684 MUSIC 



cause a remarkable sensation of vibration in the chest which can be 

 physically felt by the hand of the performer, as well as heard by the 

 audience. Such notes are manly and grand in character. 



In the middle of the voice, immediately above the chest register, is 

 another series of notes usually termed the medium register. In these 

 notes the most characteristic sign of singing correctly is the extra- 

 ordinary sense of vibration of the air in the mouth, which seems to 

 strike the upper teeth. The notes of this series of sounds are distin- 

 guished by their brilliant and silvery quality. 



The third register is known as the head voice, by reason of the 

 sensation felt by the singer, and recognized likewise by the listener, 

 that the sound reverberates in the skull beyond the last upper teeth. 

 All the teeth that are shown when we smile must be shown when we 

 sing the head register. These head notes are characterized by a fluty 

 and bird-like character of surpassing loveliness. 



The first notes of all the registers are weak and a source of trouble 

 to the student, for the breath slips out until some experience is gained. 

 For this reason, instead of strengthening the lower, weak notes of 

 the medium register, the inclination of all singers is to hurry on 

 their studies by forcing up the chest notes when they ought to sing 

 medium, with the result that the men are said to shout or bawl, or 

 yell like the men in the streets, and the contraltos and sopranos force 

 up the chest notes and emit sounds like boys shouting to each other. 



Mezzo-sopranos and sopranos, moreover, are very prone to avoid the 

 cultivation of the head-notes altogether, and to force up the medium 

 register, with a sad result. It is no longer singing in a high sense, 

 it is not expressive of lovely feelings, pronunciation is impossible, and 

 the characteristic sound of the voice is described as screaming, screech- 

 ing ; whereas nothing in nature is more lovely and truly womanly than 

 the sound of the head voice. 



The registers so dovetail one into the other, or overlap one another, 

 that we can sing softly some notes in one register and repeat the same 

 notes loudly in another register. We can also commence a note p.p, 

 and swell it out to /./., and return to the softest p.p., but probably 

 not always with the same throat mechanism ; indeed, the achievement 

 of this was formerly considered the culminating effort of the singer, 

 and was termed the messa di voce. It is, however, as necessary to sing 

 with loose throat to do this as it is to join the notes in the legato 

 style. 



The trill was another of the accomplishments highly thought of as 

 proving the mastery of the vocal art. It is, perhaps, the most delight- 

 ful of all the embellishments of music. The trill is still used in piano- 

 forte and violin pieces, where it is still regarded as a worthy aid to 

 expression. Singers, however, finding its accomplishment beyond their 

 powers are wont to assume that, together with scales and passages, it ia 



