512 VOICE AND SPEECH. 



scopy with the greatest success, and has confirmed her 

 views with regard to the mechanism of its production by 

 numerous observations upon other singers. We have already 

 stated that Fournie has shown that, in the transition to the 

 head-voice, the velum palati is applied to the base of the 

 tongue, and the sound is reenforced by resonance from the 

 naso-pharyngeal cavity. 1 If this be its mechanism, its study 

 with the laryngoscope must be exceedingly difficult. 



The most important theory of the mechanism of the 

 head-voice has been proposed by Mrs. Seiler. After long 

 and patient effort, she was able to expose the glottis during 

 the production of these tones, when it was found that the 

 vocal chords were firmly approximated posteriorly, leaving 

 an oval opening, with vibrating edges, involving only one- 

 half or one-third of the vocal ligaments. This orifice con- 

 tracted progressively with the higher tones. This peculiar 

 division of the vocal ligaments is due, according to Mrs. 

 Seiler, to the action of a muscular bundle, called the inter- 

 nal thyro-arytenoid, upon little cartilages, the cuneiform, 

 extending forward from the arytenoid cartilage, in the sub- 

 stance of the vocal ligaments, as far as the middle of the 

 glottis. 3 



"With proper cultivation, the transition from the middle re- 

 gister to the head- voice in the female may be effected almost 

 imperceptibly, thereby increasing the compass from three to 

 six tones, and even more ; and in the male the same may be 

 accomplished without difficulty, particularly in tenors. There 

 can be hardly any doubt of the fact that the naso-pharyngeal 

 space is chiefly concerned in the resonance that takes place in 

 head-tones, though its actual demonstration is very difficult. 

 The distinction between the head and the chest-notes is 

 fully as marked in the male as in the female ; but it must be 

 remembered that one of the great ends to be accomplished 

 in the cultivation of the human voice is to make the three 



1 FOURNIE, op. cit., p. 421. 2 Op. cit., p. 60. 



