446 VOICE AND SPEECH 



3. The falsetto-register. By the use of this register the male may 

 imitate the voice of the female. Its quality is different from that of 

 the chest-voice, and the transition from the chest to falsetto usually is 

 abrupt and quite marked. It may be called an unnatural voice in the 

 male ; still, by careful cultivation, the transition may be made almost 

 imperceptibly. The falsetto never has the power and resonance of 

 the full chest-voice. It resembles the head-voice, but every good singer 

 can recognize the fact that he employs a different mechanism in its 

 production. 



Applying an analogous method of analysis to the female voice, the 

 natural registers seem to be the following : 



1. The chest-register. This register is the 

 same in the female as in the male. 



2. The lower medium register, usually called 

 the medium. This is the register commonly 

 used by females in speaking. 



3. The upper medium register. This is 

 sometimes called the head-register and is 



Fig. ^.Appearance of the thought by some to be produced by precisely 

 vocal chords in the product t o n of the same mec hanism as the falsetto-register in 



the chest-voice (Mandl). 



the male. It has, however, a vibrant quality, is 

 full and powerful and is not an unnatural voice like the male falsetto. 



4. The true head-register. This is the pure tone, without much 

 vibrant quality, that seems analogous to the male falsetto. 



Vocal Registers in the Male. According to the division and defi- 

 nitions just given of the vocal registers, in the male voice there is but 

 one natural register, extending from the lowest note of the bass to the 

 falsetto, and this is the chest-register. In the low notes, the vocal 

 chords vibrate and the arytenoid cartilages participate in this vibration 

 to a greater or less extent. In the low notes, also, the larynx is open ; 

 that is, the arytenoid cartilages do not touch each other. As the notes 

 are raised in pitch, the arytenoid cartilages are approximated more and 

 more closely, and they touch each other in the highest notes, the vocal 

 chords alone vibrating. It is probable that the degree of approximation 

 of the arytenoid cartilages is different in different singers and that the 

 part of the musical scale at which they actually touch is not invariable. 



What has been called, in this classification, the head-register of the 

 male, is not a full round voice, but the notes are more or less sotto voce. 

 This peculiar quality of voice does not seem to have been made the 

 subject of laryngoscopic investigation. It has a vibrant character, that 

 is modified by peculiar action of the resonant cavities, which latter has 

 not been described. It is not probable that its mechanism differs essen- 



