T230 



ON VOCAL SOUNDS. 



Boy, tet 12, singing aa. 



Pitch 12 3 4 5 6 Partials. 



tf 384 vibs. 1 1'jSS 2'67 0"45 017 0"06 

 c" 640 ,, 1 8-09 1-45 0-53 



Dr. Lloyd has examined these figures and supplied the writer with 

 the following table : — 



A study of these figures will show (1) that the man's resonance rises 

 slightly (half semitone) in ascending 7 semitones in the middle of his 

 register ; (2) that the boy's resonance rises 3 semitones in ascending 9 

 semitones in the upper half of his register ; and in the mid-register the 

 boy's resonance is to the man's as 5 : 4. This indicates that, as we ascend 

 a scale in singing a vowel, the pitch of the oral cavity slightly changes. 



Lloyd holds a view differing from those already described. Vowels, 

 according to him, owe their character, not to the resonance of a partial 

 or partials of a certain fixed pitch, but to the relative pitch of two or 

 more partials. This view accounts for a fact which is not explained by 

 the other theories, namely, that the articulation of a vowel seems to be 

 the same for a child as for an adult. Thus, in the vowel A as in " fat," 

 sung on a note having a pitch of 134 v. d., Lloyd finds two partials, the 

 lower of which he terms the pharyngeal or a-resonance, and the other 

 the oral or ^-resonance. Of these the lower, for A in " fat " has a vibra- 

 tional number of 736, while the upper has 1121. The ratio of these 



1121 



two partials is therefore — -— = 1-47. This is termed by Lloyd the 



radical ratio, and it determines the nature of the vowel. Again, the 

 radical ratio of the Swedish long A is 1*35. 



The following curves were sent to the writers by Dr. Boeke. They are the 

 curves, taken by Boeke's method, of the vowel A (as in " fat "), sung by 

 M'Kendrick, Pipping, Boeke, and Hermann on a pitch of ut 2 = 128 v. d., and 

 ut s = 256 v. d., and are instructive as showing the same vowel sung on the 

 same pitch by men of different nationalities. The results of harmonic analysis 

 giving, in plotted lines, the amplitude of the partials, are shown graphically in 

 Fig. 444. The numerals at the beginning of each line in Figs. 443 and 444 

 correspond. In Fig. 444 the dots represent partials, and the height of the 

 dot above the mean represents the amplitude of the corresponding partial. 

 There is a likeness between the Ac of M'Kendrick and Pipping, and also be- 

 tween M'Kendrick's Ac' and Boeke's Ac', both in form and analysis. 



Lloyd, in support of his view of a cleavage in the reinforcements, which is 



1 V. D. =a double vibration, or, as expressed in England, a complete vibration. 



