DIAPASON OF VOICES. 245 



singing in this tone : though M. Segond has occasionally seen 

 the larynx as high as possible when this voice was produced. 

 This voice seems to depend on the narrowing of the buccal 

 orifice and the isthmus of the throat, coincident with as 

 great 'a dilatation of the mouth as possible, a disposition 

 which mufiles and veils the resonance of the sound in the 

 cavities of the pharynx and vocal tube. If in singing the 

 letter a, with the mouth wide open, the lips be made slowly 

 to approach each other, and pressing them together without 

 extending them, the sound passes from the clear to the 

 muffled tone, and the vowel a sounds like o. This move- 

 ment of the lips was very apparent in Mademoiselle Giulia 

 Grisi in certain high notes, but even her admirable voice was 

 insufficient to make us pardon her for thus marring features 

 worthy the pencil of Raphael. 



Diapason of voices. Male voices are divided into bass, 

 baritone, or singing bass, and tenor. The voices of women 

 are the contralto, which corresponds to the baritone, mezzo- 

 soprano, and soprano. The extreme limits of these voices are, 

 for the base the G below the CC; for the soprano, the 

 F in alt. or the F of the last octave but one of the piano.' 

 Mozart heard a singer at Parma who gave the C above. 

 Ordinary voices do not go beyond two octaves, but celebrated 

 artists have compassed three and even three and a half 

 octaves. 



Fortunately the prodigious compass of such a voice is not 

 necessary to entrance a real lover of music. The artist is 

 always sure to triumph when to correct intonation he joins 

 sympathetic quality, and, what is rare, that good taste which 

 will not permit him to sacrifice the expression and the charac- 

 ter of the music to a desire to shine. 



Instrumental music awakens in us the most profound 

 emotions; we are transported by Baillot's violin or the 

 orchestra of the Conservatory, but no instrument can equal 

 the impression produced by a beautiful voice; no instrument 

 can pretend to those sounds, soft or sharp, passionate or 

 purely peaceful; none has that variety in quality, those 

 accents which fascinate us and plunge us into ecstasy. In- 

 struments and their voices are prodigies of art, but the human 



