VARIETIES OF LOCAL TONES. 617 



capable of singing, of modulating their voices through a 

 double series of notes of different character : namely, the 

 notes of the natural voice, or chest-notes, and the falsetto 

 notes. The natural voice, which alone has been hitherto 

 considered, is fuller, and excites a distinct sensation of much 

 stronger vibration and resonance than the falsetto voice, 

 which has more a flute -like character. The deeper notes 

 of the male voice can be produced only with the natural 

 voice, the highest with the falsetto only ; the notes of middle 

 pitch can be produced either with the natural or falsetto 

 voice ; the two registers of the voice are therefore not 

 limited in such a manner as that one ends when the other 

 begins, but they run in part side by side. 



The natural, or chest-notes, are produced by the ordinary 

 vibrations of the vocal cords. The mode of production of 

 the falsetto notes is still obscure. By Miiller they are 

 thought to be due to vibrations of only the inner borders 

 of the vocal cords. In the opinion of Petrequin and 

 Diday, they do not result from vibrations of the vocal cords 

 at all, but from vibrations of the air passing through the 

 aperture of the glottis, which they believe assumes, at 

 such times, the contour of the embouchure of a flute. Others 

 (considering some degree of similarity which exists between 

 the falsetto notes, and the peculiar tones called harmonic, 

 which are produced when, by touching or stopping a harp- 

 string at a particular point, only a portion of its length is 

 allowed to vibrate) have supposed that, in the falsetto notes, 

 portions of the vocal ligaments are thus isolated, and 

 made to vibrate while the rest are held still. The question 

 cannot yet be settled ; but any one in the habit of singing 

 may assure himself, both by the difficulty of passing 

 smoothly from one set of notes to the other, and by the 

 necessity of exercising himself in both registers, lest he 

 should become very deficient in one, that there must be 

 some great difference in the modes in which their respective 

 notes are produced. 



