242 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SPEECH AND SONG. 



Br Sib MORELL MACKENZIE. 

 PART II. SONG. 



HAVING dealt in a previous article (see "Popular Science 

 Monthly " for November, 1889) with the voice in its every -day 

 garb of speech, it now remains for me to speak of it as it is when 

 transfigured in song. The organ is the same in both cases, but in 

 song it is used strictly as a musical instrument one, too, of far more 

 complex structure than any fashioned by the hand of man. The 

 mechanism of voice has already been described, but, for the sake 

 of clearness, it may be well to recall the three essential elements 

 in its production : 1, the air-blast, or motive power ; 2, the vibrat- 

 ing reed, or tone-producing apparatus ; 3, the sounding-board, or 

 re-enforcing cavities. These, to parody a well-worn physiological 

 metaphor, are the three legs of the tripod of voice ; defect in, or 

 mismanagement of, any one of them is fatal to the musical effi- 

 ciency of the vocal instrument. The air supplied by the lungs is 

 molded into sound by the innumerable nimble little fingers of 

 the muscles which move the vocal cords. These fingers (which 

 prosaic anatomists call fibers), besides being almost countless in 

 number, are arranged in so intricate a manner that every one who 

 dissects them finds out something new, which, it is needless to say, 

 is forthwith given to the world as an important discovery. It is 

 probable that no amount of macerating or teasing out with pin- 

 cers will ever bring us to " finality " in this matter ; nor do I think 

 it would profit us much as regards our knowledge of the physiol- 

 ogy of the voice if the last tiny fibrilla of muscle were run to earth. 

 The mind can form no clearer notions of the infinitely little than 

 of the infinitely great, and the microscopic movements of these 

 tiny strips of contractile tissue would be no more real to us than 

 the figures which express the rapidity of light and the vast 

 stretches of astronomical time and distance. Moreover, no two 

 persons have their laryngeal muscles arranged in precisely the 

 same manner, a circumstance which of itself goes a considerable 

 way toward explaining the almost infinite variety of human voices. 

 The wonderful diversity of expression in faces which structurally, 

 as we may say, are almost identical, is due to minute differences in 

 the arrangement of the little muscles which move the skin. The 

 same thing holds good of the larynx. In addition to this there 

 are more appreciable differences, such as we see in the other parts 

 of the body. The larynx itself is as various in size and shape as 

 the nose ; and this is still more the case with the other parts con- 

 cerned in the production of the voice. The most laborious ana- 



