510 VOICE AND SPEECH. 



is the voice commonly used in speaking, and is the most nat- 

 ural, the vocal ligaments vibrating according to their ten- 

 sion, as the air is forced through the larynx from the chest, 

 and the air in the pharynx, mouth, and nasal fossae pro- 

 ducing a resonance without any artificial division of the 

 different cavities. As the tones are elevated the vocal 

 chords are simply rendered more tense, and the parts above 

 the larynx are more or less constricted, without any other 

 change in the mechanism of the sound. But the chest-voice 

 in the male cannot pass certain well-defined limits ; and in 

 the very highest notes it must be merged, either into the 

 head-voice or the falsetto. The falsetto, however, is now 

 but little cultivated, though some tenor singers, after long 

 practice, succeed in making the change from one register to 

 the other so nicely that it is hardly perceptible, even to a 

 cultivated ear. The head-voice has essentially the same 

 mechanism in the male as in the female, and will be consid- 

 ered after we have discussed the falsetto, which is the natu- 

 ral voice of soprano singers. 



Falsetto Register. The difference of opinion among 

 laryngoscopists with regard to the mechanism of the falsetto 

 is probably in great part due to the fact that when these 

 tones are produced, the isthmus of the fauces is so power- 

 fully contracted that it becomes exceedingly difficult to 

 study the action of the vocal chords. There is no reason 

 for supposing that the mechanism of this register does 

 not involve vibration of the true vocal chords, as in the 

 chest-voice, the difference being in the tension and in the 

 extent of the vibrating portion. According to the observa- 

 tions of Fournie, in the falsetto the tongue is pressed 

 strongly backward and the epiglottis is forced over the 

 larynx. 1 Mrs. Emma Setter, from an extended series of 

 autolaryngoscopic observations, has arrived at the conclu- 

 sion that this voice involves vibrations of the fine, thin edges 



1 Op. dt., p. 463. 



