CHAP, vii.] SPECIAL MUSCULAR MECHANISMS. 1469 



the natural disposition of the larynx and that of the head voice a 

 strange and artificial condition into which the larynx is forced 

 (and indeed the latter is in certain cases called a " falsetto " voice, 

 which term however has a technical meaning not always coin- 

 cident with head voice) ; but a closer examination of voices shews 

 that there is in reality no one natural condition of the larynx, 

 and that there are other dispositions or settings of the larynx 

 besides those of the chest voice and the head voice, these being 

 so to speak extreme cases. 



When a singer sings a series of notes in an ascending scale it 

 will be observed that beginning with the lowest notes the voice 

 during a certain range remains through all the notes of the same 

 quality, differing in pitch only, but that at or about a certain note, 

 the voice in passing from one note to the next above is not merely 

 raised in pitch but absolutely altered in quality, and further 

 maintains the new features in the succeeding higher notes. This 

 sudden change is spoken of as the 'break' in the voice, and a 

 range of notes of differing pitch but of the same quality which is 

 thus separated by a ' break ' from another range of notes of a 

 different quality is called a ' register.' Laryngoscopic observations, 

 especially recent ones in which photographic aid has been called in, 

 shew that during a register there is a particular ' setting ' of the 

 larynx, which is maintained throughout the whole register, the 

 chief change observable being an increasing tension of the cords 

 as the notes rise in pitch, and that at the break there is a sudden 

 shifting of the setting, the new setting being maintained during 

 the ensuing register with changes which as before are chiefly 

 directed to a tension of the cords increasing with the rising 

 notes. 



In most voices the ear may recognize two such breaks, 

 separating three registers, lower, middle, and upper, the lower and 

 upper being usually the chest and head voice described above. 

 But some voices are marked by three breaks separating four 

 registers, the differences being distinctly recognisable by the ear, 

 and there are some reasons for thinking that a break, that is a 

 change in the setting of the larynx, may take place without being 

 evident to the ear, though visible by help of the laryngoscope. 

 We may add one part of the training of a singing voice consists in 

 rendering the break, the transition from one register to another, as 

 little obvious to the ear as possible. 



It would be beyond the scope of this work to enter upon the 

 details of the several registers of the different kinds of voices, 

 beyond the little we have said touching the chest voice and head 

 voice ; these are matters of great difficulty subject to much 

 controversy, and indeed, as we have already said, observations 

 tend to shew that exactly the same disposition does not obtain for 

 the same register in all larynges ; it seems probable that two 

 larynges may gain the same end by two different manoeuvres, may 



