448 VOICE AND SPEECH 



The mechanism of the lower medium and upper medium in females 

 does not radically differ from the mechanism of the chest-voice. In 

 these registers the arytenoid cartilages become more and more closely 

 approximated to each other as the voice ascends in the scale until, in 

 the higher notes, they probably are firmly in apposition. It is probable 

 that the vocal chords alone vibrate in the lower and upper medium, 

 while the apophyses of the arytenoid cartilages participate in the 

 vibrations in the female chest-voice. 



The vocal chords are much shorter in the female than in the male. 

 The average length in the male is about -J of an inch (22 millimeters) 

 and in the female, about f of an inch (17 millimeters). If the chords 

 alone vibrate, without the apophyses of the arytenoid cartilages, the 

 difference in length would account for the differences in pitch of the 

 voice in the sexes. The tenor can not sing above the chest-range of 

 the female voice without passing into the falsetto, to produce which 

 he must actually shorten his vocal chords so that they are as short or 

 shorter than the vocal chords of the female. This is shown by the 

 scale of range of the different voices compared with the length of the 

 vocal chords ; and this idea is sustained still further by a comparison 

 of "the larynx during falsetto production" (Fig. 95). In the male 

 falsetto, produced by this shortening of the vocal chords, the more 

 nearly the resonant cavities are made to resemble, in form and capacity, 

 the corresponding cavities in the female, the more closely will the quality 

 of the female voice be imitated. It is probable that the vocal bands in 

 the female present a thinner and narrower vibrating edge than the 

 chords in the male, although there are no exact anatomical observations 

 on this point. This, however, would account for the clear quality of the 

 upper registers of the female voice as compared with the male voice or 

 with the female chest-register. Analogous differences exist in reed- 

 instruments, such as the clarinet and the bassoon. This comparison 

 of the female upper registers with the male falsetto does not necessarily 

 imply a similarity in the mechanism of their production, as is assumed 

 by some writers. In the female lower and upper medium registers, 

 the vocal chords vibrate in their entire length ; in the male falsetto, 

 the chords are shortened so that they are approximated in length to the 

 length of the chords in the female. 



To reduce to brief statements the views just expressed, based partly 

 on laryngoscopic examinations that are far from complete by a 

 number of competent observers, -the following may be given as the 

 mechanism of the vocal registers in the female, taking no account 

 of the changes in form and capacity of the resonant cavities : 



i. The chest-voice is produced by "large and loose vibrations" 



