VOCAL REGISTEKS. 511 



of the chords only, a greater width vibrating in the produc- 

 tion of the chest-voice. She is particularly careful to insist 

 upon the distinction between the falsetto and the head- 

 register, the latter being produced by an entirely different 

 mechanism. 1 On the whole, this explanation seems to be 

 the most satisfactory. 



It must be remembered that the distinction between the 

 chest-register or the head-register and the falsetto, as far as 

 pitch is concerned, is not absolute. Certain of the high 

 notes of the chest or the head-voice, for example, may be 

 produced in the falsetto. In the cultivation of the female 

 voice, Mrs. Seller considers that it is exceedingly important 

 not to strain the chest-voice to its highest point, but to use 

 each register in its normal place in the scale, taking care, by 

 practice, to render the transition from one to the other natu- 

 ral and agreeable. We have heard male singers, probably 

 endowed with peculiar vocal powers, who were able, by the 

 use of the falsetto, to imitate almost exactly. the soprano 

 voice, though without the sweetness and purity of tone char- 

 acteristic of the perfect female organ. In the same way, by 

 straining the chest-voice beyond its normal limits, some fe- 

 males, particularly contraltos, are able to produce a very- 

 good imitation of the tenor quality. 



Head- Register. This voice is highly cultivated, particu- 

 larly in tenors and in the best female singers. It is not to be 

 confounded, however, with the falsetto, as was done by some 

 physiologists, before the invention of the laryngoscope. 2 

 Head-tones may be produced by cultivated male singers, 

 bass and barytone, as well as tenor ; but the former seldom 

 have occasion for any but the chest-notes. Still, there are 

 musical passages in which the sotto-voce head-notes of the 

 bass have an exquisite softness, and are used with great 

 effect. Mrs. Seiler has studied this voice by autolaryngo- 



1 EMMA SEILER, The Voice in Singing, Philadelphia, 1868, p. 56, ft seq. 

 MUELLER, Manuel de physiologic, Paris, 1851, tome ii., p. 199. 



