556 VOICE AND SPEECH. 



of the soprano and contralto. At this age the voices of boys are capable of considerable 

 cultivation, and their peculiar quality is sometimes highly prized in church-music. After 

 the age of puberty, the female voice does not commonly undergo any very marked 

 change, except in the development of additional strength and increased compass, the 

 quality remaining the same ; but in the male there is a rapid change at this time in the 

 development of the larynx, and the voice assumes an entirely different quality of tone. 

 This change does not usually take place if castration be performed in early life ; and this 

 operation was frequently resorted to in the seventeenth century, for the purpose of pre- 

 serving the qualities of the soprano and contralto, particularly for church -music. It 

 is only of late years, indeed, that this practice has fallen into disuse in Italy. 



The ordinary range of all varieties of the human voice is given by Miiller as equal to 

 nearly four octaves; but it is rare that any single voice has a compass of more than two 

 and a half octaves. There are examples, however, in which singers have acquired a 

 compass of three octaves and even more. The celebrated singer, Mme. Parepa-Kosa, 

 had a compass of voice that touches three full octaves, from sola to sols. In music, the 

 notes are written the same for the male as for the female voice, but the actual value of 

 the female notes, as reckoned by the number of vibrations in a second, is always an 

 octave higher than the male. 



In both sexes there are differences, both in the range and the quality of the voice, 

 which it is impossible for a cultivated musical ear to mistake. In the male, we have the 

 bass and the tenor, with an intermediate voice, called the barytone. In the female, we 

 have the contralto and the soprano, with the intermediate, or mezzo-soprano. In the 

 bass and barytone, the lower and middle notes are the most natural and perfect ; and, 

 while the higher notes may be acquired by cultivation, they are not easy and do not pos- 

 sess the same quality as the corresponding notes of the tenor. The same remarks apply 

 to the contralto and soprano. The mezzo-soprano is regarded by many as an artificial 

 division. 



The following scale, proposed by Millier, gives the ordinary rnnges of the different 

 kinds of voice ; but it must be remembered that there are individual instances in which 

 these limits are very much exceeded : 



r 



CONTRALTO 



mi fa sol la si do re mi fa sol la si do re mi fa sol la si do re mi fa sol la si do 

 1111122 22 2223383 333 44 44 4445 



la si d( 



There is really no great difference in the mechanism of the different kinds of voice, 

 and the differences in pitch are due chiefly to the greater length of the vocal chords in 

 the low-pitched voices and to their shortness in the higher voices. The differences in 

 quality are due to peculiarities in the conformation of the larynx, to differences in its 

 size, and to variations in the size and form of the auxiliary resonant cavities. Great 

 changes in the quality of the voice may be effected by practice. A cultivated note, for 

 example, has an entirely different sound from a harsh, irregular vibration ; and, by prac- 

 tice, a tenor may imitate the quality of the bass, and vice versa, although the effort is 

 unnatural. It is not at all unusual to hear male singers imitate very closely the notes of 

 the female, and the contralto will sometimes imitate the voice of the tenor in a sur- 

 prisingly natural manner. These facts have a somewhat important bearing upon certain 

 disputed points with regard to the mechanism of the different vocal registers, which will 

 be considered farther on. 



Action of the Intrinsic Muscles of the Larynx in Phonation. It is much more diffi- 



