IN THE FEMALE VOICE_The Voice in Singing

First series of the chest register:

e f g a b c¹

Second series of the chest register:

d¹ e¹ f¹

First series of the falsetto register:

g¹ a¹ b¹ c²

Second series of the falsetto register:

d² e² f²

Head register:

g² a² b² c³ d³ e³ f³

The investigation and discovery of the facts here stated have

been made with the utmost conscientiousness, repeated by men

of science in Germany, and acknowledged as correct.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THESE OBSERVATIONS TO THE CULTIVATION

OF THE SINGING VOICE

In teaching the art of singing, it is now-a-days very generally

the custom to endeavor to raise the lower registers as far as

possible toward the higher. This is especially the case with

the tenor voice. It is considered a special advantage in a

tenor voice when it can sing the a¹ on the first leger line

(commonly written a²) with the chest register.

Upwards of a hundred and fifty years ago, when every good tenor

was required to sing a¹ with a clear, full chest tone, this note,

according to the orchestra pitch then, was not higher than a note

between f and f♯, according to the present orchestra pitch in

England and America. Since that time the orchestra pitch has

everywhere gradually risen so imperceptibly that this important

fact remained unknown to many singers and teachers, and until

recently has been only rarely noticed. And yet it is precisely

this much higher pitch and the consequent unnatural extension of

the limits of the registers, which is the chief cause why most

voices now-a-days last so little while.

That the registers may be forced up beyond their limits is

possible, we have seen. But observation teaches us that it cannot

be done without a straining of the organs which may be both seen

and felt, and no organ will bear continued over-straining. It

will gradually be weakened thereby, and become at last wholly

useless.

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

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

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

they consider the whole compass of their voices. The low chest

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

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

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

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.