450 VOICE AND SPEECH 



abruptly, unless the latter method be required to produce a legitimate 

 effect of contrast. 



Even in singing identical notes, there are distinctly-recognizable dif- 

 ferences in quality between the bass, barytone and tenor, and between 

 the contralto, mezzo and soprano. For the female these may be com- 

 pared to the differences in identical notes played on different strings of 

 the violin. For the male, they may be compared to the qualities of the 

 different strings of the cello. Falsetto-notes may be compared to har- 

 monics produced on these instruments. 



These ideas in regard to the mechanism of the different vocal reg- 

 isters have resulted from a study of these registers, first from an aesthetic 

 point of view ; and endeavoring then to find explanations of different 

 qualities of sound appreciated by the ear, in laryngoscopic and other 

 scientific observations ; not by reasoning from scientific observations 

 as to what effects on the ear should be produced by certain acts per- 

 formed by the vocal organs. It may be stated, in this connection, that 

 the works of Bach, Beethoven and other old masters were composed 

 exactly in accordance with purely physical laws, long before these laws 

 were ascertained and defined, as has been done by Helmholtz and 

 others. 



MECHANISM OF SPEECH 



Articulate language consists of a conventional series of sounds made 

 for the purpose of conveying certain ideas. There being no universal 

 language, it will be necessary to confine the description of speech to the 

 language in which this work is written. Language, as it is naturally 

 acquired, is purely imitative and does not involve of necessity the con- 

 struction of an alphabet with its combinations into syllables, words and 

 sentences ; but as civilization has advanced, certain differences in the 

 accuracy and elegance with which ideas are expressed have become 

 associated with the degree of development and cultivation of intellectual 

 faculties. Philologists have long since established a certain standard 

 varying, to some extent, with usage and the advance of knowledge, but 

 still sufficiently definite by which the correctness of modes of expres- 

 sion is measured. It is not proposed to discuss the science of language, 

 or to consider, in this connection at least, the peculiar mental operations 

 concerned in the expression of ideas, but to take the language as it exists 

 and to describe briefly the mechanism of the production of the most 

 important articulate sounds. 



Almost every language is imperfect, so far as an exact correspond- 

 ence between its sounds and written characters is concerned. The Eng- 

 lish language is full of incongruities in spelling, such as silent letters and 



