1090 



THE VOICE. 



[BOOK in. 



certain note, the voice in passing from one note to the next 

 above is not merely raised in pitch but absolutely altered in 

 quality, and further maintains the new features in the succeed- 

 ing higher notes. This sudden change is spoken of as the 

 4 break ' in the voice, and a range of notes of differing pitch but 

 of the same quality which is thus separated by a ' break ' from 

 another range of notes of a different quality is called a c register.' 

 Laryngoscopic observations, especially recent ones in which pho- 

 tographic aid has been called in, shew that during a register 

 there is a particular 4 setting ' of the larynx, which is maintained 

 throughout the whole register, the chief change observable being 

 an increasing tension of the cords as the notes rise in pitch, and 

 that at the break there is a sudden shifting of the setting, the 

 new setting being maintained during the ensuing register 

 with changes which as before are chiefly directed to a tension 

 of the cords increasing with the rising notes. 



In most voices the ear may recognize two such breaks, separa- 

 ting three registers, lower, middle, and upper, the lower and 

 upper being usually the chest and head voice described above. 

 But some voices are marked by three breaks separating four 

 registers, the differences being distinctly recognizable by the ear, 

 and there are some reasons for thinking that a break, that is a 

 change in the setting of the larnyx, may take place without 

 being evident to the ear, though visible by the help of the laryn- 

 goscope. We may add one part of the training of a singing voice 

 consists in rendering the break, the transition from one register 

 to another, as little obvious to the ear as possible. 



It would be beyond the scope of this work to enter upon the 

 details of the several registers of the different kinds of voices, 

 beyond the little we have said touching the chest voice and head 

 voice ; these are matters of great difficulty subject to much con- 

 troversy, and indeed, as we have already said, observations tend 

 to shew that exactly the same disposition does not obtain for the 

 same register in all larynges; it seems probable that two larynges 

 may gain the same end by two different manoeuvres, may 

 produce the same kind of voice by different dispositions of the 

 larynx. In any case the subject is one of extreme complexity, and 

 we have ventured to dwell on it, even so long as we have, because 

 it affords a striking illustration of what we have more than once 

 insisted upon, the complicated character so often belonging to 

 the muscular contractions by which the animal body gains its 

 ends, and the delicately adjusted coordination of efferent nervous 

 impulses needed to secure for the effort a complete success. We 

 have so repeatedly, in previous parts of this work, insisted on 

 the importance of afferent impulses to the coordination of com- 

 plex movements that it is hardly necessary here to do more than 

 to point out that the connection of the use of the voice with 

 auditory sensations affords striking instances of the truth of 



