FURTHER CONSIDERATION OF THE REGISTERS OF THE SINGING VOICE.
It will, it is hoped, be apparent to the reader that the subject now
under treatment may be considered either theoretically or practically.
If science be exact, systematized, and, when complete, unified
knowledge, then every source of information must be employed in the
investigation of so difficult a subject as the registers. There may be
differences of opinion as to the relative importance of some of these
means of investigation--_e.g._, auto-laryngoscopy, but that it should
be utilized, there can be no question. The value of photography of the
larynx, as carried out up to the present, may be questioned; but there
can be no doubt that if this method of studying the action of the
vocal bands could be pushed to a certain point, much light might be
thrown on the questions at issue.
Merely to assume that a method of treating the registers which has
given, apparently, good practical results in the hands of one teacher
is sound, and rests on a scientific basis, is unwarranted. It may be
simply a little better or a little worse than some other. How is the
student to distinguish, in his choice, between Mr. A and Mr. B, in the
case of two successful teachers, both of whom recognize registers? A
physiologist may be sound as far as he goes, yet lack that practical
knowledge of the voice which the vocal teacher properly considers
requisite in determining how a pupil shall use the registers. Among
those who are most dogmatic on this and other questions there is often
a plentiful lack of knowledge of the vocal organs; and some clever
laryngologists must have learned, when they were carried into the
discussion of this subject, that some knowledge of music and singing
is absolutely indispensable, and that enough cannot be picked up, even
by an able man, in a few minutes devoted to interrogating singers,
especially when these vocalists have been trained by widely different
methods, and have, as is too often the case, given but little real
_thought_ to the scientific, or, indeed, any other side of their art.
We find "break" confounded with "register," and the meaning attached
to the latter, at best, one-sided or inadequate in some respects. The
truth is, such a subject cannot be settled by the physiologist, even
when a laryngologist, as such; nor can the solution to a scientific
question of this kind be given by a singer, as a singer. Such a
problem can only be settled, as we have throughout insisted, by those
possessing many qualifications, and even when the investigator unites
in himself every intellectual qualification, something will depend on
his temperament and spirit. An atmosphere of controversy is not
favorable to scientific investigation, and among the dangers that ever
lie in the path of the teacher are pride and prejudice. The
assumption that one is prepared to teach is too often associated with
views and feelings that prevent the guide from remaining himself a
student and being ready to learn even from the very beginner, as he
must if he have the true spirit. Unfortunately, several of the most
highly qualified writers on this subject have formulated their views
under conditions unfavorable to the attainment of the whole truth.
It is to be borne in mind always that a register implies (1) a series
of tones of a characteristic clang, _timbre_, color, or quality; (2)
that this is due to the employment of a special mechanism of the
larynx in a particular manner. It follows that in thinking of
registers scientifically, one must take into account both the tones
and the mechanisms by which they are produced.
Naturally, with most untrained people the passage from one register to
another is associated with a suddenness of change which is unpleasant,
and which is termed the _break_. It is often suggestive of weakness,
uncertainty, etc., and to an ear at once sensitive and exacting
through training is intolerable when very pronounced. Often this break
is very marked in contraltos, and is invariably so pronounced in the
male voice when it passes to the upper falsetto that even the dullest
ear does not fail to notice the change.
It is, therefore, not surprising that teachers should have sought to
lessen the unpleasant surprise for the listener caused by the break.
Some have looked on registers as almost an invention of the Evil One,
and forbidden the use of the term to their students; but such
ostrich-like treatment of the subject--such burying of the head in the
sand--does not do away with a difficulty, much less can such a plain
fact as the existence of registers be ignored without the most
detrimental results, as we shall endeavor to make plain. Some, feeling
that the break was an artistic abomination, have proceeded to teach
the student to reduce all tones to the same quality, which is about as
rational as asking a painter to give us pictures, by the use of but
one pigment.
To attempt to abolish registers would be like leaving but one string
to the violin; which instrument, in its present form, has a register
for each string; and the player endeavors to avoid the breaks that
naturally occur in passing from string to string, and to get a smooth
series of tones just as the intelligent vocalist does.
The registers may be represented to the eye by the method illustrated
in figure 52.
The wise instructor recognizes registers; they are a fact in nature,
and one to be valued. The more colors, the greater the range of the
artist's powers, other things being equal, whether the artist paint
with pigments or tones; but just as the painter uses intermediate
tones of color to prevent rude transitions or breaks, so must the
singer modify or "cover" the tones between the registers--_i.e._, use
to some extent the mechanism of both neighboring registers.
The reader who has perused the previous chapter thoughtfully may
naturally ask: "With such difference of opinion among eminent authors
like those quoted, how am I to know which one to follow, and what to
believe on this subject?"
The answer to that question we propose now to give. It will be wise to
endeavor to show just wherein the writers quoted differ and on what
they agree. A careful examination will show that there is substantial
agreement on the most important points:
1. All agree that there are registers, or natural changes of quality
of tone, corresponding to changes of mechanism or method.
2. All, with the exception of Madame Seiler, agree that the most
important changes take place at or near [Illustration: a'] in female
voices, and the majority consider that this applies to both sexes
equally.
3. Often in males there is some laryngeal change lower than this.
4. All agree that the high falsetto of tenors is of a special quality,
and produced by a mechanism of its own--_i.e._, all consider it a
separate register--and often, at least, it begins naturally about
[Illustration: f-sharp'], which is usually, however, written an octave
higher, though really sung as given above.
[Illustration: FIG. 51. A photographic representation of the
appearances of the vocal bands when the subject is sounding first E
and then F sharp, in which latter case "the vibratory portions of the
vocal bands are shortened about one-sixteenth inch," according to Dr.
French, who has been eminently successful in photographing the larynx.
It will be noted that this is the point in the scale at which the
change of register usually takes place--_i.e._, there is a change of
mechanism corresponding to the change in quality. (French-Raymond.)]
The point of greatest strain is generally, for both sexes, about this
point, and many persons cannot sing higher than this--_i.e._, about
[Illustration: f-sharp'] for males, and its octave for females.
It is to be remembered, as Madame Seiler has pointed out, that at the
period of greatest perfection in vocal training, some hundred and
fifty years or more ago, concert pitch was very much lower than it is
to-day; so that to teach tenors to sing in one register up to
[Illustration: a''] then, was quite a different matter from what that
would be to-day. The old Italian masters were accustomed to train
singers to the use of the falsetto, and whatever views may be held as
to the desirability of the tenor using this register, so far as art is
concerned, there can be no question whatever that physiologically it
is easy, and one of the means by which relief may be sought from the
high tension caused by carrying up the lower register.
The author, after a special investigation of this and other questions
connected with the registers, came to the conclusion that the falsetto
in males and the head voice in females are produced by a similar
mechanism. In the high falsetto the vocal bands do not vibrate
throughout their whole breadth, and there must be, for a successful
result, in every case a feeling of ease, due to the relaxation of
certain mechanisms in use up to that point and the employment of new
ones.
[Illustration: FIGS. 52. These figures are meant to convey through the
eye some of the main truths regarding the nature of registers and
breaks. The figure on the left applies to the case of one with three
registers in the voice, and with the breaks only very moderately
marked; the illustration on the right applies to the same person after
training, when the breaks have become indistinct, almost
imperceptible. For teaching purposes the author is accustomed to use a
similar diagram, but in shades of the same color, the difference being
rendered less obvious by intermediate shades _between_ the register
shades in the right-hand figure.]
The author now offers, with all respect, but confidence, a few
criticisms on the eminent investigators whose conclusions and methods
he has been discussing.
Madame Seiler was the writer who, as has been already said, brought
more numerous and higher qualifications of a scientific and practical
kind to the investigation of this subject than any other person.
However, the study of physics, involving as it does the use of methods
of extreme precision, tends to beget habits of mind which are not in
all respects the best for the consideration of biological problems.
Madame Seiler and her master, the physicist Helmholtz, regarded the
vocal mechanism very much in the same light as they did their
laboratory apparatus. Only in this way can the author explain some of
Madame Seiler's positions; but on this assumption one can understand
why she should make five registers, and consider them all, apparently,
of equal importance. This latter, together with the tendency generally
to present her views in too rigid a form, was, we think, her great
error.
Behnke admitted that all five registers might be heard, especially in
contraltos, but he did not attach equal importance to each of these
registers.
Mackenzie the author conceives to have been misled by the very method
that he considered a special virtue in his investigations--the
examination of trained singers. Surely, if one would learn what is
Nature's teaching on this subject, he must not draw conclusions from
trained vocalists alone! By training one may learn to walk well on his
hands, but this does not prove such a method the natural one, nor
would it be good reasoning to draw this conclusion, even if a few
individuals were found who could thus walk more rapidly than in the
usual way.
The diversity that Mackenzie found in singers does not, in the
author's opinion, exist in nature; much if not most of it was due to
training, and all that can be said is that several people may sing in
different ways with not greatly different æsthetic results; but such
methods of investigation may, as in this case, lead to conclusions
that are dangerously liberal.
The author holds to-day, as he did when he published his results many
years ago, that "Impressions from general laryngoscopic observations
or conclusions drawn from single cases will not settle these
questions. Very likely differences such as these writers allude to may
exist to a slight degree; but if they do, I question whether they are
sufficiently open to observation ever to be capable of definition; nor
is it likely that they interfere with methods of voice-production
which are alike operative in all persons."
Holding these views, not only can the author not agree with those who
believe that the change in a register occurs in different persons of
the same voice (_e.g._, soprano) at appreciably different levels in
the scale, and even varies naturally from day to day, but he holds
that to believe this in theory and embody it in practice is to pursue
a course not only detrimental to the best artistic results, but
contrary to the plain teachings of physiology in general and that of
the vocal organs in particular.
The change in a register should be placed _low_ enough in the scale to
suit all of the same sex. _It is safe to carry a higher register down,
but it is always risky, and may be injurious to the throat, to carry a
lower up beyond a certain point._ The latter leads not only to a
limitation of resources in tone coloring, but also to straining, to
which we have before alluded. Though this process may not be at once
obviously injurious, it _invariably_ becomes so as time passes, and no
vocalist who hopes to sing much and to last can ignore registers, much
less make the change at a point to any appreciable extent removed from
those that scientific investigation and equally sound practice teach
us are the correct ones at which to make the changes.
Why is it that some artists of world-wide reputation sing as well
to-day as twenty years ago, while others have broken down or have
become hopelessly defective in their vocal results in a few years?
There is but one answer in a large proportion of these cases: correct
methods in the former and wrong methods in the latter class of
singers--and "correct" in no small degree refers to a strict
observance of registers.
The author has known a professional soprano to sing every tone in the
trying "Hear, O Israel" (_Elijah_) in the chest register. How can such
a singer hope to retain either voice or a sound throat? But so long as
audiences will applaud exhibitions of mere lung-power and brute force
the teachings of physiology and healthy art will be violated. But,
surely, all artists themselves and all enlightened teachers should
unite in condemning such violations of Nature's plain teachings!
The question of the registers is generally considered now a somewhat
simpler one for males than for females. Basses and barytones sing in
the chest register only; tenors are usually taught to sing in the
chest register; but few teachers believe that the high falsetto is
worth the expenditure of the time and energy necessary to attain
facility in its use.
Probably in many male voices there are the distinctions of register
Madame Seiler alludes to--_i.e._, first chest and second chest, or
some change analogous to the middle of females; but, from one cause
and another, this seems to readily disappear. Whether it would not be
worth maintaining is a question that the author suggests as at least
worth consideration. Certain it is that, speaking generally, there is
no change in males equally pronounced with the passage from the lowest
to the next higher (chest to middle) register in females.
What, then, are the views that the author believes so well grounded,
in regard to the registers, that they may be made, in all confidence,
the basis of teaching?
Without hesitation, he recommends that arrangement of the registers
set forth in the last chapter. It is not the exclusive invention nor
the basis of practice of any one person, but it may fittingly enough
be associated with the name of a woman who for over fifty years has
taught singing with so much regard for true art and for Nature's
teachings--_i.e._, for physiological as well as artistic principles.
Such a method for female voices is wholly consistent with the best
scientific teaching known to the author; it is in harmony with the
laws of vocal hygiene; it gives the singer beautiful tones, and leaves
her with improved, and not injured, vocal organs. Such an arrangement
of the registers is not marred by the rigidity of Madame Seiler's nor
the laxity of Mackenzie's, but combines flexibility with sufficiently
definite limitations.
As to just how much a teacher of singing should say to the pupil on
the subject of registers, and especially in a physiological way, must
depend on circumstances. About the wisdom of teachers of singing (and
elocution) understanding the vocal mechanism, and carefully weighing
the matter of registers from every point of view, the reader of this
book will have no doubt, by this time, the author ventures to hope.
Of course, one may object that for every tone, as it differs slightly
in quality from its neighbor in the scale, there should be a new
register--a new mechanism. Such an objection, though theoretically
sound, is of no practical weight. What students wish to know and
instructors to teach is how to attain to good singing--the kind that
gives genuinely artistic results, and leaves the throat and entire
body of the vocalist the better for his effort. The teaching of this
work in regard to the registers and other subjects is intended to
accomplish this, and not to occupy the attention of readers with vocal
or physiological refinements of no practical importance.
The author has always been of opinion that those who have investigated
and written on this subject have devoted insufficient attention to one
point--viz., the manner of using the breath. The breathing in the use
of the high falsetto, for example, is as different as are the
laryngeal processes; and this is a point of practical importance, for
the voice-user must ever consider economy in breathing. It is
expenditure in this direction that most taxes all singers, even the
best trained and the most highly endowed.
But the student, deeply impressed with the importance of the subject
of registers, may ask: "How am I to distinguish between one register
and another? How am I to know when I am singing with chest, middle, or
head voice?" The answer is: "By sensations"--chiefly by hearing, but
also by certain sensations (less properly termed "feelings") in the
resonance-chambers and to a certain extent in the larynx. Of course,
before one can thus identify any register, he must have heard a singer
of fairly good voice form the tones of this particular register. One
who has never heard sounds of a particular color or quality cannot, of
course, learn to recognize them from mere description, though by this
means he is often _prepared_ to hear, and to associate clear ideas
with that hearing.
As the registers are of such great practical importance, especially
for the female voice, there is no period when it is of so much value
to have a lady teacher as just when the voice is being "placed"--which
should mean the recognition of its main quality, and the teaching of
registers by imitation as well as description. The student should be
made to understand, by practical examples, the subject of "covering,"
or modification. Certainly, the training of a vocalist cannot be
adequately undertaken by even the most learned musician, however good
an instrumentalist, if he has paid no attention to the voice
practically. Much of the teaching done by those ignorant of
voice-production, however well meant, may be a positive drawback, and
leave the would-be singer with faults that may never be wholly
eradicated.
The author would recommend all students who have begun a serious
practical study of the registers to hear, if possible, some singer of
eminence who observes register formation strictly. In this way more
can often be done in getting a clear notion of their characteristic
qualities, in a single evening, than by listening to an ordinary
amateur, or to such a voice as an otherwise excellent vocal teacher
can bring to her work, on many occasions; better one hour listening to
a Melba, with her observance of registers, covering, etc., as set
forth by the author in this chapter, than a score of vocalists of
indifferent, even if not incorrect production. One then has before her
an individual who, after long and careful training, attains results
not, indeed, within the reach of all, but such as may be approached if
the same methods are pursued long enough; and in Madame Melba, and
others that might be named, the student has examples of how those
using correct methods, and not worshipping at the shrine of mere vocal
power, may retain the vocal organs uninjured and the voice unimpaired
after the lapse of well-nigh a score of years of exacting public
singing. Teachers will do well to encourage their pupils to hear the
best singers; for do not students need inspiration as well as
discipline?
Granted that the ear can at once determine what register the pupil
herself or another singer may be using, what other guide has she?
There are certain sensations, as already said, felt within the
resonance-chambers and larynx, which are sure guides. In a person who
had learned to recognize the correct register formation by the help
of the ear and those sensations now referred to, the latter would
suffice to be a partial guide, at least, even had he become deaf.
While these sensations are absolutely characteristic, it is difficult
to describe them; they must be experienced to be understood. To
attempt to describe the taste of a peach to one who knew that of an
apple but had never eaten a peach would be, perhaps, not absolutely
useless, but would certainly serve little purpose. The sensation must
accompany the correct formation of the tone. The term "straining"
carries with it the idea of unpleasant sensations; all understand
practically what this term means; yet the sensation of strain in a
tenor carrying his chest register too high is no more marked than the
sensation of relief when he changes to the falsetto.
When once the voice has been well placed, little attention need be, or
is usually, paid _consciously_ to the sensations associated of
necessity with all changes in the vocal organs. When one becomes
unduly conscious of any of the normal sensations of the body, he is no
longer a perfectly healthy person. At the same time, as we have
pointed out in Chapter II., and shall do more at length shortly,
sensations are absolutely essential guides for all muscular and other
processes of the body; but they should enter just so much into
consciousness, and no more.
It is practically helpful to the voice-producer and the teacher to
think of the resonance-chambers and the ear as bearing a close
relationship to the movements essential to tone-production. The
sensations from these parts are of importance above all others in
voice-production. They are the chief guides, and the attention may to
advantage be concentrated on them.
No doubt the question of registers for the speaker must be considered,
but this can be done to greater advantage in a later chapter.
SUMMARY.
All good definitions of a register must recognize two things: change
of quality in the voice, and change of mechanism in the vocal
apparatus. A break is not a register, but occurs because of the
existence of registers. The abrupt transition, or break, is to be
avoided by covering, or modification of the upper tones of the lower
(at least) register.
For an adequate scientific examination of the question of registers,
many qualifications are required in the investigator; and the student,
when not an investigator, should endeavor to weigh the evidence
presented so as to choose with caution from among conflicting
opinions. He should be suspicious of those who scout the value of
scientific study of this or any other subject, and also of those who
claim that experience is of no importance in settling such a question.
Though several well-qualified persons who have written on the subject
differ in some respects, they are in agreement as to many of the more
important points. They are practically all convinced that there is
commonly a change of register for all voices, at or near one point in
the scale (F), and that if this be practically disregarded, dangerous
straining may result.
Conclusions drawn from trained singers, alone, may be misleading. All
classes of persons should be examined with the laryngoscope, if
correct and far-reaching generalizations are to be safely made.
The precision and rigidity of physics and mathematics cannot be
introduced with safety into a subject of this character; otherwise the
division and limits of registers will be fixed with a narrowness of
margin that does not comport with Nature's methods.
In all questions of register, the method of breathing--_i.e._, the
nature of the application of the expiratory blast--must be duly
considered.
With male voices, the subject is usually considered much simpler than
in the case of female voices. Men sing mostly in the chest register;
basses and barytones wholly so, with the rarest exceptions. Tenors are
taught to do so. Whether there might not be a subdivision of this
register made to advantage in training, the author leaves as an open
question; but about straining, in the case of tenors and all others,
and as to the importance of recognizing three registers for female
voices, there is in his mind no question. The fact that some may not
be able to produce head tones does not justify carrying up the chest
register to any appreciable extent, even by altos.
Now, as in past times, the high falsetto for males, if good, the
result of proper training, has the warrant of both art and sound
physiology.
In the use of registers, sensations are infallible guides. Of these,
the most important are those associated with the organs of hearing,
but those arising in the vocal organs are also valuable.
Those only should expect to sing artistically, and to preserve their
voices unimpaired for a long period, who wisely observe Nature's
teachings in regard to registers.