SPEECH AND SONG. 245 



tion of tlie registers was that, while in the delivery of chest notes 

 the whole substance of the vocal cord vibrated, in the " head " 

 voice only its thin inner margin did so ; in both cases the entire 

 length of the cord was supposed to vibrate. The shortening of the 

 vibrating reed, however, by the mutual " stopping " process men- 

 tioned above, is not a theory, but a fact which can be seen. I am 

 inclined to believe, however, that under certain circumstances the 

 two processes of shortening and marginal vibration may be com- 

 bined. This may possibly be the true mechanism of the falsetto 

 voice, as to which there has been so much dispute. It is clear that 

 the term has been used by different persons in different senses, 

 and much of the confusion which exists on the subject is, in my 

 opinion, due to this cause. By most of the old Italian writers, the 

 term falsetto is used as synonymous with head voice ; by others it 

 is employed to denote that kind of voice " whereby a man going 

 beyond the upper limit of his natural voice counterfeits that of a 

 woman " (Rousseau, " Dictionnaire de Musique "). A similar differ- 

 ence of opinion exists as to the beauty of falsetto, some speaking 

 rapturously of its flute-like softness, others reviling it as " the 

 most disagreeable of all timbres of the human voice" (Rous- 

 seau, ibid.). I venture with all humility to submit that "falset- 

 to " and " head voice " should not be used interchangeably. The 

 " long reed " and " short reed " registers are used alike by the two 

 sexes, the greater part of the male voice, however, belonging to 

 the former, and the greater part of the female to the latter. The 

 term " falsetto " should be reserved for the artificial method of de- 

 livery, by which the limited " short reed " register in men is forced 

 upward beyond its natural compass. In this mode of production 

 the air is blown up from the lungs so gently that it has not suffi- 

 cient power to throw the whole thickness of the vocal cord into 

 vibration. This accounts for the soft, " flute-like " tones which are 

 characteristic of the falsetto voice. 



To sum up the mechanism of the registers, there is first the 

 " long reed " or " chest " register, in which the cords vibrate in 

 their whole length and thickness ; then the " short reed " or " head " 

 register, in which the vibrating reed is gradually shortened ; lastly, 

 the falsetto, which belongs to men alone, and is formed by the 

 vibration of the margins only of the shortened reeds. Pitch rises 

 in the long reed register owing to increasing tension of the cords, 

 accompanied by increasing rapidity of vibration ; when the cord 

 can not be made more tense, the device of shortening the reed is 

 brought into play. In the upper register not only is the aperture 

 between the cords (" glottis ") diminished to the smallest possible 

 size, but the whole upper orifice of the larynx is compressed from 

 side to side, so as to leave only a very narrow chink for the voice 

 to pass through. In the lower register, on the other hand, the 



