VOCAL REGISTERS. 559 



the lower notes being almost always feeble and wanting in roundness. Corresponding 

 peculiarities enable us to distinguish between the contralto and the soprano. 



Chest- Register. "We shall simply recapitulate briefly the mechanism of the chest- 

 notes, to enable us to study more easily the transitions to the different upper registers. 

 This is the voice commonly used in speaking, and it is the most natural, the vocal liga- 

 ments vibrating according to their tension, as the air is forced through the larynx from 

 the chest, and the air in the pharynx, mouth, and nasal fossas producing a resonance 

 without any artificial division of the different cavities. As the notes are elevated, the 

 vocal chords are simply rendered more tense, and the parts above the larynx are more 

 or less constricted, without any other change in the mechanism of the sound. But the 

 chest-voice in the male cannot pass certain well-defined limits ; and in the very highest 

 notes it must be merged either into the head-voice or the falsetto. The falsetto, how- 

 ever, is now but little cultivated, although some tenor singers, after long practice, succeed 

 in making the change from one register to the other so nicely that it is hardly perceptible, 

 even to a cultivated ear. The head-voice has essentially the same mechanism in the 

 male as in the female, and this will be considered after we have discussed the falsetto, 

 which is the natural voice of soprano singers. 



Falsetto Register. The difference of opinion among laryngoscopists with regard to 

 the mechanism of the falsetto is probably in great part due to the fact that, when these 

 notes are produced, the isthmus of the fauces is so powerfully contracted that it becomes 

 exceedingly difficult to study the action of the vocal chords. There is no reason for sup- 

 posing that the mechanism of this register does not involve vibration of the true vocal 

 chords, as in the chest-voice, the difference being in the tension and in the extent of the 

 vibrating portion. According to the observations of Fournie, in the falsetto the tongue 

 is pressed strongly backward and the epiglottis is forced over the larynx. Mrs. Emma 

 Seller, from an extended series of autolaryngoscopic observations, has arrived at the con- 

 clusion that this voice involves vibrations of the fine, thin edges of the chords only, a 

 greater width vibrating in the production of the chest-voice. She is particularly careful 

 to insist upon the distinction between the falsetto and the head-register, the latter being 

 produced by an entirely different mechanism. On the whole, this explanation seems to 

 be the most satisfactory. 



It must be remembered that the distinction between the chest-register or the head- 

 register and the falsetto, as far as pitch is concerned, is not absolute. Certain of the high 

 notes of the chest or the head-voice, for example, may be produced in the falsetto. In 

 the cultivation of the female voice, Mrs. Seiler considers that it is exceedingly important 

 not to strain the chest-voice to its highest point, but to use each register in its normal 

 place in the scale, taking care, by practice, to render the transition from one to the other 

 natural and agreeable. We have heard male singers, probably endowed with peculiar 

 vocal powers, who were able, by the use of the falsetto, to imitate almost exactly the 

 soprano voice, though without the sweetness and purity of tone characteristic of the per* 

 feet female organ. In the same way, by straining the chest-voice beyond its normal 

 limits, some females, particularly contraltos, are able to produce a very good imitation 

 of the tenor quality. 



Head- Register. This voice is highly cultivated, particularly in tenors and in the best 

 female singers. It is not to be confounded, however, with the falsetto, as was done by 

 some physiologists before the invention of the laryngoscope. Head-notes may be pro- 

 duced by cultivated male singers, bass and barytone, as well as tenor ; but the former 

 seldom have occasion for any but the chest-notes. Still, there are musical passages in 

 which the sotto-voce head-notes of the bass have an exquisite softness and are used with 

 great effect. We have already stated 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. If this be its mechanism, its study with the laryngo- 

 scope must be exceedingly difficult. 



