MOVEMENTS OF THE GLOTTIS DURING PHONATION 441 



In some organs these summits are a little vacillating 

 when they form the posterior end of the glottis, and two 

 or three half-tones which are formed show a certain want 

 of purity and strength, which is very well known to singers. From 

 the vibrations, having become rounder and purer, are 



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=4=3, accomplished by the vocal ligaments alone, up to the end 

 of the register. 



" The glottis at this moment presents the aspect of a line swelled 

 toward its middle, the length of which diminishes still more as the voice 

 ascends. We shall also see that the cavity of the larynx has become 

 very small, and that the superior ligaments have contracted the extent 

 of the ellipse to less than one-half." 



These observations have been in the main confirmed by Battaille, 

 Emma Seiler and others who have applied the laryngoscope to the 

 study of the voice in singing. 



In childhood the general characters of the voice are essentially the 

 same in both sexes. The larynx is smaller than in the adult and the 

 vocal muscles are more feeble ; but the quality of the vocal sounds at 

 this period of life is peculiarly penetrating. While there are certain 

 characters that distinguish the voices of boys before the age of puberty, 

 they present, as in .the female, the different qualities of soprano and 

 contralto. After the age of puberty, the female voice does not undergo 

 any very marked change, except in the development of additional 

 strength and extended 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 a different quality. This change 

 usually is arrested if castration is performed in early life ; and this 

 operation was frequently resorted to in the seventeenth century and 

 earlier, for the purpose of preserving the qualities of the male soprano 

 and contralto, particularly for church-music. It is only of late years, 

 indeed, that the practice of castration has fallen into disuse in Italy. 



The extreme range of all kinds of the human voice taken together 

 is 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. 

 In music the notes are written the same for the male as for the female 

 voice, but the value of the female notes, as reckoned by the number 

 of vibrations in a second, is an octave higher than in 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 mis- 

 take. The different voices in the male are the bass, the tenor, and an 

 intermediate voice called the barytone. The female voices are the con- 



