Part 4

This is a simple fact, scientifically established, universally known. It admits, therefore, of no doubt that the common custom of forcing the registers beyond their natural bounds injures voices, and seriously affects their durability. Even when the organs are so strong that they can bear the unnatural effort for a considerable length of time, they gain nothing in grace and timbre. Like every thing else unnatural, it carries with it its own punishment. Our tenor singers are, for the most part, only for a few years in full possession of their voices, while the earlier singers knew how to keep their voices fine and full to their latest age.

Not until 1858, when the orchestra pitch in Paris had risen for a¹ to 448 vibrations in a second, and tenors were no longer able to reach it with the chest register, was general attention turned to this evil. The Academy at that time fixed the orchestra pitch at 435 vibrations a second for a¹. This pitch is now introduced almost universally in Germany, and it is a full half note lower than our usual orchestra pitch in America. The introduction of the Paris pitch is, however, of no great advantage so long as singers and teachers keep to the same limits of the registers that they had at the beginning of the seventeenth century, when a¹ had 404 vibrations in a second, and was about a third lower than our present a¹. Musicians are averse to the introduction of this old low pitch, as the instruments are no longer accommodated to it. And besides, it is not at all necessary, if only singers and teachers would observe it better, and either set their pieces a third lower, or sing the notes that are difficult to be reached with a lower register in a natural way and with a higher register.

The old Italian masters were proud of being able so to educate the falsetto register of a tenor voice that it was difficult to distinguish chest tones and falsetto tones from one another, even for an ear accustomed to observe the finest distinctions of sound. And this art is by no means so difficult as is supposed, and is not dependent on the natural strength of the first falsetto tones. When in the male organ there exists the power of bringing the edges of the vocal ligaments into vibratory motion, and when these tones at the beginning, compared with the chest tones of the same voice, are weak and thin, then they may, with skill and perseverance, be trained to quite similar fulness.

That the male voice requires far more time and practice than the female to effect an imperceptible transition from the chest register to the falsetto, is unquestionable. And while this transition is always so very apparent in the man's voice, it is often scarcely observable to a practiced ear even in uncultivated female voices. Women, in speaking, always use the second chest and the first falsetto register, continually passing from one to the other of these registers without any change in the position of the mouth or of the resonance apparatus of the voice. They are thus all their lives long unconsciously practicing this transition, and because of this equal physical use of the chest and falsetto notes, the great physiological difference of these two registers almost entirely disappears. Although men do not use the falsetto register in speaking, it is not yet proved to be impossible for the male voice to attain the same results as the female.

When in the beginning the falsetto tones are sung always _piano_ and very _staccato_, by long-continued, careful practice, with entirely the same physical treatment of both registers, a smooth and natural transition from one to the other is most easily obtained. Thus the falsetto tones gain more and more in fulness and strength, and sound far more agreeably than the forced-up chest tones of our tenorists, sung with swollen-out throats and blood-red faces.

The education of men's voices involves many difficulties which do not exist in the case of the voices of women. Almost all men speak and sing in one register--tenors mostly in the second chest register, bassos mostly in the first, and oftentimes indeed not even in a correct natural manner. With this one register they sing as high and as low as they can, and this they consider the whole compass of their voices. The low chest register is rarely found good and natural (as regards the beauty of sound). In order for the production of these low chest tones, to set the vocal chords vibrating in their whole length and breadth, it is necessary that a fuller column of air from the lungs should press upon the glottis through the windpipe, which is readily of itself enlarged thereby. The easier and the more naturally this takes place, the more beautifully and naturally do these tones sound. Under the delusion that only strong singing is beautiful, and that this can be achieved only by extraordinary exertion, most of our basso singers have a peculiar way of pressing out the windpipe, which is not only very fatiguing, but gives to the low tones a rough, disagreeable sound. Among public speakers also this exhausting, faulty way of bringing out the chest tones is not uncommon, frequently rendering their voices quite incapable of use. _Merkel_ represents this way of forming the low tones as a peculiar register, which he calls the _Strohbassregister_, and through him a quite prevalent bad habit has found in other scientific works a right to existence which by no means belongs to it.

The female voice is treated in the same unnatural way. Many teachers teach their pupils to sing with the lower series of the chest register as high up as possible, often to the e¹ f¹, as far as the organs permit, and then let them begin the falsetto register. In this way the second series of the chest register is entirely omitted; but the made tones, as the expression is, thus obtained, sound very disagreeable and coarse, and the falsetto tones, which in this way begin lower than necessary, are on the contrary faint and weak. Of the falsetto register these teachers commonly require only the first series, up to d² e♭², to be sung, and then directly begin the head tones. Thus the second series of the falsetto is not used; but the tones belonging to it, which are sung with the first series of the falsetto register, are for the most part hard and sharp and seldom pure, while the tones of the head voice, coming in too soon, are thin and unmusical, and the whole voice thus receives an irregular formation. Many teachers, again, allow the lower tones of the chest register to be sung with the higher series of the same, whereby these tones are naturally never as sweet and strong. Then, too, they press the first series of the falsetto up to d² e♭², and thence, as far as it is possible, the voice is to ascend with the second series of the falsetto, without admitting the head tones, even in voices with the high soprano timbre. But the tones thus forced up are for the most part sharp and destitute of all grace. And it is just this that is one of the commonest faults of our present mode of singing.

As it has been customary to cultivate, in the male voice only, the three lower series, because both of the highest sound sweet and graceful only from the soft, delicate organs of the female voice, and as the male voice is rarely capable of compassing the highest series, the erroneous idea has gradually obtained prevalence among teachers of singing, that there are only three different series of tones, and that the female voice has only two transitions.

In voices fresh and unvitiated the different series are very easily distinguished by their different timbre. One hears this difference of timbre most clearly in the transition of the second series of the chest register into the falsetto in the male voice, and in the female voice at the transition of the first series of the falsetto register into the second.

As has been observed, the larynx stands lower with the tones of the chest register than with the tones of the other registers, or during quiet breathing.

In order, in the low chest tones, to bring the whole glottis into full vibration, the air, as it is expired, must press upon it with a larger volume. From all parts of the lungs the air, when expired, presses into the windpipe, the rings of which, widening as much as possible, come somewhat nearer to each other and draw down the larynx.

One has thus the sensation as if the whole body took part in this formation of sound, and as if the lower tones of the chest register were drawn from the lowest part of the lungs.

In producing the second series of the chest register, the sensation is as if the tones came from the upper part of the chest, midway between the pit of the stomach and the larynx.

With regard to the tones of the first series of the falsetto, the feeling is as if they had their origin in the throat.

In the tones of the second series of the falsetto, we feel as if the throat had nothing to do with them--as if they were formed above, in the mouth.

With the head tones, one has the feeling that they come from the forehead.

It is these _physical sensations_ that have given occasion to many erroneous conjectures in regard to the formation of tones, but we are satisfied that they have no direct relation to the generation of sound, and appear so only through the nerves active in the process.

By directing the attention of one's pupils to these different sensations, it is very easy to make them acquainted with the different registers of the voice--always a very necessary proceeding in the first training of a voice, although it seems to be so only in the case of such voices as have been previously misdirected.

The culture of the female voice is best begun with the two series of the falsetto register and the second of the chest register; the tones of these three middle registers must be pretty well cultivated before the lowest chest tones and the head voice are begun to be formed. The voice in this way best attains to an equal fulness. It is self-evident also that the teaching should be such that the transitions of the registers should be not at all or scarcely perceptible, consequently that all the tones should sound proportionally strong and full.

In the soprano voice the falsetto, and in the contralto voice the chest register, have more fulness and grace, and thus we may distinguish to which kind of voice a voice belongs, for the compass of the voice is not always confined within certain limits. There are contraltos that can sing the high head tones with ease, and sopranos that can sing the low chest tones with equal facility--a fact which has often given occasion to an incorrect treatment of a voice. So also with the male voice. A bass voice sings the lower series of the chest register with more ease and sweetness and with more obscure timbre. A tenor voice sings the second series of the chest register in a clearer timbre.

The baritone and mezzo-soprano voices, so called--that is, such voices as have a limited compass, and cannot sing either the highest or the lowest tones--are by no means so numerous as they are thought to be. The best tenor voices, which cannot naturally reach the lowest bass tones, and whose organs do not allow of an unnatural forcing up beyond the higher limits of the chest register, are commonly pronounced baritone voices, for no one now-a-days thinks of cultivating the falsetto register of the male voice.

Few teachers, likewise, understand how to teach correctly the tones of the head register. If a soprano voice cannot readily and agreeably sing the low contralto tones, and extend the falsetto scale far enough upwards beyond its limit, it is reckoned among the mezzo-soprano voices. The celebrated singing master _Thomaselli_, of _Padua_, maintained that baritone and mezzo-soprano voices “had no existence in nature, but were only the products of our false methods of instruction.”

I have sometimes found mezzo-soprano and baritone voices, but not in so great number by far as the four chief kinds of voices--bass, tenor, contralto, and soprano.

Although an exact knowledge of the vocal organ and its various actions must be required of a teacher before the education of a voice can be committed to him, yet it would be unwise to undertake to teach singing by means of scientific explanations without sufficient previous knowledge; the pupil would, in this case, understand as little of what he was about and be as little helped as a child learning to read would be assisted by one who merely sought to make intelligible to him the mechanism by which sound is formed. The most natural and the simplest way in singing, as in all things else, is the best. Let the teacher sing correctly every tone to his pupil until the latter knows how to imitate it, and his ear has learned how to distinguish the different timbres.[5]

The discovery of the natural transitions of the registers has brought to light one of the greatest evils of our present mode of singing, and shown at the same time how wanting in durability are the voices of those of our artists whose aim and endeavor it is to force the registers upward beyond their natural limits. Although the concert pitch is so very much higher now than it was in the most flourishing period of the singing art, yet no regard is paid to this fact in the education of a voice, and our tenorists try to reach the a¹ with the chest register, just as they did one hundred and fifty years ago.

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 of 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._[6]

No one who has not made the art of singing a special study, can form any idea of the obscure and conflicting views in regard to the transitions of the registers which prevail among singing teachers and artists. Almost every teacher has a peculiar theory of his own in regard to the formation of the voice; every one has his own views, sometimes extremely fanciful, of the formation of tones and of the registers--views to which he tenaciously adheres, summarily rejecting all others. Almost as at the building of the tower of Babel, one teacher scarcely understands any longer what another means, and instead of harmonious endeavors to improve the art, teachers of singing are commonly found disputing among themselves.

To bring light and order into such a chaos can only be accomplished by the most thorough scientific study, and even then it is an undertaking of the greatest difficulty. Custom stands in the way as an antagonist, and there must be a conflict with long-cherished and wide-spread errors and prejudices. It lies also in the nature of the case that teachers of singing are the most determined opponents to be encountered. It is very hard for this class, and it demands of them no common self-denial to acknowledge and renounce as errors what they have taught for years and held to be truths. Those teachers, however, who have made the necessary sacrifice, have been compensated with the richest success; and such, we trust, will in all cases be the result, and so the path be broken for the true and the natural.

It will be perhaps comparatively easy to advance the art of singing in America; for, as Humboldt says, not entirely without truth, the Germans require for every improvement two centuries--one to find out the need of it, and another to make it.

[2] It must be remarked that the diagrams here given are copies of _reflected_ images, and therefore the upper side of the representation shows the front of the larynx, and the lower the farther side of the larynx.

[3] In recent works on laryngoscopy they are often described as continuations or parts of one of the principal muscles of the larynx.

[4] In recent French and English works upon laryngoscopy, the cuneiform cartilages are frequently mentioned, and sometimes confounded with the cartilages Wrisbergi.

[5] On this account the male voice should be trained by men and the female voice by women. For, as it is impossible for a man to give to a female pupil a correct perception of the tones of the head register and of the second series of the falsetto, with its peculiar female timbre, so is it impossible for a woman to sing and teach correctly the deep, sonorous chest tones of the male voice. _Frederick Wiek_, that admirable teacher, who perceives intuitively what is natural and true in instruction, has an excellent expedient. In his hours of instruction he avails himself of the aid of young women with practised voices, who sing every exercise to his female pupils until the latter are able to imitate them correctly.

[6] Voices which by this overstrained and unnatural way of singing have become worn-out and useless may by correct, proper treatment recover, even at an advanced age, their former grace and power; and even those chronic inflammations of the larynx which are so difficult of treatment may be cured by a natural and moderate exercise of the voice in singing.

III

PHYSICAL VIEW

FORMATION OF SOUNDS BY THE VOCAL ORGAN

For the artistic culture of the singing voice the knowledge of the physiological processes during the formation of tones does not suffice. This knowledge brings us acquainted only with the instrument, the artistic treatment of which is to be learned. Having, therefore, in the preceding pages stated the most important points in the formation of tones, physiologically considered, we are now to consider more nearly the physical laws relating to the same, especially as the physical view of the subject, through the latest investigations and discoveries of Prof. Helmholtz, in Heidelberg, has so much importance for music in general. In order, however, to present a clear view of this branch of our subject, in so far as the recent advances of science can be practically applied to the improvement of the art of singing, we must recur to those natural laws which are doubtless well known to most of our readers.

In order to bring the external world to our consciousness, we are provided with various organs of sense; and as the eye is sensible to the light, the ear is sensible to sound, which comes to our consciousness either as noise (_Geräusch_) or as tone (_Klang_). The whistling of the wind, the plashing of water, the rattling of a wagon are noises, but musical instruments give us tones. When, however, many untuned instruments sound together, or when all the keys within an octave are struck on the same time, then it is a noise that we hear. Tones are therefore more simple and regular than noises. The ear perceives both by means of the agitation of the air that surrounds us. In the case of noise the agitation of the air is an irregularly changing motion. In musical sounds, on the other hand, there is a movement of the air in a continuously regular manner, which must be caused by a similar movement in the body which gives the sound. These so-called periodical movements of the sound in the body, rising, falling and repeated at equal intervals, are called vibrations. The length of the interval elapsing between one movement and the next succeeding repetition of the same movement is called the duration of vibration (_Schwingungsdauer_), or period of motion.

TONE, AND ITS LAWS OF VIBRATION

A _tone_ is produced by a periodical motion of the sounding body--a _noise_ by motions _not_ periodical. We can see and feel the sounding vibrations of stationary bodies. The eye can perceive the vibrations of a string, and a person playing on a clarionet, oboe, or any similar instrument, feels the vibration of the reed of the mouthpiece. How the movements of the air, agitated by the vibrations of the stationary body, are felt by the ear as tone (_Klang_), Helmholtz illustrates by the motion of waves of water in the following way: Imagine a stone thrown into perfectly smooth water. Around the point of the surface struck by the stone there is instantly formed a little ring, which, moving outwards equally in all directions, spreads to an ever-enlarging circle. Corresponding to this ring, sound goes out in the air from an agitated point, and enlarges in all directions as far as the limits of the atmosphere permit. What goes on in the air is essentially the same that takes place on the surface of the water; the chief difference only is that sound spreads out in the spacious sea of air like a sphere, while the waves on the surface of the water can extend only like a circle. At the surface the mass of the water is free to rise upward, where it is compressed and forms billows, or crests. In the interior of the aerial ocean the air must be condensed, because it cannot rise. For, “in fact, the condensation of the sound-wave corresponds to the crest, while the rarefaction of the sound-wave corresponds to the sinus of the water-wave.”[7]

The water-waves press continually onwards into the distance, but the particles of the water move to and fro periodically within narrow limits. One may easily see these two movements by observing a small piece of wood floating on water; the wood moves just as the particles of water in contact with it move. It is not carried along with the rings of the wave, but is tossed up and down, and at last remains in the same place where it was at the first. In a similar way, as the particles of water around the wood are moved by the ring only in passing, so the waves of sound spread onwards through new strata of air, while the particles of air, tossed to and fro by these waves as they pass, are never really moved by them from their first place. A drop falling upon the surface of the water creates in it only a single agitation; but when a regular series of drops falls upon it, every drop produces a ring on the water. Every ring passes over the surface just like its predecessor, and is followed by other rings in the same way. In this way there is produced on the water a regular series of rings ever expanding. As many drops as fall into the water in a second, so many waves will in a second strike a floating piece of wood, which will be just so many times tossed up and down, and thus have a periodical motion, the period of which corresponds with the interval at which the drops fall. In like manner a sounding body, periodically moved, produces a similar periodic movement, first of the air, and then of the drum in the ear; the duration of the vibrations constituting the movement must be the same in the ear as in the sounding body.

THE PROPERTIES OF TONE (KLANG)

The sounds produced by such periodic agitations of the air have three peculiar properties: 1. STRENGTH, 2. PITCH, 3. TIMBRE.