516 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the sounds produced. Being implicated in some of the more ener- 

 getic movements of the tongue, it rises or falls, but to no purpose. 

 The larynx of the singer, while fixed in its position, multiplies its 

 performance; the suppleness of all its parts is a matter of prime im- 

 portance. The vibrations of the vocal lips and the resonance of the 

 vestibule determine the timbre of the glottic sounds ; the configura- 

 tion of the pharynx and of the buccal cavity, by modifying the 

 sounds formed in the glottis, produces the timbre of the voice. This 

 cannot be altered to any considerable degree by even the most pow- 

 erful efforts of the will. Professors of singing injure their pupils by 

 prescribing in too absolute a manner the mouth arrangements which 

 they themselves find most serviceable. Each individual must follow 

 Nature, and M. Mandl had good reasons for begging singing-masters 

 never to forget this truth. 



Our ear is not affected by all sounds ; those Avhich are very low or 

 very acute are not perceived. The limits of hearing are usually set 

 at forty, and at forty thousand vibrations per second. Persons of ex- 

 treme sensibility are not restricted within these limits, but their gift 

 is not a source of pleasure ; every one knows how painful it is to 

 hear sounds that are too acute. Song is the result of modulated 

 sounds separated from one another by harmonic intervals. The 

 whole series of sounds from the grave to the acute is the musical 

 scale ; the voice has a greater or less range in different individuals. 

 In the language of musicians, each series of consecutive and homo- 

 geneous sounds is a register ; we have the chest-register, the head- 

 register, etc. A strange idea has gone abroad : singers, being led 

 astray by the resonance of the arch of the palate, and by certain pe- 

 culiar sensations caused by the action of various muscles, have sup- 

 posed that the voice comes now from the chest, again from the head. 

 But, as every one must now be aware, voice is pi-oduced always in the 

 glottis. Hence it were well, as M. Mandl advises, to abandon the use 

 of terms which had their origin in a misapprehension, and to use in- 

 stead of them the terms lower and upper register. 



Singing requires far more precise arrangements of the vocal organs 

 than does speaking. At the moment of producing the sound the glot- 

 tic orifice should be absolutely shut; the voice-emission will be good 

 provided the vocal lips go apart to the proper extent with a kind of 

 suddenness. It is interesting to follow with the eye, by means of the 

 laryngoscope, the play of the instrument in producing successively 

 low and high notes. In producing very low notes the glottic orifice 

 assumes the form of a very long, regular ellipsoid, with both extremi- 

 ties pointed ; as the sound rises in pitch, the vocal lips at once approach 

 each other, and the orifice, constricted at one point, appears to be 

 divided into two parts ; the pitch still rising, the uttermost limit of 

 the register is attained, and then the glottic orifice becomes a linear 

 slit. Passing to the upper, register the head-voice or falsetto a 



