CHAPTER VII.
MUTATION OF THE VOICE.
The anatomical and physiological changes which occur in the larynx at puberty have been described in the chapter on "Physiology of the Voice." It may be added that at this period the resonance cavities also undergo considerable alteration in size and form.
As childhood is left behind the individual emerges. Divergences in face, in form and in mental characteristics become emphasized. The traits of race and family are manifested and self-consciousness becomes more acute. This period of development, bringing as it does so much disturbance to the vocal organs, is particularly inimical to singing; and yet public school music is expected to produce its most elaborate results in those grades where the pupils are just about to enter, or are passing through this period of rapid growth and change. The singing in such grades may be discussed with reference first to the singing of girls and then to that of boys.
The vocal organs of girls often develop so gradually in size, and with so little congestion of the laryngeal substance, that no aversion is manifested to singing. In other cases the inflamed condition of the vocal organs is shown by the hoarseness which follows their use, and the huskiness of the singing-tone. The voices of nearly all during the mutation period show more volume of tone on the lower tones and evidences of strain at the higher tones.
It is a good plan to put girls who show throat-weakness, characteristic of their age, upon that part which requires only a medium range of tones, and to repress all inclination to force and push the voice. The desire which girls often express to sing the upper soprano need not affect the teacher to any great extent. A multitude of strong and constantly-shifting ambitions are thronging through their minds. Some wish to sing the highest part because it seems to them to be the most prominent part; some wish to sing it because they can do so with the least mental effort, and so on. These whims and wishes must be treated tactfully, but if the teacher is sure that a certain course is right, there is no alternative but to carry it out, with as little friction as may be. Large voices, that is, voices that proceed from large resonance cavities, are often badly strained at this period of life by too loud and too high singing. It must not for a moment be forgotten that the age is a critical one for vocal effort, and a strain that the adult woman's voice will endure with apparent impunity may produce lasting evil effects on the voice of a girl of from fourteen to sixteen years of age.
If the requirements of the music are such that pitches above F, the fifth line G clef, must be occasionally sung, let the voices upon the part sing lightly. If some of the girls are put upon the lower of three parts, do not let them use the chest-voice, which is just beginning to develop, otherwise than lightly also.
The boy's voice may change from the soprano to a light bass of eight or twelve tones in compass in a few months, or the change may extend over two or three years; that is, two or three years may elapse after the first distinct break before there is any certainty of vocal action in the newly-acquired compass. When the voice changes rapidly, all singing should be stopped. Really, in such cases, boys cannot sing even if they attempt to do so.
They are so hoarse, and the pitch alternates so unexpectedly between an "unearthly treble and a preternatural bass" that a boy can usually sing only in monotone, if, with courage proof against the ridicule occasioned by his uncontrollable vocal antics, he tries to join in. In those cases, where the larynx undergoes a slow change in growth, it is often possible for the boy to sing all through the period of change. The upper tones may be lost, while there is a corresponding gain of lower tones. This process, in many cases, goes on slowly and with so little active congestion of the larynx that the voice changes from soprano to alto, and thence to tenor almost imperceptibly. Voices which change in this way often become tenor, but not invariably.
The question now arises, Should those boys who can sing while the voice is breaking be required to take part in school singing exercises?
In Browne and Behnke's work, "The Child Voice," to which allusion has been made, there is given a resume of 152 replies to the question: Have you ever known of boys being made to sing through the period of puberty, and, if so, with what result?
The answers were:
Forty correspondents have no knowledge.
Five think the voice is improved by the experiment.
Ten quote _solitary instances_ where no harm has arisen.
Ten know of the experiment having been made, and consider it has caused no harm to the voice.
Eight mention results so variable as to admit of no conclusion.
Seventy-nine say the experiment causes _certain injury_, deterioration or ruin to the after voice, and of this number ten observe that they have suffered disastrous effects _in their own person_.
These answers were from English choirmasters, organists, music teachers, singers, etc. It will be noticed that only fifteen of those who give a positive opinion upon the subject think that boys can sing through the period of break safely; while seventy-nine are positive that the result is unsafe. The other replies are vague.
It must be remembered that many of the opinions are those of instructors in cathedral schools, where one or two rehearsals and a daily church service means a great deal of singing; while other answers come from choirmasters who require of their boys equally hard work, though less in quantity.
Every individual voice must be judged by itself, if such demands as choir-singing are made upon it; and, while there are some cases, as every choirmaster will probably agree, where no perceptible injury results from singing during the change, the rule is that even when possible, it is very unsafe.
But the daily time given to singing in schools is very short; the work bears no comparison with choir-singing. It might almost be thought as necessary to forbid reading and talking during the break of voice as to forbid its use in a daily drill of fifteen or twenty minutes in singing.
Certainly it is absurd to advocate entire non-use of the voice at this period in either speech or song. It is rather correct to guard against its misuse. If boys have up to this time used only the thick register, they will in singing through the break intensify their bad habits; throatiness, harshness, nasality will become chronic. This would be bad enough, but each bad vocal habit results from the abnormal use of the vocal organs, and occasions hoarseness, chronic sore throat, catarrh, etc.
It is quite customary in school music to assign the boys to the lower part, in part music. This practice continued from the time part-singing begins in the music course, compels the boys to use the thick register. As the larynx gains in firmness from year to year, they experience more and more difficulty with their upper tones-- those lying from F to C. Having used only the thick voice in all their school singing, they know of no other, and very likely consider the thin voice which they are now obliged to use in singing the higher tones as altogether too girlish for the prospective heirs of manly bass tones.
The reluctance of boys to sing the soprano would be amusing were it not, in the light of utterly false training, so pitiful.
School music is educational; its scope is controlled by those in charge. The public expects good educational, rather than show work, and employs those to supervise and teach who are supposed to know what good educational work is in vocal music.
The supposition that children's voices can, owing to individual differences analogous to those existing among adults, be divided into alto and soprano voices, is erroneous; children can most assuredly sing in parts, but the quality of tone which in the woman's voice is called alto or contralto cannot be secured for certain physical reasons previously explained; and the use of the chest-tone, which resembles the adult woman's chest-voice as a clarinet resembles a viola, is wholly objectionable.
If, however, the voices have been trained in the use of the thin register only, the management of the boy's voice during the change is simplified; the influence of good vocal habits will be felt; the vocal bands which have never been strained will respond when their condition admits of tone-production. The boy who has been accustomed to sing with an easy action of the vocal ligaments and with open throat will at once become conscious of any unusual strain or wrong adjustment in the vocal organs. If he has learned to sing well, he has also learned not to sing badly.
The test to apply to the subject of boys' singing in school during the break may be: Can they sing without strain or push? Can they sing easily, or does it hurt? There is a certain amount of humbug in boys that must be allowed for, but it does not affect calculations as to their singing-powers more than upon their other abilities, if singing is well taught.
The speaking-voice also indicates the state of the vocal organs, and shows the effect of the break sooner than does the singing-voice. If the tones in speech are steady in pitch, singing is possible in all probability. If, on the contrary, the speaking-voice is croaky and wavering, singing is difficult, if not impossible. As the object of the study of vocal music in the public schools, in so far as it relates to the treatment of the voice, is to develop good vocal habits, not bad ones, it follows that if boys sing during the break it must be only upon those tones which lie within their compass at any time, and that the vocal organs must be used lightly, and without strain.
In nearly every upper grade room there will be a percentage of boys whose voices are in a transition stage, some of whom can sing and others of whom cannot. It requires judgment and tact to handle these voices, but if boys have sung as they should up to this period, and have taken pleasure in it, the mutual good understanding between them and their teacher need not be disturbed. They are likely to do their best.
In this connection it should be said, that really it may be doubted if the common practice of assigning all boys, whose voices show signs of breaking, to the bass part, is right.
If boys have been kept upon the lower part, in all part singing and have never used other than the thick chest voice, then, when the voice begins to break up, it may be that they must sing bass or not sing at all. Boys trained in this way have never used the soprano head register and so if they sing alto, it will be with the thick chest voice of boyhood, which will now be the upper tones of the developing man's voice.
Singing alto at the mutation period in _this_ manner, strains the vocal bands beyond reason, and should not under any circumstances be allowed. It must be understood then in what follows, that singing alto in this, the chest voice, either before or during the break, is unqualifiedly condemned.
But we will suppose now that boys have been permitted to sing only in the head register, that they have been assigned to the upper part in part singing, for notwithstanding that usage is to the contrary, this is what should be done. As has already been suggested the voices of girls change less, and at a younger age than do boys, and they begin to show weight of tone and increased volume, at an age when boys are at their best as sopranos. Girls at this period should sing the middle and lower parts, but it must be said in passing that much of the music contained in our text-books ranges too low in pitch for them, or any voice except a low contralto or a tenor. They must not be permitted to use their voices at full strength, and special care should be taken of those who at this age show hoarseness. With girls as with boys, the change is accompanied with periods of great relaxation of the vocal bands, and during these periods the singing tone is either very light, or very loud.
Returning to the subject of treatment of boys' voices during mutation, and premising that they have sung only in the head voice during childhood, the question arises whether they are not in many cases set to singing bass prematurely. It is obvious that during this period the voice is actually _broken_, divided in two. The lower notes are produced in the chest or man's register, while more or less of the boy's voice remains as upper tones. These tones, by the way, never are lost, they remain as the falsetto or head voice of the man.
Now the vibratory action of the vocal ligaments is much larger for the chest voice than for the head, or as we ordinarily call it, the falsetto. There is then no question that during mutation a boy can confine himself to the use of his old voice, or so much of it as is available at any time with very little strain. The tone will be light, in fact, during the active periods of laryngeal growth which characterize mutation, there will perhaps be no voice at all, owing to the congestion of the parts, but in the periods of rest separating the periods of growth, the vocal bands will respond. The compass of the head voice at this time varies largely, but it corresponds pretty closely to that of the second soprano, in three part exercises, or from C to C. If it is attempted to carry the voice down it changes to the chest register unless used very lightly.
Without attempting then to lay down positive rules for treating a voice which consists of fragments of voices, the above suggestions are made in the hope that they may receive the consideration of teachers and musicians.