The mentality of the individual forms the organ through which it can
express itself, and this mentality is the accumulation of all of the
experience which has preceded it. Further, muscles and cartilages are
not all of the same texture. Thyroid cartilages vary in size and shape.
The vocal cavities, pharynx, mouth and nasal cavities are never exactly
the same in any two people. The contours of the upper and lower jaw and
teeth, and of the palatal arch are never found to be exactly alike. All
of these variations are a part of the vocal instrument and determine its
quality. Every vocal organ when properly directed will produce the best
quality of which that particular instrument is capable. An attempt to
make it produce something else must necessarily be a failure. The
structure of the instrument determines whether the voice is bass, tenor,
alto or soprano with all of the variations of these four classes. The
individuality of the voice is fixed by nature no less definitely.
The effort to standardize tone quality discloses a misapprehension of
what it means to train a voice. Its advocates look upon man as so much
matter, and the voice as something which must be made to operate
according to fixed mathematical rules and ignore completely its
psychology.
But the rich humor of it all appears when the propagandists of standard
tone meet to establish the standard. It is soon observed that there are
as many standards as there are members present and the only result is a
mental fermentation.