 



(M'Kendrick.) 



We derive the musical notion of high and low pitch from the 

 rise and fall of the larynx in the production of sounds an entirely 

 subjective phenomenon. The pitch of a tone, from a physical 



