Chapter 2

REGISTERS OF THE VOICE.

It may be observed, in listening to an ascending series of tones sung by an untrained or by a badly-trained adult voice, that at certain pitches the tone-quality undergoes a radical change; while a well-trained singer will sing the same series of tones without showing any appreciable break or change in tone-quality, although the highest note will present a marked contrast in timbre to the lowest. The breaks or changes in register so noticeable in the untrained voice are covered or equalized in the voice trained by correct methods. These breaks in both male and female voices occur at certain pitches where the tone-producing mechanism of the larynx changes action, and brings the vocal bands into a new vibratory form. "A register consists of a series of tones produced by the same mechanism."-- Emil Behnke in "Voice, Song, and Speech." G. Edward Stubbs, in commenting upon the above definition, says:

"By mechanism is meant the action of the larynx which produces _different sets of vibrations_, and by register is meant the range of voice confined to a given set of vibrations. In passing the voice from one register to another, the larynx changes its mechanism and calls into play a different form of vibration."

The number of vocal registers, or vibratory forms, which the vocal bands assume, is still a matter of dispute, and their nomenclature is equally unsettled. The old Italian singing-masters gave names to parts of the vocal compass corresponding to the real or imaginary bodily sensations experienced in singing them; as chest-voice, throat-voice, head-voice. Madame Seiler, in "The Voice in Singing," gives as the result of original investigations with the laryngoscope five different actions of the vocal bands which she classifies as "first and second series of the chest-register," "first and second series of the falsetto register" and "head-register." Browne and Behnke, in "Voice, Song, and Speech," divide the male voice into three registers, and the female into five. They are termed "lower thick," "upper thick," "lower thin," "upper thin" and "small." Other writers speak of three registers, "chest," "medium" and "head," and still others of two only, viz., the chest and the head.

Modern research has shown what was after all understood before, that, if the vibratory form assumed by the vocal bands for the natural production of a certain set of tones is pushed by muscular exertion above the point where it should cease, inflammation and weakening of the vocal organs will result, while voice-deterioration is sure to follow. A physiological basis has reinforced the empirical deductions of the old Italian school. In dealing with children's voices, it is necessary to recognize only two registers, the thick, or chest-register, and the thin, or head-register. Further subdivisions will only complicate the subject without assisting in the practical management of their voices. Tones sung in the thick or chest-register are produced by the full, free vibration of the vocal bands in their entire length, breadth and thickness. The tones of the thin or head-register result from the vibration of the vocal bands along their inner edges alone.

We may then conclude from the foregoing that _children up to the age of puberty, at least in class or chorus singing, should use the thin or head-register only_.

1st. It is from a physiological standpoint entirely safe. The use of this register will not strain or overwork the delicate vocal organs of childhood.

2d. Its tones are musical, pure and sweet, and their use promotes the growth of musical sensibility and an appreciation of beauty in tone.

3d. The use of the thick or chest-voice in class-singing is dangerous. It is wellnigh impossible to confine it within proper limits.

It is unnecessary to discuss the second point. Anyone who has noted the contrast between the harsh quality of tone emitted from childish throats when using the chest-voice, and the pure, flute-like sound produced when the head-tones are sung will agree that the last is music and the first noise, or at any rate very noisy, barbaric music.

The third point, if true, establishes the first, for, if the chest-voice cannot be safely used, it follows that children must use the head-register or stop singing. It must be said, before proceeding further, that it is not denied that the thick voice can be used by children without injury, if properly managed; that is, if the singing be not too loud, and if it be not carried too high. It is also fully recognized, that, when theoretically the head-voice alone is used, it yet, when carried to the lower tones, insensibly blends into the thick register; but if this equalization of registers is obtained so completely that no perceptible difference in quality of voice can be observed, why then the whole compass is practically the thin or head-register.

Now, can the thick voice be used in school-singing, and confined to the lower notes? And is it fairly easy to secure soft and pure vocalizations in this register? Let the experience of thousands of teachers in the public schools of this and other lands answer the last question.

It would be as easy to stop the growth of the average boy with a word, or to persuade a crowd of youngsters to speak softly at a game of baseball, as to induce them, or girls either for that matter, to use the voice gently, when singing with that register in which it is possible to push the tone and shout.

There should be some good physiological reason for the habitual recourse to the strident chest-voice so common with boys, and nearly as usual with girls. And there is a good reason. It is _lack of rigidity in the voice-box or larynx_. Its cartilages harden slowly, and even just before the age of puberty the larynx falls far short of the firmness and rigidity of structure, that characterize the organ in adult life. It is physically very difficult for the adult to force the chest-voice beyond its natural limits, which become fixed when full maturity of bodily development is reached, but the child, whose laryngeal cartilages are far more flexible, and move toward and upon each other with greater freedom, can force the chest-voice up with great ease. The altitude of pitch which is attained before breaking into the thin register is with young children regulated by the amount of muscular exertion they put forth. Even up to the change of voice, boys can often force the thick register several notes higher than women sopranos.

It must be borne in mind that the thick voice is produced by the full, free vibrations of the vocal bands in their entire length, breadth and thickness.

Imagine children six years of age carrying tones formed in this manner to the extreme limit of their voice; yet they do it. The tone of infant classes in Sunday-schools, and the tone of the primary schools, as they sing their morning hymns or songs for recreation, is produced in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand in exactly the way set forth. If the vocal bands of children were less elastic, if they were composed of stronger fibres, and protected from undue exertion by firm connecting cartilage; in short, if children were not children, such forcing would not be possible. If it were not for the wonderful recuperative power of childhood, serious effects would follow such vocal habits.

We are now prepared to understand that common phenomenon of the child-voice, termed the "movable break." Every public school teacher who has had experience in teaching singing must be familiar with the meaning of the term, though possibly unaware of it. Allusion has already been made to the fact that, in primary grades, the thick quality, if permitted, will be carried as high as the children sing, to

[Music: e'']

for example. If they are required to sing the higher tones lightly, then the three or four tones, just below the pitch indicated, will be sung in a thin quality of voice. The place of the break or the absence of any break at all will depend upon the degree of loudness permitted.

Pass now to a grade in which the pupils average eleven years of age. These can use the thick tones as high as

[Music: d'' e'']

only with great exertion, and, if required to sing softly, will pass into the thin register at a lower pitch than the primary class. Now, go to a room where the children range in age from thirteen to fifteen years. The girls will still use thick tones up to

[Music: b' c'' d'']

The pitch at which the break occurs will vary in individual cases according to physique or ambition to sing well; but the boys (excluding those whose voices have begun to break) will manifest the utmost repugnance to singing the higher notes. "Can't sing high" will be the reply when you ask them why they do not sing. And they are correct. They cannot, not with the thick voice. Even when putting forth considerable exertion, they will pass to the thin voice at

[Music: g' {or} a']

and lower, if they sing softly. This phenomenon, then, is the "movable break" of the child-voice. The pitch at which the child-voice passes from the thick to the thin voice depends first upon the age; second, upon the amount of physical energy employed, and third, upon the bodily vigor of the child.

It may also be added that boys' voices break lower than girls' during the year or two preceding change of voice. When, now, it is remembered that the adult female voice leaves the chest-register at

[Music: f' f#']

it will be admitted by everyone who has had actual experience in class singing in schools or elsewhere, that the facts set forth in reference to the ability of the child to carry the thick voice from one to eight tones higher than the adult, has a very important bearing on the subject of training children's voices.

But, is it physically injurious? It may be said that, as regards upward forcing of the vocal register, authorities upon the adult voice are united. Leo Kofler, in "The Art of Breathing," p. 168, says: "I have met female trebles that used this means of forcing up the chest-tones as high as middle A, B, C, and (one can hardly conceive of the physical possibility of so doing) even as far as D and E flat. The reason why this practice is so dangerous lies in the unnatural way in which the larynx is held down in the throat, and in the force that is exercised by the tension muscles of the vocal ligaments and the hard pressure of the muscles of the tongue-bone.... I have examined with the laryngoscope many ladies who had the habit of singing the chest-tones too high, and, without exception, I have found their throats in a more or less diseased condition. Laryngitis, either alone or complicated with pharyngitis, relaxation of the vocal ligaments, and sometimes paralysis of one of them, are the most frequent results of this bad habit. If a singer is afflicted with catarrhal trouble, it is always aggravated by this abominable method of singing."

Emma Seiler, in "The Voice in Singing," p. 54, after describing the action of the vocal ligaments in the production of the chest-voice and alluding to the fact that such action can be continued several tones higher than the proper transitional point, goes on: "But such tones, especially in the female voice, have that rough and common timbre, which we are too often compelled to hear in our female singers. The glottis also in this case, as well as parts of the larynx near the glottis, betrays the effort very plainly; as the tones ascend, they grow more and more red. _Thus, as at this place in the chest-register, there occurs a visible and sensible straining of the organs, so also is it in all the remaining transitions, as soon as the attempt is made to extend the action by which the lower tones are formed beyond the given limits of the same_." And again: "In the ignorance existing concerning the natural transitions of the registers, and in the unnatural forcing of the voice, is found a chief cause of the decline in the art of singing, and the present inability to preserve the voice is the consequence of a method of teaching unnatural, and, therefore, imposing too great a strain upon the voice." Quotations innumerable might be made, to give more emphasis, were it needed, to the evils of register forcing.

The only point remaining is the one very often raised. Is it not _natural for children_ to use the chest or thick voice? If their vocal organs are so flexible, may they not carry such tones higher than adults, and younger children higher than those a little older, and so on?

It is quite obvious, for reasons herein set forth, that children do not experience the same degree of difficulty in continuing the use of the thick voice to their higher tones as do adults, but as to the effect upon their vocal organs there need be no reasonable doubt. A. B. Bach, in "Principles of Singing," p. 142, says: "If children are allowed to sing their higher notes forte, before the voice is properly equalized, it will become hard, harsh and hoarse, and they will fail in correct intonation. A mistake in this direction not only ruins the middle register but destroys the voice altogether. The consequence of encouraging forte singing is to change a soprano rapidly to an alto; and they will generally sing alto equally forte because their vocal cords have lost their elasticity through overstraining and the notes will no longer answer to piano. . . . . The fact is that reckless singing often breaks tender voices and breaks them forever." It may be observed that the writer cited evidently accepts the same classification in register for children and adult women's voices, but this does not make the above extract any less applicable. The baneful effects of forcing the voice is clearly set forth. How to avoid it is another matter.

Leo Kofler, in the work previously mentioned, p. 168, refers to this point as follows: "It frequently happens that the tones of the lower range, or the so-called chest-tones, are forced up too high into the middle range. This bad habit is often contracted while the singers are quite young. Boy trebles have this habit to an unendurable degree, usually screaming those horrible chest-tones up to middle C. Of all bad habits, this one is the most liable to injure a voice and to detract from artistic singing."

To cite Madame Seiler once more, p. 176: "While it often happens that at the most critical age while the vocal organs are being developed, children sing with all the strength they can command. Boys, however, in whom the larynx at a certain period undergoes an entire transformation, reach only with difficulty the higher soprano or contralto tones, but are not assigned a lower part until perceiving themselves the impossibility of singing in this way, they beg the teacher for the change, often too late, unhappily, to prevent an irreparable injury. Moderate singing without exertion, and above all things, within the natural limits of the voice and its registers, would even during the period of growth be as little hurtful as speaking, laughing or any other exercise which cannot be forbidden to the vocal organs."

Browne and Behnke, who separately and together have given most valuable additions to the literature of the voice, in a small book entitled "The Child-Voice," have collated a large number of answers from distinguished singers, teachers and choir-trainers to various questions relating to the subject. The following citation is from this interesting work, p. 39: "The necessity of limiting the compass of children's voices is frequently insisted upon, no attention whatever being paid to _registers_; and yet in finitely more mischief is done by forcing the registers than would be accomplished by allowing children to exceed the compass generally assigned to them, always provided that the singing be the result of using the mechanism set apart by nature for different parts of the voice."

There can really be no doubt that the use of the chest or thick voice upon the higher tones is injurious to a child of six years, or ten years, or of any other age. The theory that in the child-voice the breaks occur at higher fixed pitches than in the adult is shown to be untenable. The fact would seem to be that comparisons between the registers of the child and the adult voice are misleading, since the adult voice has fixed points of change in the vocal mechanism, which can be transcended only with great difficulty, while the child-voice has _no fixed points of change in its vocal registers_. This point must not be overlooked. It is the most important fact connected with the child-voice in speech or song. It is the fundamental idea of this work and is the basis for whatever suggestions are herein contained upon the management of the child-voice. The rigidity of the adult larynx, the strength of the tensor and adductor muscles and the elastic firmness of the vocal ligaments, are to those of the child as the solid bony framework and strongly set muscles of maturity are to the imperfectly hardened bones and soft muscles of childhood. Nature makes no fixed limits of the vocal registers until full maturity is reached. A fixed register in a childish throat involving a completely developed larynx would be a startling anomaly. The laryngeal muscles of childhood are not strong. They are weak. Most of the talk about strength of voice in children is utter nonsense. When the muscles and other parts concerned in tone-production perform their physiological functions in a healthy manner, that is, in such a way that no congestion, or inflammation or undue weariness will result, the singing-tone of the child will never be loud. High or low, under these conditions it must perforce be soft, and if proper directions be followed the quality will be as good as the voice is capable of.

Everyone who has observed has also noticed the contrast in the lower tones of children and women. The chest-voice of the woman, which she uses in singing her lower register, is normally very beautiful in its quality. Its tones are the product of a perfectly developed, full-grown organ. The chest-voice of the child is an abnormal product of a weak, growing, undeveloped organ. It possesses, even when used carefully, little of the tone tints of the adult voice. The chest-voice belongs to adult life, not to childhood. The so-called chest-voice of children is only embryonic. It cannot be musical, for the larynx has not reached that stage of growth and development where it can produce these tones musically. The constant use of this hybrid register with children is injurious in many ways. Its use is justified in schools merely through custom, and it can not be doubted that as soon as the attention of teachers is called to its evils, they will no longer tolerate its use.

The usual analogies then which are drawn between the adult female voice and the child-voice, in so far as they imply a similar physiological condition of the vocal organ and similar vocal training, are not only useless, but misleading. He who tries to train the average child-voice on the theory of two, three or five clearly-defined breaks, or natural changes in the forms for vocal vibration assumed by the vocal bands will get very little help from nature.

With due consideration it is said that it is a harder task to train children's voices properly than to train the voices of adults. Where nature is so shifty in her ways, it requires keen penetration to discover her ends.

The child-voice is a delicate instrument. It ought not to be played upon by every blacksmith.