Chapter 1

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THE MECHANISM OF THE HUMAN VOICE.

(CURWEN'S EDITION, 5263.)

BY

EMIL BEHNKE,

_Late Lecturer on Vocal Physiology at the Tonic Sol-fa College, Teacher of Voice Production._

EDITED, WITH A NEW CHAPTER ON "VOICE FAILURE,"

BY MRS. EMIL BEHNKE.

FIFTEENTH EDITION.

LONDON: J. CURWEN & SONS LTD., 24 BERNERS STREET, W.

Price 1s. 6d.; CLOTH 2s. 6d.

PREFACE TO THE NINTH EDITION.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

CONTENTS.

PLATES.

INDEX.

FOOTNOTES.

TO MY DEAR WIFE THIS ESSAY IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

PREFACE TO THE NINTH EDITION.

A ninth edition of this book having been called for, I take the opportunity to return my sincere thanks for the many kind expressions concerning its usefulness which have reached me since the lamented death of its author, my dear husband.

In carrying on his work, both my daughter and myself have felt the benefit of the clear and concise instructions the book contains.

We have also proved with our pupils the absolute truth and value of the BEHNKE SYSTEM OF VOICE TRAINING, by means of which we have obtained results most gratifying to ourselves, and surprising to the pupils, whether speakers or singers.

I hope that the new chapter on "Voice Failure," which I have added by Mr. Curwen's desire, may be of some use in preventing breakdown of voice, from which so many students suffer.

K. BEHNKE.

18, EARL'S COURT SQUARE, S.W.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

A THIRD edition of this little book has now become necessary, and I must again express my gratitude for the continued commendations bestowed upon my work both in the press and in private letters.

In response to many solicitations, I have added to this edition a few hints on teaching, deduced from physiological facts, which may prove useful by stimulating the advance of thought in a new direction.

These hints are extracts from a series of articles on "Science and Singing" which I had the pleasure of writing in the _Edinburgh St. Cecilia Magazine_; and I am indebted to the Editor, Mr. A. C. Miller, for kindly permitting me to reproduce them here.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The favourable reception and rapid sale of a large first edition has stimulated me to revise this little book, and without alteration of my original scheme of practical utility, to somewhat enlarge on one or two points which appeared to demand further elucidation.

In this, as in the former edition, I have received great assistance from my friend Mr. Lennox Browne, the eminent throat surgeon, who, by ever patiently discussing with me debatable points, and by giving me access to cases, interesting from a physiological point of view, both at the Central Throat and Ear Hospital, Gray's Inn Road, and in his extensive private practice, has afforded me opportunities of increasing my knowledge and experience which would not have arisen otherwise. I feel it a pleasure as well as a duty publicly to acknowledge my indebtedness to him, which I have, many times before, expressed in private.

My best thanks are also due to Mr. J. Spencer Curwen, for the help he has rendered me in many ways.

And finally, it would indeed be ungrateful on my part, if I did not place on record the obligation under which I consider myself to my reviewers for the uniformly favourable notice they have so kindly taken of my first effort, and for several useful hints of which I have duly taken advantage.

One objection has been made which strikes at the very root of the plan upon which I have proceeded in my little volume, and to which, therefore, I beg leave to say a few words in reply. A learned writer in the _Athenæum_ finds fault with me for making use of popular instead of scientific terms, which, he says, may be the cause to the reader of great confusion if he refers to other works, and he adds that "Back Ring-Pyramid Muscle" is almost as hard a mouthful as "Crico-Arytenoideus posticus." I have asked several non-scientific friends of good general education to read this sentence to me, and they succeeded very well with "Back Ring-Pyramid Muscle," while they utterly collapsed when coming to "Crico-Arytenoideus posticus."

This is, however, in my humble opinion, of minor importance. The great point is, that my terms--which by the way are not inventions, but simply translations--convey a meaning to the general reader, and the originals do not. This is a fact which I dared not ignore, because my essay is intended for the people and not for men of science. As I have taken care also, for the sake of those who might wish to consult other and more learned books than mine, to give the terms generally used by physiologists by the side of my translations, I do not think there is anything that could ever confuse my readers.

I conscientiously believe that these are good and weighty reasons for the plan I adopted in the first edition, and trust my reviewers, as well as my readers, will accept them as a sufficient justification of the same practice in the present volume.

E. B.

_February, 1881._

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

The number of books bearing more or less directly on the Theory of Voice Production which have been published during the last few years is very large, and shows clearly the extraordinary interest taken in this subject, not only by professional singers and speakers, but also by the general public. If I am now about to add another contribution to this already extensive literature, it is simply because amongst all the many excellent works on the Human Voice there is not one which brings before the reader the whole subject from beginning to end. The student who really wishes to get a clear understanding of the matter is obliged to wade through a variety of scientific books, and to pick up here and there, by means of very hard reading, such little scraps of information as, with much labour and waste of time, he can extract from books which were, in most instances, never written for the purpose for which he consults them.

* * * * *

To supply this generally-admitted want I have written these pages, in which I have endeavoured, to the best of my ability, to place before the reader in a simple and comprehensive form the Physiology of the Human Voice. I have, as far as possible, discarded all scientific terms, and it has been my aim to treat my subject in so simple and direct a manner as really to enlighten my readers instead of bewildering them. A treatise like this can, under no circumstances, be light reading; and I ask those who are truly anxious for information to give me patient study, accompanied by careful reference to the diagrams. For students who enter upon a perusal of these pages in such a spirit, this essay is specially intended; and if I have succeeded in making plain to such as these a really complicated subject, then my highest ambition will be satisfied.

E. B.

_April, 1880._

CONTENTS.

PAGES

Introduction 1-7

The vocal organ as a musical instrument 8-61

Differences of the voice-box, or larynx, in children, women, and men 62-68

Movements of the voice-box, or larynx, which can be seen or felt 69-72

The laryngoscope, and how to use it 73-79

The teachings of the laryngoscope 80-105

Appendix--Hints on teaching 106-125

Appendix To The Ninth Edition--Voice Failure 126

Appendix To The Tenth Edition--Does Diaphragmatic Breathing Apply Equally To Women As To Men? 141

Index 143

Index To "Voice Failure 146

Footnotes.

PLATES.

PAGES

I. General view of vocal organ _facing title_

II. The Lungs 10

III. The Chest 11

IV. Chest capacity--Methods of breathing 16

V. Side view of the Larynx 32

VI. Front view of the Larynx 33

VII. Larynx, Side view showing interior 37

VIII. Larynx, Side view, muscles, &c. 42

IX. Larynx, Side view, interior of left half 43

X. The Glottis in three states 46

XI. Larynx, Section viewed from above 48

XII. Larynx, Section viewed from behind 51

Sketch of Laryngoscope designed by Dr. Foulis 78

XIII. Laryngoscopic Image--Breathing 84

XIV. " " Upper thick register 84

XV. " " Upper thin register 85

XVI. " " Small register 85

Diagram of compass of the registers 93

INTRODUCTION.

We are living in an age which is singularly poor in fine voices, both male and female, and with regard to the tenors of the present time there is this additional misfortune, that, as a rule, their voices do not last, but are often worn out in a very few years; in many instances while their owners are still under training, and before they have had an opportunity of making their appearance in public. If we remember that there was a time when most beautiful and highly cultivated voices were so plentiful that even in comparatively small towns there were to be found Opera Companies consisting of excellent singers, we may well ask ourselves how this remarkable change for the worse has come about. People have attempted to account for it in various ways. Up to the middle of the last century women were forbidden by Ecclesiastical Law to take part in Church music. The voices of boys being available only for a very short time, means were taken to prevent their voices from breaking, and thus a class of male soprani and contralti was created, who made their first appearance in Rome in the beginning of the 17th century, and to these singers the education of the female voices was soon almost exclusively entrusted. In the middle of the last century, however, when women were permitted to participate in Church music, there was no longer any occasion to procure artificial female voices, and these singers gradually died out, though there were still some of them living and teaching in the beginning of the present century. According to Rossini, who certainly was eminently qualified to give an opinion on the subject, the decline of vocal art in these latter years is mainly due to the disappearance of this class of singers, and if it be true that henceforth the training of female voices was undertaken by tenors, who, being of course unable to give a true pattern to their pupils, treated the female organ according to their own very different registers, then it can easily be understood that many voices must have been ruined by the process, and the scarcity of distinguished female singers would thus be satisfactorily accounted for. But I fail to see in what way the disappearance of male soprani and contralti could possibly have affected tenors and basses.

Again, it is asserted that the way in which modern composers write vocal music is the cause of the evil. Certain it is that in the compositions of the old Italian masters the voice is studied, and nothing introduced which is hurtful or disadvantageous. Awkward intervals are avoided, no fatigue is caused, and everything is eminently _singable_; but the music is not always expressive of the sense of the words, which were clearly considered to be of minor importance. With our modern (and especially with the German) composers, it is just the opposite, their chief aim being thoroughly to enter, not only into the spirit of their text, but even into the slightest shade, the minutest detail of it, so as to make the music, as it were, a translation of their words into a higher kind of language. What, on the other hand, is possible or impossible for the voice is, since the time of Beethoven, but rarely considered; many composers, even the most distinguished ones, having evidently little knowledge of the most beautiful of instruments, for which they are nevertheless continually writing.

When one of the greatest living masters introduced the harp into his works, he wrote for it just as though it were a piano--_i.e._, as though it were to be played upon with the thumb and four fingers. But it so happens that on that instrument the fourth finger is never used. Consequently, when it came to the point harpists could not play that gentleman's compositions: they had first to re-write them. Here the composer, of course, was found out immediately, and he or any other man would have the same fate if he attempted to write for an instrument the properties of which he did not fully understand. But with the human voice the case is different. Every musician believes himself to be competent to write for it, though he may possibly be wholly unacquainted with its many peculiarities. It is to be feared, therefore, that modern composers must be held largely responsible for the sad state of affairs concerning vocal art at the present time, and well might they learn a lesson from Mozart, who, in spite of his genius, first carefully studied the human voice, and then wrote for it.

Another explanation of the decline of singing is this, that the gradual and very considerable rise of pitch during the last 150 years is at the bottom of all the mischief, as the vocal organ is unable to bear the strain to which it is subjected. With regard to tenors, however, the great evil is, that with very few exceptions, such as the celebrated Frenchman, Roger, they disregard, or at any rate did disregard for a considerable period, the falsetto register, singing everything, however high, in chest voice. I am afraid it cannot be said even that they have been beguiled into this serious mistake by the imperceptible rise of pitch just mentioned, but the truth is that they have committed this fatal blunder knowingly and wilfully, because they saw that it would pay. In support of this statement I will quote a few lines from the publication called "The Opera and the Art of Singing," by Glogg-ner-Castelli:

"In the field of singing a new man arose, who, in spite of great personal attributes, worked destructively for the future, and whose influence upon the later manner of singing is seldom truly recognized. I mean the singer Duprez. Hissed off at first in Paris, he turned to Italy, where he stayed several years, and then returned to the French capital. When he came to use his magnificent vocal resources, as he did in the Fourth Act of _Tell_, where he brought out the high C in the chest voice with all the might of his colossal organ, it was all over with the fame of all his predecessors. Nourrit, till then the favourite of the Parisians, a distinguished tenor singer, recognized the rival's power. His day was over, and in despair over his lost and irrecoverable glory, he flung himself from an upper window upon the pavement, and so made an end of his life. Duprez may justly be considered one of the greatest dramatic singers of our time, and the main features of his method soon spread themselves all over Europe. After hearing of Duprez, and how the chest register could be cultivated even into the highest regions of the voice, the public were no longer contented with the use of the falsetto. Soon it became impossible to be engaged as an "heroic tenor" without at least possessing the high B[b] in the chest tone. The singers found it a more thankful task to humour the taste of the public than to pay extra regard to the intentions of the composer; for often Meyerbeer himself indicates, by a _pp_, his design that the falsetto and not the chest tone should be employed. That every tenor singer, whether such high pressure suited his natural compass or not, strove to screw his voice up and 'make effect' was very natural; for art goes after bread, and a high C with the chest voice often realizes an income of thousands to its fortunate possessor. Roger has made a laudable exception; his beautiful use of the falsetto certainly produces a more agreeable effect than the forced chest tones so unnatural to the organ of many a singer. How widespread is this mistaken notion, that the use of the falsetto is entirely contrary to art, we hear frequently enough in the expressions of individuals when some unlucky tenor happens to get caught on one of these tabooed falsetto tones. Thus the school founded by Duprez, important in itself, has called into life a manner of singing, the ruinous consequences of which we can see daily."

But whatever may be the true reason or reasons, the fact that we have very few singers of eminence as compared with former ages, and that vocal art in general has gone down, is undisputed, and men have set themselves to remedy the evil by trying to ascertain the actual process by which the voice is produced, thinking that if they could but find this out there would be a true scientific basis upon which to found a way of teaching singing--or as I should rather say, of training voices--which would be sure and unerring.

* * * * *

The experiments of the great physiologist Johannes Müller are well known, and they have been followed up by others. But they were made upon dissected larynges, and as various teachers of singing started the most conflicting theories as to how the process shown by Müller was carried on in the living subject, and treated the voices of their pupils accordingly, these investigations have perhaps on the whole done more harm than good. Science was made responsible for the blunders of those who attempted to be guided by it. And thus it has happened that when at a later period further trials were made, but this time upon the living subject, and in the act of singing, they were received with indifference and distrust. Only very lately teachers of vocal music have begun to find out that here are facts put before them which cannot be gainsaid, and that if these investigations do nothing else, they at any rate make them acquainted with the exact nature of the vocal organ, and what it will bear and what it will not bear.

THE VOCAL ORGAN AS A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

"Physiologists," says Dr. Witkowski,[A] "are quite at issue when they endeavour to determine what kind of instrument the vocal organ resembles; indeed, Galien compares it to a flute, Magendie to a hautboy, Despiney to a trombone, Diday to a hunting-horn, Savart to a bird-catcher's call, Biot to an organ-pipe, Malgaigne to the little instrument used by the exhibitors of Punch, and Ferrein to a spinet or harpsichord. The last-named compared the lips of the glottis to the strings of a violin; hence was given the name _Vocal Cords_, which they have since retained. The current of air was the bow, the exertion of the chest and lungs the hand which carried the bow, the thyroid cartilages the _points d'appui_, the arytenoids the pegs, and lastly, the muscles inserted in them the power which tensed or relaxed the cords."

It must be admitted that the human voice bears more resemblance to a reed instrument than to any other; but when the comparison is pushed to its legitimate consequences it is found to break down. We cannot resist the conclusion that the vocal organ is infinitely superior to any instrument made by human hands. Its mechanism is so wonderful as to excite the profoundest admiration, and the more we continue to study it the more we marvel at the wisdom of the Divine Maker who planned it. I shall, therefore, speak of it simply as a wind instrument composed of--

1.--THE BELLOWS.

Represented by the LUNGS. Pl. I (Frontispiece), L.

2.--THE WINDPIPE. Pl. I, w.

3.--THE VOICEBOX OR LARYNX. Pl. I, v.

4.--THE RESONATOR.

Represented by (_a_) THE UPPER PART OF THE THROAT, or PHARYNX, pl. I, P; (_b_) THE MOUTH, pl. I, M; (_c_) THE NOSE, pl. I, N.

The Lungs are enclosed in the chest, which they fit exactly, and of which they occupy by far the largest portion, leaving but a small space for the heart. They consist of two halves (pl. II, R, L), each roughly resembling the upper part of a sugar-loaf somewhat flattened and hollowed out at the bottom. The left shows two and the right three distinct flaps or lobes. They are only connected by means of the windpipe (pl. II, W) and its branches.

=The Chest= (pl. III) is an air-tight chamber, which is narrower above than below. It is formed by the spine at the back, twelve ribs (pl. III, 1 to 11, the twelfth not visible on the drawing), with their inner and outer muscles on either side, the breast-bone (pl. III, B B) in front, the root of the neck at the top, and the midriff or diaphragm (pl. I, M) at the bottom.

=The Midriff= (pl. III, M) is a muscular and movable partition by which the lungs are separated from the abdomen. It is arched upwards like an inverted basin, but when its muscular fibres contract it flattens and descends, thus increasing the capacity of the chest at the expense of that of the abdomen.

=The Function of the Lungs= is, as everybody knows, respiration, which may be considered from a mechanical or a chemical point of view. In this little work we are only concerned with the mechanical part of the subject. If we examine the lungs of a calf, which are very similar to those of a human being, we find that they are soft and elastic to the touch, giving out when pressed a peculiar whizzing sound. We may increase their volume by blowing into them through the windpipe, so as to make them double their original size, and then tie up the windpipe. On re-opening the windpipe the air escapes, and the lungs are gradually reduced to their former bulk. Now, by drawing a deep breath we produce the same result in ourselves as by blowing into the lungs of the calf; by holding the breath we produce the same result as by tying up the windpipe--that is to say, we keep the lungs in a state of expansion; and by releasing the breath we are, as it were, untying the windpipe, leaving the lungs to dwindle down gradually to their former size.

There is one very material point, however, in which the analogy ceases. It is this: we keep the air in the inflated calf's lungs by tying up the windpipe, and the corresponding act in ourselves would be to hold our breath by muscular contraction of the outlet in the throat. This is precisely what we do in straining, and in lifting heavy weights, &c.; but it should _never_ be done in breathing for vocal purposes. Here it must, on the contrary, be our endeavour to train, to the highest possible degree, the powerful muscles of the chest and of the abdomen, instead of throwing the labour intended for them upon the comparatively weak and delicate muscles governing the outlet of the windpipe.