i 7 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the intended note is high or low, to vibrate, and thus is produced the 

 tone which upon its entrance into the pharyngeal cavity and mouth 

 becomes articulated, and the sound of which is variously and essen- 

 tially modified according to the varying peculiarities of structure and 

 formation of the larynx, pharynx, and mouth. It is also changed or 

 modulated according as the various parts of the mouth, tongue, pal- 

 ate, teeth, and lips, assume different positions. Cultivation of the 

 voice also impresses its stamp. The tone-waves, as they rush out of 

 the open mouth, communicate their vibrations to the air, which con- 

 ducts the sound onward until it reaches our ears, provided we are 

 within the reach of these atmospheric vibrations. The difference 

 between a cultivated voice or note is soon detected in the purity and 

 regularity with which its sounds reach us as compared to the harsh, 

 irregular, discordant waves impelled by one not so cultivated. Jo- 

 hannes Mtiller places the extreme range of the human voice at four 

 octaves, but it is quite seldom that the range exceeds two and a 

 half octaves. In some phenomenal voices, like those of the gifted 

 Parepa-Rosa, Peschka-Leutner, Mara, Farinelli, and other great sing- 

 ers, we meet with astounding range and power. Parepa-Rosa had 

 a voice ranging full three octaves, from sol 2 to sol 3 ; and Flint, the 

 learned and indefatigable physiologist, tells that at the World's Mu- 

 sical Festival at Boston, in 1869, she gave the most astounding exhi- 

 bitions of the wonders which this little organ, the larynx, is capable 

 of. In some of the solos by Madame Rosa, accompanied by a chorus 

 of 12,000 with an orchestra of more than a thousand, and largely 

 composed of brass instruments, Prof. Flint distinctly heard the 

 pure and just notes of this remarkable soprano, standing alone, as 

 it were, against the entire choral and instrumental force ; and this 

 in an immense building containing an audience of 40,000 persons ! 

 Mara's voice had compass, with equal fullness of tone, of three oc- 

 taves, and she possessed such power of musical utterance that she 

 imitated the most difficult passages of the violin and flute with per- 

 fect facility. Farinelli on one occasion competed with a trumpeter, 

 who accompanied him in an aria. After both had several times dwelt 

 on notes in which each sought to excel the other, they prolonged a 

 note with a double trill in thirds, which they continued until both 

 seemed exhausted. At last the trumpeter gave up, entirely out of 

 breath, while Farinelli, without taking breath, prolonged the note 

 with renewed volume of sound, trilling and ending finally with the 

 most difficult roulades. 



But these wonderful displays of the power of the larynx must not 

 be ascribed entirely to the intensity of the tone, but are in no small 

 measure due to the absolute mathematical equality of the sonorous 

 vibrations and the comparative absence of discordant waves. By the 

 degree of tension of the vocal cords which is required for the pitch 

 of a prescribed tone, and which, as we have seen, is greater in the 



