618 VOICE AND SPEECH. 



all 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 fal- 

 setto notes. The natural voice, which alone has been 

 hitherto considered, is fuller, and excites a distinct sensa- 

 tion 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 respec- 

 tive notes are produced. 



