Plate I.

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.

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.

PLATES.

[Page 1]

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[2]
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[3]
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[4]
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[5]
quote a few lines from the publication called “The Opera
and the Art of Singing,” by Glogg-ner-Castelli:

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[7]
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.[8]

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.”[9]

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—

The top part of the left Lung is represented as partly cut away
in order to show the ramifications of the Bronchial Tubes.

Plate III.

THE CHEST.

• B B.   Breast Bone.
• C C.   Collar Bones.
• 1 to 11.   Ribs.   (The twelfth not visible.)
• M (curved dotted line).      Midriff (Diaphragm).
• L L.   Lungs.    H.  Heart.
• W.  Windpipe (Trachea).

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[12][11][10]
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[13]
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.

To make the way in which respiration is carried on
clearer still, I quote the following interesting and lucid
account from Huxley’s “Elementary Physiology,” fourth
edition, p. 104. He compares the breathing apparatus[14]
to “a sort of bellows without a valve,” in which the
chest and the lungs represent the body of the bellows,
while the windpipe is the pipe; “and the effect of the
respiratory movement is just the same as that of the
approximation and separation of the handles of the
bellows, which drive out and draw in the air through
the pipe. There is, however, one difference between
the bellows and the respiratory apparatus, of great
importance in the theory of respiration, though frequently
overlooked, and that is, that the sides of the
bellows can be brought close together so as to force out
all, or nearly all, the air which they contain, while the
walls of the chest, when approximated as much as
possible, still enclose a very considerable cavity; so
that even after the most violent expiratory effort, a
very large quantity of air is left in the lungs.”

Respiration, consequently, consists of two acts—namely,
inspiration and expiration. Inspiration may be
produced in three different ways—(1) By pushing the
chest forward and flattening the midriff, so as to compel
the lungs to descend and to increase in volume in order
to fill the empty space created by this movement;
(2) by extending the ribs sideways; and (3) by drawing
up the upper parts of the chest—namely, the collar
bones (pl. III, C C) and the shoulder blades. In
scientific works the first is called diaphragmatic or
abdominal,[B] the second lateral or costal, and the third[15]
clavicular or scapular breathing. As, however, these
terms convey no meaning to the general reader, I prefer
to speak of—(1) Midriff Breathing; (2) Rib Breathing;
(3) Collar-bone Breathing. In taking a full, deep
inspiration, midriff breathing and rib breathing take place
almost together and assist each other—that is to say, the
midriff contracts and flattens, and immediately afterwards
the ribs extend sideways; with this difference, however,
that in men the action of the midriff takes a larger
share in the work than the ribs, while in woman, on
the contrary, the movement of the ribs is greater than
that of the midriff.

Plate IV.

DIAGRAMS ILLUSTRATING THE VARYING CAPACITY
OF THE CHEST, ACCORDING TO THE METHOD IN
WHICH THE LUNG IS INFLATED.

From Mr. Lennox Browne’s “Medical Hints on the Production and
Management of the Singing Voice,” by permission of Messrs
Chappell and Co.

[17]

The combined forms of midriff and rib breathing
are the right method of inspiration, while collar-bone
breathing is absolutely wrong, and should never be
made use of. The reasons of this are not far to seek.
The lower part of each lung is large and broad, while
the upper part is cone-shaped, and very much smaller.
It is self-evident, therefore, that by downward and sideways
expansion (enlarging the lower part of the lungs)
you will inhale a much greater quantity of air than by
drawing up the collar-bones. This consideration alone
should suffice to prove the utter falseness of collar-bone
breathing. Collar-bone breathing has also the additional
disadvantage of causing much fatigue, because
all the parts surrounding the upper region of the lungs
are hard and unyielding, so that a great amount of
resistance has to be overcome (the “lutte vocale” of
French authors), while the very opposite is the case
with the lower part of the lungs.

Mr. Lennox Browne, who was, I believe, the first to
direct the attention of English readers to this matter,
says,[C] “Clavicular [collar-bone] breathing is a method
of respiration totally vicious, and to be avoided. By it
the whole lower part of the chest is flattened and
drawn in, instead of being distended; consequently the
lower or larger part of the lungs is not inflated. It is[18]
a method never exercised by nature in a state of health,
but only when, from disease, either the abdominal or
chest muscles cannot act; and it is the method least
efficacious in filling, as it is the one calculated to most
fatigue the chest; for it compresses the vessels and
nerves of the throat, and this leads to engorgement and
spasmodic action of the muscles.”

We may well pause here and give another moment
to the consideration of this most important subject.
The lungs, as we have seen, are the bellows of our vocal
organ; they supply the air which is the motive power
on which the voice depends. Without air no tone can
be produced. Nay, more, life itself must cease without
it. Breathing goes on regularly while the voice is
silent; but in speaking and singing both inspiration
and expiration have to be regulated according to the
nature of the phrases to be spoken or sung. If the
speaker does not know how to take breath and how to
control the expiration, his delivery will of necessity be
jerky and uncertain. But in the singer it is even more
important that he should be able to fill his lungs well,
and, having done this, to have absolute command over
his expiration; because while the speaker can arrange
his sentences, his speed, and his breathing-places very
much at his own pleasure, the singer is bound by the
music before him. It must, therefore, be his aim to
cultivate a proper method of breathing with the object[19]
of first getting, with the least possible fatigue, the
largest possible amount of air in the most scrupulously
careful manner, so as to prevent even the smallest
fraction of it from being wasted. Yet how seldom is
breathing systematically practised as an indispensable
preliminary to the production of tone! I have no
hesitation in saying that the subject is, in many
instances, dismissed with a few general observations.
Pupils, of course, take breath somehow, and
teachers are glad to leave this uninteresting part of the
business, and to proceed to the cultivation of the
voice.

It may be as well to add that what has been said so
far about right and wrong methods of breathing is not
by any means mere theory, but that any one can convince
himself of the truth of the rules laid down by
making a few experiments with the spirometer, an
instrument for measuring the breathing power of the
chest by indicating on a dial the exact number of cubic
inches of air expelled from the lungs. This breathing
power will be found to vary according to the way in
which the inspiration has been accomplished. In my
own case, for instance, the spirometer should register,
according to the table of comparative height and
breathing power compiled by John Hutchinson, 230
cubic inches. Having suffered from severe attacks of
bleeding from the lungs, my maximum with midriff[20]
and rib breathing is only 220, but with collar-bone
breathing I barely reach 180!

During the Summer Session of the Tonic Sol-fa
College I carefully tested the breathing capacity of ten
students, and found that there was an average excess
of midriff and rib breathing over collar-bone breathing
to the extent of 25 cubic inches: the least amount of
their increased power was 12 cubic inches, and the
greatest was 45! I imagine that these figures are more
eloquent than any words, and I think it superfluous to
make any further comment on them.

I am strongly of opinion that breathing exercises,
especially in the case of intending public singers, should
always be carried on with a spirometer,[D] because that
instrument enables us with the greatest accuracy to
check results which otherwise can only be guessed at.

If this suggestion were acted upon we should certainly
no longer be distressed by that intolerable and never-ceasing
tremolo which now so frequently mars many,
in other respects, fine voices. It is a curious, and at
first sight unaccountable, circumstance that this great
fault is specially noticeable amongst French singers.
But at the Conservatoire de Musique in Paris students
are deliberately taught the wrong method of inspiration;
for, as we gather from the “Méthode de Chant
du Conservatoire de Musique,” they are told to “flatten
[or draw in] the abdomen” and to “bulge out the[21]
chest.” Thus the mystery is at once cleared up,
because the tremolo arises almost invariably from a
weakness of the muscles of the midriff or diaphragm, to
which attention has already been called in these pages.
Owing to the abdomen being drawn in, the midriff
never properly contracts; the muscles are not sufficiently
exercised, and consequently have not power
enough to resist the pressure that is brought to bear
upon them in singing. They tremble, and this trembling
being communicated to the lungs, which are resting
upon them, the stream of air they give forth, loses
its evenness and continuity, with the result I have just
stated. It will be seen from the above explanation
that this tremolo, one of the greatest vices besetting
modern singing, and which has hitherto been held by
many to be incurable, may be got rid of completely,
though perhaps not very quickly, by the simple remedy
of lung gymnastics on the right principle. The tremolo
may certainly also arise from weakness of some muscles
in the voicebox or larynx, by which the tension of the
vocal ligaments is diminished and increased in rapid
alternation. But this is a case for a medical man,
which does not fall within my province to discuss,
though I am justified in saying, on the authority of Mr.
Lennox Browne,[E] that even in many of these cases the[22]
effect is clearly attributable to faulty breathing, since
there is seldom any local disease of the larynx; while
exercise on a right method of breathing will cure the
spasmodic action of the laryngeal muscles with but
little or no medical treatment.

I need scarcely add that there is yet another kind of
tremolo, which, being absolutely under the control of
the performer, is one of the chief ornaments of song,
and to which the observations just made in no way
apply.

In addition to the involuntary tremolo there are a
number of other afflictions, “Clergymen’s sore throat”
amongst them, which are admitted by eminent medical
authorities to be due to collar-bone breathing, and
which may be entirely cured by proper lung gymnastics,
or, in other words, by breathing exercises on the right
principle; that is to say, by calling into play the
muscles of the abdomen and of the lower part of the
chest. This is a subject which is little understood by
singers and public speakers, many of whom would be
amazed at the sometimes most wonderful results produced
by such simple means. I will therefore quote
a case in point which came under my notice quite
recently, and which will give the reader an idea of the
importance of proper breathing:

Mr. X, a tall thin young man, engaged in evan[23]gelistic
work, suffered from a “weakness of voice,”
which he found a great hindrance to his success. He
therefore consulted Mr. Lennox Browne, who at once
told him that he had no disease of any kind, and sent
him to me for a course of breathing exercises. I found
that Mr. X chiefly spoke in a child’s voice, over which,
moreover, he had very little control; and when I requested
him to take a deep inspiration, he drew in his
abdomen, bulged out his chest, and raised his collar-bones.
The spirometer only registered 200 cubic
inches instead of 260, which, according to Hutchinson’s
table, was his mean.

My course was, therefore, plain. I made him stand
in an easy natural position, neither allowing him to
bulge out his chest, nor to draw in the abdomen, and
then instructed him how to acquire some control over
his midriff and the lower muscles of the chest. It may
be observed here, in passing, that we can, in a state of
health, contract and relax these muscles at will, just
as easily as we can bend a finger, and that this power,
when lost through disuse, can be regained with little
difficulty. In Mr. X’s case this process was particularly
speedy, with the result of increasing his breathing
power in two lessons by 60 cubic inches. In one
additional week I could dismiss him with a full sonorous
man’s voice, in place of the uncertain child’s squeak
with which he came to me. It is no exaggeration to[24]
say that this young man left me with a new voice, and
if people had heard him when he first came to me,
behind a screen, and again after the last lesson, they
would certainly not have believed that they were listening
to the same person. What Mr. X and his friends
think of his case may be seen from the following
letter which he wrote me on July 6th, 1880:—”Now
that a week has passed since the last lesson I had from
you, I write to bear testimony to the wonderful benefit
to my voice obtained through the very short course I
took. My friends are quite astonished at the marked
difference, and I beg you will accept my most sincere
thanks,” &c.

Many similar cases might be mentioned, but the one
just quoted is sufficient, and I will sum the matter up
with a few remarks which Mr. Lennox Browne made
as chairman at my lecture at the Aldersgate Street
Literary Institution, on October 9th, 1880. He then
said that, in his medical experience, he found that
persons who suffered from their voices generally owed
their ailments to bad habits of using the voice, and not
to any defect in the larynx or resonance chamber. In
several cases lately he had sent such patients to Herr
Behnke, who had given them lessons in correct breathing,
and who had thereby, and without any medicine,
galvanism, or other aid, restored their voices in a
remarkably short time.[25]

From what has been said above about midriff and
rib breathing versus collar-bone breathing, the folly of
tight-lacing, or, indeed, of in any way interfering with
the freedom of the waist, will be at once apparent.
We pride ourselves upon our civilization; we make a
boast of living in the age of science; physiology is now
taught, or at least talked of, in almost every school;
the laws of health are proclaimed in lectures and
lessons innumerable all over the country, and we laugh
at barbarous customs of other nations, such, for instance,
as that of Chinese women preventing the
growth of their feet by forcing them into boots of only
half their proper size. And yet our ladies wear instruments
of torture called corsets, altering the shape
of their bodies, and positively driving the lower ribs
into the lungs! Now which folly is the greater—that
of doubling up the toes, or of crippling the body in its
most vital parts? Let ladies answer the question,
and let them further most solemnly consider that the
girls of to-day are the mothers of to-morrow, and that
upon the measure of their own health and strength
depends the well-being of coming generations.

It is only fair to add, that if the practice of interfering
with the freedom of the waist is reprehensible in
the case of ladies, it is, in one sense, still more so in
the case of the male sex, because, as has been shown
before, men depend more for their breathing upon the[26]
action of the abdominal muscle than women. They
should, therefore, neither wear tight-fitting vests, nor
suspend their pantaloons by means of waistbands,
belts, or buckles. Loose garments and braces are the
proper thing, though the latter are commonly, but
erroneously, considered to be injurious. Abdominal
belts may be worn with advantage by persons of either
sex requiring their support; but these are very
different from stays or waist-bands. I find that an
enterprising firm is advertising corsets for gentlemen (!),
and a woodcut may be seen in some papers representing
a young Adonis laced up in regular ladies’ fashion,
so that, if it were not for his luxurious moustache, one
would certainly take the drawing to be meant for a
woman. It is almost impossible to imagine that a
man could ever make such a fool of himself; on the
other hand, it is clear that these advertisements would
not continue to appear if they did not bring customers.
But these poor creatures do not deserve to be called
men, and I am sincerely sorry for them.

With regard to the question whether inspiration
should take place through the mouth or through the
nostrils, I must enter my most decided protest against
making it a practice to inhale through the mouth.
There are, of course, occasions when this is unavoidable,
as, for instance, where the singer has rapidly
to take what is called a “half breath.” But complete[27]
inflation, or, “full breath,” is not the work of a
moment; it takes time, and must be done gradually,
steadily, and without the slightest interruption. This
should always be done through the nostrils. The mouth
was never intended for breathing, while the nose is
specially and admirably adapted for this purpose. Not
only can the lungs be well and quickly filled through
this channel, but it is so cunningly devised that it acts
at the same time as a “respirator,” both purifying and
warming the air before it touches the more delicate
parts of the vocal organ. On the other hand, when
inhaled through the mouth, the air carries with it, sometimes
right into the voicebox, dust and other impurities,
and its temperature is not materially altered. The consequence
is that the throat and voicebox, when heated
by singing or talking, or by hot rooms, are often
exposed to cold, raw, and foggy winter air, and serious
derangements of the respiratory organs are the natural
consequence. If, moreover, this pernicious habit of
breathing be once contracted, we shall soon also sleep
with open mouths, thus parching our throats, and
sowing the seeds of many a serious disorder.

On this point I quote a few lines from Dr. Louis
Elsberg,[F] professor of laryngology in the University
of New York: “The natural mode of quiet breathing[28]
is through the nose; mouth-breathing is an acquirement.
A new-born infant would choke to death if
you closed its nose; it does not immediately know
how to get air into the lungs through the mouth until
after, by depressing the tongue, you have once made
a passage for it.”

George Catlin, the celebrated traveller among
American Indians, became so thoroughly convinced
that the difference between the healthy condition and
physical perfection of these people in their primitive
state, especially their sound teeth and good lungs, and
the deplorable mortality, the numerous diseases and
deformities in civilized communities, is mainly due to
the habit, common among the latter, of breathing
through the mouth, especially during sleep, that he
wrote a book entitled “Malrespiration and its Effects
upon the Enjoyment and Life of Man.” In this book
he says, “If I were to endeavour to bequeath to
posterity the most important motto which human
language can convey, it should be in three words,
‘Shut your mouth.’ In the social transactions of life
this might have its beneficial results as the most
friendly cautionary advice, or be received as the
grossest of insults; but where I would print and
engrave it, in every nursery and on every bedpost in
the universe, its meaning could not be mistaken, and
obeyed, its importance would soon be realized.”[29]

He also says, “It is one of the misfortunes of civilization
that it has too many amusing and exciting things
for the mouth to say, and too many delicious things
for it to taste, to allow of its being closed during the
day. The mouth therefore has too little reserve for
the protection of its natural purity of expression, and
too much exposure for the protection of its garniture;
but, do keep your mouth shut when you read, when you
write, when you listen, when you are in pain, when you
are walking, when you are running, when you are
riding, and by all means when you are angry! There
is no person but who will find and acknowledge improvement
in health and enjoyment from even a temporary
attention to this advice.”

Again he says, “There is a proverb, as old and
unchangeable as their hills, amongst North American
Indians, ‘My son, if thou wouldst be wise, open first
thy eyes; thy ears next, and last of all thy mouth, that
thy words may be words of wisdom, and give no advantage
to thine adversary.’ This might be adopted with
good effect in civilized life; he who would strictly adhere
to it would be sure to reap its benefits in his waking
hours, and would soon find the habit running into his
hours of rest, into which he would calmly enter; dismissing
the nervous anxieties of the day, as he firmly
closed his teeth and his lips, only to be opened after
his eyes and his ears in the morning, the rest of such[30]
sleep would bear him daily and hourly proof of its
value.”

Catlin regards the habit of sleeping with the mouth
open the most pernicious of all bad habits. The horrors
of nightmare and snoring are, according to him, but
the least of its evil effects. He thinks “for the greater
portion of the thousands and tens of thousands of
persons suffering with weakness of lungs, with bronchitis,
asthma, indigestion, and other affections of the
digestive and respiratory organs,” the correction of this
habit is a panacea for their ills!

He insists that “mothers should be looked to as the
first and principal correctors of this most destructive
of human habits; … and the united and simultaneous
efforts of the civilized world should be exerted
in the overthrow of a monster so destructive to the
good looks and life of man. Every physician should
advise his patients, and every boarding-school in existence
and every hospital should have its surgeon or
matron, and every regiment its officer, to make their
nightly and hourly ’rounds,’ to force a stop to so unnatural,
disgusting, and dangerous a habit! Under the
working of such a system, mothers guarding and helping
the helpless, schoolmasters their scholars, hospital
surgeons their patients, generals their soldiers, and the
rest of the world protecting themselves, a few years
would show the glorious results in the bills of mor[31]tality,
and the next generation would be a regeneration
of the human race.”

The Windpipe (pl. I, W).—Having examined the
bellows of our vocal organ, we next notice the windpipe,
by means of which the air is carried into and out
of the lungs. It is an elastic tube kept open by 18 or
20 rings which do not quite meet at the back. It
enters the lungs by means of two smaller tubes, which
in their turn branch out very much like the roots of a
tree, until their ramifications end in the microscopic
cells of the lungs. The windpipe is capable of being
slightly elongated or shortened, and narrowed or
widened, and its interior is covered with a mucous
membrane, which, as its name implies, is continually
kept in a moist state.

The Voicebox, or Larynx (pl. V) may be described as
resembling a funnel, the upper part of which has been
bent into a triangular shape. Its front corner (pl. V,
1) may be both seen and felt in the throat, and the
general position of the voicebox is thereby at once indicated.
The framework of the voicebox consists of five
parts. 1st. The Ring cartilage (pl. V, 2) is so named
on account of its general resemblance to a signet ring.
It is narrow in front, and has the part corresponding to
the seal behind; the upper border (pl. V, 8, 4) rises
very considerably towards the back, where it is about an
inch high. 2nd. Riding upon this, as it were, with its
[32]

Plate V.

SIDE VIEW OF THE VOICEBOX, OR LARYNX.

[33]

Plate VI.

FRONT VIEW OF THE VOICEBOX, OR LARYNX.

[34]
hollow part towards the back, is the Shield cartilage
(pl. V, 5), which consists of two plates united in front at
an angle which forms the prominence referred to just
now as that corner of the triangular funnel (pl. V, 1)
which may be both seen and felt in the throat, and
which is commonly called the Adam’s Apple. It protects
the interior and more delicate parts of the voice
apparatus, from which circumstance it derives its name
of shield cartilage. The plates of the shield have each
at the back two horns, the upper and the lower. With
the upper horns (pl. VI, 1, 2) the shield cartilage is
attached by means of bands (pl. VI, 6, 7) to the corresponding
projections (pl. VI, 4, 5) of the tongue-bone
(pl. VI, 3), which has the shape of a horseshoe. With
the lower horns (pl. V, 8), of which on our diagram we
can only see one, it moves upon the ring cartilage as
upon a hinge (pl. V, 9).

This is a very particular point, and I beg the reader
particularly to notice that if the shield cartilage (pl. V,
5) were gradually drawn downwards and forwards, the
space which we now see between the shield and the
ring (pl. V, 10) would get smaller and smaller, until
at last it quite disappeared; and the distance between
the front of the shield (pl. V, 1) and the highest part
of the back of the ring (pl. V, 4) would be increased.

3rd. The Lid (pl. V, 11) is an elastic cartilage which
serves to close the voicebox in the act of swallowing,
in order to protect it against any intruding foreign
substances. The food we take has to pass over it, and
it sometimes happens, when the lid has not been pulled
down tight enough, that a particle of food enters the
voicebox, in which case we say it has “gone the wrong
way,” and there is then no peace until the intruder
has been got rid of, generally by a violent fit of
coughing.

4th and 5th. We have thus far become acquainted
with three cartilages out of the five. Let us now remove
one plate of the shield, as though cutting it off[36]
with a knife (pl. VII, 1 and 2), in order that we may
look inside and see the remaining two cartilages which
have hitherto been hidden by it. These are—

The Pyramids (pl. VII, 1 and 2), so called because
of their shape. Their bases are triangular and hollowed
out; their sides taper upwards and terminate in points
which are bent slightly backwards, and they have each
two projections, one pointing forwards (pl. VII, 3) and
the other outwards and backwards (pl. VII, 4). It will
be convenient to have a special name for the projections
pointing outwards and backwards, which we will therefore
call the Levers.

The Pyramids are attached with their hollow bases
to the borders of the ring (pl. VII, 5), and they are
capable of executing rotary movements with surprising
freedom and rapidity. Their inner sides may be made
to run parallel or to diverge. In addition to this they
can be drawn towards each other, or away from each
other, so that their summits may either be widely
separated or brought close together.

The Vocal Ligaments are two ledges of elastic
tissue covered with a very delicate membrane. Each
one of them is connected along its whole length, on one
side, with the shield cartilage. The vocal ligaments
are attached by their hinder ends to those little projections
of the pyramids which point forwards (pl. VII,
3, 3), and by their front ends to the centre of the shield[38][37]
(pl. VII, 6), where the two plates meet under a more or
less acute angle.

Plate VII.

SIDE VIEW OF THE VOICEBOX, OR LARYNX, SHOWING
THE INTERIOR OF IT, THE RIGHT PLATE BEING
REMOVED.

The vocal ligaments, having met, are struck by the
air blown against them from below, and being elastic
they yield, allowing themselves to be forced upwards.
A little air is thereby set free, and the pressure from
below diminished, in consequence of which the vocal
ligaments resume their former position, and even move
a little more downwards. The renewed pressure of
the air once more overcomes the resistance of the
vocal ligaments, which again recede as soon as another
escape of air has taken place, and this process[39]
is repeated in rapid and regular succession. In this
manner, and in this manner alone, is vocal tone produced,
whether it be called chest, falsetto, head, or
by any other name.

[41]

The vocal ligaments in the adult male are, in a
state of rest, about three-quarters of an inch long, and
in the female about half an inch. I pointed out before
that the vocal ligaments are attached in front to the
shield (pl. VII, 6) and behind to the pyramids (pl.
VII, 3, 3). Let it now be borne in mind—1st,
That the pyramids, in their turn, are fastened to the
upper border of the ring cartilage; and 2nd, That by
drawing the shield downwards and forwards upon the
ring, the distance between the upper border of the
ring (pl. VII, 5) and the front of the shield (pl. VII,
6) is increased, and it will be easily seen that this
movement must of necessity have the effect of stretching
the vocal ligaments.

This drawing of the shield downwards and forwards
upon the ring is brought about by a pair of muscles
ascending on either side, in the shape of a fan,
from the ring to the shield cartilage (pl. VIII, 1, 2).
These muscles we name the “Ring-Shield Muscles.”
In opposition to them there is another pair inside the
shield, running parallel with the vocal ligaments (pl.
IX, 1, 2, 3). They are attached (like the vocal
ligaments) in front to the shield cartilage and behind
to the pyramids. These muscles we will call the
“Shield-Pyramid Muscles.” They counteract the ring-shield
muscles, and having overcome their resistance,
pull the shield cartilage up again, thereby, of course,[44][43][42]
relaxing the vocal ligaments. The ring-shield muscles,
therefore, stretch the vocal ligaments and the shield-pyramid
muscles relax them. The shield-pyramid
muscles have an additional function—that of pressing
together the vocal ligaments, under certain circumstances,
thereby narrowing the opening between them.
They have therefore been, in these later days, called
the Sphincter[G] muscle of the glottis. They have also
been called the Vocal Muscles, since they play so
important a part in the formation of all vocal tone
that a paralysis of them causes total loss of voice.

Plate VIII.

SIDE VIEW OF THE VOICEBOX, OR LARYNX.

Plate IX.

SIDE VIEW OF THE VOICEBOX, OR LARYNX, SHOWING
THE INTERIOR OF THE LEFT HALF.

These two pairs of muscles, then, namely the ring-shield
muscles (pl. VIII, 1, 2) and the shield-pyramid
muscles (pl. IX, 1, 2, 3) by stretching, slackening,
and compressing the vocal ligaments, mainly govern
the pitch of the tones produced by their vibrations.
The ring-shield muscles receive some assistance in
stretching the vocal ligaments from another quarter, of
which we shall speak later on.[45]

We have now had a look at the vocal ligaments,
and we have seen by what means they are put on
the stretch. As, however, in a state of repose these
ligaments diverge behind, they must be brought
parallel to each other before they are ready for the
production of sound. Let us, therefore, in order to
explain how this is done, imagine that we have cut
off that part of the pyramids which is standing out
above the vocal ligaments (pl. VII), and let us now
have a look at these parts from above. You see the
ligaments (pl. X A, 1, 2), a section of the pyramids
(pl. X A, 3, 4), and uniting these an elastic band (pl.
XA, 5). The space between these parts is commonly
called the Glottis, but as this appellation belongs
more properly to the vocal ligaments, it is manifestly
wrong to give the same name to the space which they
inclose. This space should be distinguished as the
“Chink of the Glottis” or the “Vocal Chink.”

Dr. Garrett says, on page 12 of the book quoted
before, that “The upper portion of the larynx above[46]
the false vocal cords is termed the glottis.” He might
as well say, “The upper portion of the face above the
nose is termed the mouth.” I really should not notice
so astounding a statement were it not made by one
signing himself an M.D., and published by so eminent
a firm of Medical publishers as Messrs. J. and A.
Churchill.

Plate X.

On plate XI you see all parts in a state of rest. To the levers of the
pyramids (pl. XI, 1, 2) a pair of muscles is attached, the bases of
which are fixed upon the back of the ring cartilage below (pl. XI, 3, 6,
3). The action of these “Back Ring-Pyramid Muscles” (pl. XI, 4, 1 and 5,
2) is to contract as soon as we[47] take breath, thereby drawing
together the pyramids behind and separating them in front, at the
same time stretching the elastic band behind (pl. X, A, 5). By this
movement the chink of the glottis is thrown wide open into the shape
depicted on pl. X, B. During expiration these relax, the elastic band
contracts, and the vocal chink resumes the shape as on pl. XI. These
movements go on from the beginning of our lives to the end, whether we
are asleep or awake, with more or less vigour, according as we take a
slight or a deep inspiration. The back ring-pyramid muscles (pl. XI, 4,
1 and 5, 2), have consequently the all-important function of keeping
open the gate through which the air we breathe enters the lungs. They
have, therefore, been poetically called the “Guardians of the Portal of
Life.” By their action of pulling the pyramids backwards, they also
assist the ring-shield muscles (pl. VIII, 1, 2) in stretching the vocal
ligaments.

In opposition to these “Opening Muscles” there is
another pair rising from the side borders of the ring
(pl. XI, 3, 3) which are fastened to the front part of
the levers of the pyramids (pl. XI, 1, 2), serving to
draw together their front projections to which the
vocal ligaments are attached, and which are thereby
brought parallel with each other.[48]

Plate XI.

VIEW OF A SECTION OF THE VOICEBOX, OR LARYNX,
FROM ABOVE.

Note.—The shield-pyramid muscles (Thyro-Arytenoidei)
which run parallel with the vocal ligaments are, for the sake
of clearness, omitted from this diagram.[49]

These “Side Ring-Pyramid Muscles” (pl. XI, 3, 1
and 3, 2; see also pl. IX, 5, 4) are assisted by a single
muscle uniting the pyramids behind the elastic band
which we have already noticed. This muscle we will
call the “Pyramid Muscle” (pl. XI, 7). By the
united action of the muscles which have just been
described the vocal chink is thrown in the shape
shown on pl. X, C, and the vocal ligaments are now
in a proper position for the production of tone.

Before proceeding any farther it will be well if we
once more glance at the muscles with which we have
become acquainted, so that we may be quite sure
about their functions.

MUSCLES:

I. Governing the Shape of the Vocal Chink.

These are opposed by—

[50]

II. Governing the Pitch of the Tones.

These are opposed by—

The Pocket Ligaments (called “False Vocal Cords,”
pl. XII, 1 and 2) are a pair of horizontal projections
running above and parallel with the vocal ligaments
(pl. XII, 3 and 4). The pocket ligaments are, like
the vocal ligaments, attached in front to the shield
and behind to the pyramids. They may be described
as two ledge-shaped pads mainly formed of glands.
They are very sensitive and movable, and ready on
the smallest incitement to meet with great rapidity in
order to protect the vocal ligaments from any harm.
They must, therefore, be chiefly regarded as safeguards
of the vocal apparatus, though it is probable that by
breaking the stream of air passing through the chink
of the glottis, they also exercise considerable influence
upon the quality of the tone emitted. It may be
affirmed, however, without the slightest hesitation, that
they have absolutely nothing to do with the production
of tone. We shall see these glandular ledges again
during our observations upon the living subject, and
I shall therefore say no more about them at present.[51]

Plate XII.

VIEW OF THE VOICEBOX, OR LARYNX, WHICH HAS
BEEN CUT OPEN FROM BEHIND.

[52]

The space between the pocket ligaments and the
vocal ligaments (pl. XII, 1, 2, 3, 4) is the entrance
to two pouches or pockets which extend outwards and
upwards. The dimensions of these pockets vary very
much in different individuals. As a rule their height
does not exceed two-fifths of an inch, so that their
terminations do not reach the upper borders of the
shield cartilage (pl. XII, 5 and 6). But there are instances
in which the pockets are nearly three-quarters
of an inch high, and where such is the case they, as
a necessary consequence, reach beyond the shield.
Sometimes they are so high as nearly to touch the root
of the tongue. Their outer walls are chiefly formed of
loose fatty cellular tissue, and the pockets are almost
entirely surrounded by a large number of small glands.

The function of the pockets, in my opinion, is this:
They are the means of isolating the vocal ligaments,
thus enabling them to vibrate freely and without
hindrance. They also allow the sound-waves to expand
sideways, thereby materially adding to their resonance.
Lastly, they with their many little glands produce and
supply the vocal ligaments with that moisture without
which, according to the investigations of J. Müller,[H]
the production of tone cannot be carried on.

Above the pocket ligaments there is a kind of tube
which is formed by the upper part of the pyramids
(surmounted by two little bodies called the cartilages[54]
of Santorini, pl. XII, 7, 8) behind; the lid or epiglottis
(pl. XII, 9) in front, and sideways by two folds of
mucous membrane running up from the pyramids to
the lid (pl. XII, 14, 10 and 15, 11). These folds are
in many cases supported by two small cartilages, which
we will call the Wedges (pl. XII, 12, 13). These,
according to Madame Emma Seiler, are the chief factors
in the formation of the highest register of the female
voice. In some physiological works they are treated
as of very little consequence, and in others they are not
mentioned at all.

These wedges are two thin strips of cartilage running
in front of the pyramids (pl. XII, 12 and 13) where
they are embedded in a number of glands. Their
upper ends terminate in the cartilages of Wrisberg (pl.
XII, 14, 15), and their lower ends gradually dwindle
away in the direction of the vocal ligaments.

[56]

The Resonator.—We now come to the last part of
our instrument, namely, the resonator, which is formed
of (1) the pockets of the larynx; (2) the tube above
the pocket ligaments; (3) the upper part of the throat;
(4) the mouth; and (5) the nose. Before giving a
description of the resonator, it will be necessary to
make a few introductory remarks on certain laws of the
philosophy of sound, which have been so clearly demonstrated
that they admit of no contradiction.

Tone, as we have seen, is the result of rapid periodic
vibrations.

The Loudness of tone depends upon the amplitude
of the vibrations. This is easily shown by drawing a
bow over the string of a violin: while the vibrations
of the string are largest, the tone produced is loudest,
and as the vibrations get smaller, so the tone becomes
fainter.

The Pitch of tone depends upon the number of
vibrations in a given period of time. The greater the
number of vibrations the higher the pitch, and vice versâ.

The Quality of tone depends on the form of the
vibrations, “which also determines the occurrence of
upper partial tones.”[K]

Now, to make the sound of any tone-producing
element more intense, and to give it some special[57]
quality, is the work of the resonator. If we simply
fix a fiddle string at either end, and, after giving it a
certain amount of tension, draw a bow across it, we
shall certainly produce a tone, but a very poor and
faint one. Put the same string with the same amount
of tension upon a cheap violin, and the tone will be intensified,
and its quality changed, though that quality
may be of a very unpleasant kind. Repeat the experiment
upon an Amati or a Straduarius, and not only will
the tone be more powerful still, but it will also have a
full, round, and beautiful quality. Something, it is
true, depends upon the string and upon the bowing, but
we are here supposing the same string and the same
player, our object being to show how the resonator,
which, in this case, is the body of the violin, intensifies
the tone of the string, and affects its quality.

Illustrations exemplifying the same thing might be
multiplied to any extent, but the one I have just
given will suffice. As with the string, so with the vocal
ligaments. Cut a larynx out of a dead body, put it
in proper position on the top of a bellows, and force
the air through it, and you will produce tone, but faint
and poor tone. Now add a resonator to the larynx,
and the tone of the vocal ligaments will be intensified,
and its quality altered according to the kind of resonator
you make use of.

It is clear, therefore, that the human voice does not[58]
only depend upon the vibrations of the vocal ligaments,
and the corresponding vibrations of the air passing between
them, but also upon the resonator as defined on
p. 9. According to the natural formation of our resonator,
and according to the infinite variety of shapes
which every one has it in his power to give to it, our
voices will be, always supposing the conditions of the
vocal ligaments to be the same, either full, round,
sonorous, and beautiful, or they will be poor, cutting,
muffled, guttural, nasal, and ugly.

As we have, or may easily acquire, absolute command
over the resonator, or, at least, over the greatest part of
it, it is a comfort to know that so very much depends
upon it, and I trust my readers will now, with some
amount of pleasure, look with me at this part of the
vocal apparatus.

The 1st and 2nd divisions of the resonator—namely,
the pockets of the larynx and the tube above the pocket
ligaments—have been fully described on pp. 52, 53, and
no more need be said on the subject here.

The upper part of the throat, called in scientific
works the “Pharynx” (pl. I, P), is a cavity, the largest
part of which may be seen through the arch at the back
of the open mouth. Its hinder wall is formed by the
spinal column, and it extends upwards as far as the
Eustachian tubes (pl. I, E) which communicate with
the middle part of the ear. Here it joins[59]—

The Cavities of the Nose (pl. I, N), which have for
their base the hard and soft palate (pl. I, H and S), and
which are divided by a bone partition.

The only part of the Mouth which requires a particular
description is the soft palate. This is a movable
partition by means of which either the mouth or the
nose can be completely separated from the throat. If
the nose is to be shut off from the throat the soft palate
is raised, and pressed against the back of the pharynx.
If the mouth is to be shut off the soft palate is lowered,
and rests closely upon the back of the tongue. This
partition plays a most important part in vocalization.
In the formation of all pure vowel sounds it is raised,
thereby closing the nasal cavities, and it has been found
that the closure is loosest for “ah” (as in “father”)
and tightest for “e” (as in “bee”), the intermediate
vowels being “a” (as in “name”), “oh” and “oo”
(as in “food”). This has been clearly shown by
Czermak in the following manner. Lying down on his
back, he had the nasal cavities filled with tepid water.
He then uttered the various vowel sounds, and ascertained
from the quantity of water required to force open
the closure formed by the soft palate the degree of
tightness for each vowel. He afterwards constructed a
very ingenious little apparatus, by means of which, in
one of his lectures, he demonstrated this fact to his
audience. It will be easily understood from the above[60]
explanation that, if the closure of the nasal cavities is
sufficiently imperfect to allow any considerable amount
of air to pass through the nose, the result will be a
nasal tone.

It now only remains to be added that the interior of
the windpipe and of the voicebox, as well as that of
the throat, the mouth, and the nose, is lined with a
thin mucous membrane of a pinkish colour. This concludes
my description of the Vocal Organ as a musical
instrument.[62]

DIFFERENCES OF THE VOICEBOX, OR
LARYNX, IN CHILDREN, WOMEN,
AND MEN.

The voicebox of a newly-born baby is about one-third
the size of that of a grown woman. It is therefore
rather large in proportion to other parts of the
body, with the exception of the head, which comparatively
is larger still. The horizontal outline of the
shield cartilage is a very gentle curve, and the upper
horns are short, in consequence of which the voicebox
is close to the tongue. The wedges, according to
Merkel, are strongly developed; the vocal ligaments
are short and thick, and the pockets deep. Up to the
third year the voicebox grows very considerably, but
no particular alterations take place from that time to
the period of puberty, which generally occurs at the
age of 14 or 15, rather earlier in girls than in boys.[63]
This period of change lasts from six to twelve months,
or sometimes even two or three years. During this
time the vocal organs undergo a marked change. In
boys, the angle at which the two plates of the shield
meet becomes more and more acute, and the length of
the vocal ligaments increases only in the proportion of
five to ten. In girls, on the other hand, the horizontal
outline of the shield does not lose its evenness, and the
length of the vocal ligaments increases only in the proportion
of five to seven. The cartilages would seem,
especially in boys, to grow more rapidly than the
muscles, so that the slowly-growing muscles do not, at
first, control the newly-developed cartilages. This accounts
for the unmanageable state of the voice at this
period. The changes which take place in the female
voicebox are very imperceptible, so that they do not
materially affect the character of the voice. In the male
voicebox, on the contrary, the alterations are very
marked, and the result is that the high voice of the boy
is changed into the tenor or the bass of the man.
While, therefore, before the period of puberty the voicebox
is materially the same in both sexes, there are,
afterwards, considerable differences noticeable, not only
with regard to size, but also with regard to shape.
This seems, indeed, sufficiently obvious, and any one
can see it by simply comparing the outside of the
throat of a man with that of a woman.[64]

It must further be observed that the whole upper
part of the shield in the female voicebox is less
developed than in the male. The upper horns are
short, so that the voicebox is more closely attached to
the tongue-bone, and its position in the throat is
altogether higher in woman than in man. To show
more clearly still the difference in the proportions of
the male and the female voicebox, I give below some
average measurements (taken from Luschka’s great
work on the Larynx) which I have, for the convenience
of English readers, reduced, as nearly as possible, from
centimetres and millimetres to inches.

According to this eminent anatomist, therefore, the
differences between male and female larynges are as
follows: In height, ⁹/₁₀; in width, ¹/₅; in depth, ¹/₅; in
the length of the vocal chink, ²/₅ of an inch. As it is
plain that if there were “no difference between the
male and the female larynx save in size,” all their
proportions would be alike, I think I may safely assume
that I have proved my point, which is a rather important
one, as the reader will see when the registers in
the male and female voice come up for discussion.

We will now consider the question how the various
classes of voice—i.e., Sopranos, Contraltos, Tenors, and
Basses—are to be accounted for by corresponding
differences in the voicebox. We know that tone is
produced by the vibrations of the vocal ligaments.
It is clear, therefore, that a voice will be high or low
according to the number of vibrations which the ligaments
are capable of producing, or in other words,
according to their dimensions and their tension.
This difference is easily seen by comparing the[66]
voicebox of a soprano with that of a bass, because
there the proportions are so manifestly smaller in the
one than in the other. There are similar distinctions
between soprano and contralto on the one hand, and
between tenor and bass on the other, but they are not
so striking. Neither can they, for various reasons, be
demonstrated with the laryngoscope; but they exist
nevertheless.

It is true that the vocal ligaments of a soprano are
sometimes longer than those of a contralto, just as
the ligaments of a tenor are occasionally longer than
those of a bass. But I maintain that the longer
ligaments of sopranos and tenors are correspondingly
thinner, and that their tension is greater, owing to the
ring-shield or stretching muscles being more powerful
than their opponents—the shield-pyramid muscles.
Where this is the case the ligaments are more slanting
than they would be otherwise, and the consequence of
this is that less power of blast is required to make
them speak. With this mechanism the higher registers
are very readily united with the lower ones, and the
voices so produced are of a light and flexible kind.
Where, on the contrary, the vocal ligaments of contraltos
and basses are comparatively short, they are
also thick in proportion, and the shield-pyramid
muscles are more powerful than the opposing ring-shield
muscles, so that there is less tension. I shall[67]
be asked how I can prove this tension theory, and my
reply is this: The diameter of the vocal ligaments
depends in a large measure on the magnitude of the
shield-pyramid muscles. If, therefore, the ligaments
are exceptionally thick, the muscles just named must
of necessity be very powerful, and can easily resist the
pulling of the ring-shield muscles. If, on the contrary,
the ligaments are exceptionally thin, it is equally
certain that the shield-pyramid muscles are weak in
proportion, and then the stretching muscles can easily
overcome their resistance.

I may add that I came to the above conclusions
about the various classes of voices years ago, when
commencing the study of this subject. Not only have
I never since seen any reason to alter my views—although
I have not failed to notice and carefully
examine the theories of others denying my doctrine—but
I am more than ever convinced that my explanations
are correct. I have now the gratification of
seeing my theory confirmed by so great an authority
as Dr. Merkel, of Leipzig, who most elaborately explains
the subject in his latest work on the larynx, to
which I have already alluded in these pages.

Besides the factors enumerated above, there are, no
doubt, others which are also of consequence in determining
the particular kind of voice to be produced by[68]
this vocal apparatus or by that; as, for instance, the
windpipe, or the resonator, or both. The capacity
of the chest—nay, the structure of the whole body,
may have a more or less direct influence upon it.
But there are absolutely no statistics to proceed upon,
and in the absence of these it is vain to indulge in
any speculations on the subject.[69]

MOVEMENTS OF THE VOICEBOX, OR
LARYNX, WHICH CAN BE SEEN
OR FELT.

The voicebox in a man is situated almost exactly in the
middle of the throat; in woman its position is, for
reasons partly explained on page 64, considerably
higher. It moves downwards in inspiration, and upwards
in expiration; and the more vigorously we
breathe, the more marked are these movements. In
the act of swallowing the voicebox rises quickly, and
in yawning it goes down so completely that the whole
windpipe may vanish into the chest, and even the part
of the ring cartilage may disappear.

When singing in what is called chest-voice the voicebox
rises gradually with each higher tone. Changing
the mode of tone production, and singing—say an
octave higher—in falsetto, the voicebox makes quite a
leap upwards, and then again rises gradually with each[70]
higher tone, just as in chest-voice, but in a lesser degree.
The voicebox, however, does not stand so high for the
lowest falsetto as for the highest chest tones.

In whispering, the voicebox occupies a different position
in the throat for each vowel. I invite the reader to
try the following curious experiment. Let him take the
larynx gently between the thumb and the first finger,
and then whisper OO (as in “food,”) OH, AH, A (as in
“name,”) and E (as in “bee”). He will find that the
voicebox rises with every succeeding vowel until at last
it has completely slipped away from between the finger
and thumb. Each one of these whispered vowels has, as
first ascertained by Helmholtz, its exact pitch, whether
uttered by a little child or by an old man, and the
effect of the rising of the voicebox is to shorten the
resonator, whereby the raising of the pitch is produced.

I stated on page 41 that the vocal ligaments were
capable of being stretched by the ring-shield muscles,
and that the pitch of the tones produced by their[71]
vibrations depended mainly on their tension. As we
are now taking note of such movements of the voicebox
as may be either seen or felt in the throat, we will
take the opportunity of trying whether my statement
can be verified. Let the reader, therefore, do as
follows:—(1) Place the finger on the shield cartilage,
and press it vigorously backward. (2) Sing loudly any
high tone that is well within your compass. Hold this
tone steadily, and be quite sure you do not alter its pitch.
(3) Now suddenly remove your finger, continuing to
sing as before. What is the result? Your tone is
raised by a third, or even more, according to the
amount of pressure you exercised on the shield. And
how did this result come about? In this way: By
pressing the shield backwards you elongated the ring-shield
muscles, thereby counteracting their stretching
influence, and at the same time slackening the vocal
ligaments. The tone you sang while doing this was, we
will say C’. By releasing the shield you enabled the
ring-shield muscles to contract again, thereby putting
the vocal ligaments on the stretch as they were at first.
That changed your C’ to E’, or higher still. Have I
proved my assertion?

Now one more test, if you please. I pointed out to
you on page 34 an opening between the shield and the
ring. You will see it on plate V, No. 10. Please sing
a low tone; place your finger gently on the shield, and[72]
move it downwards. You will soon discover a little
hollow which corresponds with the opening I just
mentioned, and into which you can easily put part of
the tip of your finger. Now sing up the scale, and take
care to keep the tip of your finger in the hollow. Remember
that in singing up the scale your voicebox will
rise, which movement you must follow, or you will lose
the place. If you do this carefully, you will find that
the hollow gets smaller and smaller by degrees until at
last it closes entirely, and you can no longer find a
trace of it. Now sing down again, keeping your finger
on the same spot. You will soon notice the hollow
again, and it will continue to get larger and larger until
you arrive at the bottom of your scale.

This, of course, is but another way of showing the
mechanism by which the pitch of your tones is raised
or lowered, and we have proved the same thing by our
preceding experiment. But I asked you to try this
chiefly because it will enable you to put a check upon
my statements with regard to the registers of the voice,
a subject which I propose to discuss in another
chapter.[73]

THE LARYNGOSCOPE, AND HOW TO
USE IT.

The Laryngoscope in its simplest form is a thin circular
mirror, about three-quarters of an inch in diameter,
set in a metal frame, and fastened at an angle of 120°
to a piece of wire from three to four inches long,
which is put into a small wooden handle not much
thicker than a pencil, and about the same length as the
wire. By help of the laryngoscope we can either see
our own larynx or that of another person. The easiest
experiment is upon the larynx of some one else. In
this case, the person to be operated upon sits facing the
sun, the head slightly bent backwards, and the mouth
wide open. If he has not sufficient control over his
tongue to prevent it from arching up, he must gently
hold its protruding tip with a pocket handkerchief between
his thumb and forefinger. The mirror is now
slightly warmed to prevent its becoming dimmed by[74]
the moisture of the breath, and then, holding it like a
pen, the operator introduces it into the throat so that
it touches the uvula. This must be done lightly yet
firmly, care being taken not to bring the mirror into
contact with the base of the tongue. The rays of the sun
falling upon the mirror are reflected downwards into
the voicebox, the image of which is clearly visible in the
mirror. In making observations upon oneself, a second
mirror in the shape of an ordinary hand looking-glass is
necessary to reproduce the image in the small mirror.
This is the way in which the renowned professor of
singing, Senor Manuel Garcia, made those famous “Observations
on the Human Voice,” communicated to the
Royal Society by Dr. Sharpey, on May the 24th, 1855.
Similar attempts had been made before; for instance,
in 1827 by Babington, in 1838 by Baumès, in 1840
by Liston, and in 1844 by Warden and Avery. But
they had all ended in failure, an occasional glimpse of
some parts of the voicebox being the only result obtained.
Garcia, however, brilliantly succeeded where
all his predecessors had failed, and was the first not
only to see the vocal ligaments, but to see them in the
act of singing, and to see them so clearly as to be able
to give an account of their minutest movements. The
instrument has since been greatly improved, and the
process of investigation has become a science. Medical
men all over the world have laid hold of it, and suffering[75]
humanity is daily benefited by it. But Garcia is the
man who produced the first results, and to him, therefore,
is due the credit of being practically the inventor
of the laryngoscope.

It is almost incredible, but it is true, that this
splendid invention was received coldly and with distrust
in this country, and had it not been for Dr. Johann N.
Czermak, Professor of Physiology at the University of
Pesth, the matter would, in all probability, have been
forgotten. But this gentleman recognized the value of
Garcia’s invention, and he at once went enthusiastically
to work, and pushed on vigorously in the way which
Garcia had opened for him. He constructed an apparatus
which enabled him, by making use of artificial light,
to work without interruption and without waiting for the
sun to shine. He then made his first attempts on himself
in order to become acquainted with the conditions
which have to be fulfilled by the observer as well as by
the person to be operated upon. In this way he soon
became a master of the new process, which he immediately
brought under the notice of the profession by
giving lectures and demonstrations in the chief towns
of Europe.

More than twenty years have passed since then, and
the laryngoscope has, during that time, been made
excellent use of, not only for the alleviation of suffering,
and the cure of disease, but also for its original purpose—i.e.,[76]
the exploration of the mechanism of the human
voice.

My own connection with the matter has arisen
through my desire to sift contradictory statements
made by various observers. Having read many English,
German, and French books on the subject, I was in
position to pick up a hint here, and to get some good
advice there, and the consequence was that I was able
to pursue a course which made me familiar with the
use of the laryngoscope in a very short time. As my
experience may be useful to others, I will briefly relate
how I proceeded.

I made my first attempts upon a skull, to which I
attached a plaster-of-Paris model of the voicebox, the
whole being fastened to an iron stand. The instrument
I used was a concave reflector on a spectacle frame.
The reflector had a hole in the centre, and was capable
of being moved in various directions. The next thing
was the little mirror described on page 73, and lastly,
a gas lamp on the principle of the well-known
“Queen’s” reading lamps, which can be raised or
lowered at pleasure. I placed the skull to the left of
the lamp, and looking with my right eye through the
hole in the centre of the reflector, practised throwing
the light swiftly and with certainty into the upper part
of the throat. I then introduced the little spy mirror,
and tried to see and to recognize the various parts of[77]
the voicebox, which, let it be remembered, present a
somewhat different appearance in the looking-glass
from what they do if seen without it. Then I got a
friend to mark my artificial voicebox, unknown to me,
in various ways, and endeavoured quickly to discover
what he had done. In this way I soon acquired a
considerable amount of skill in handling the instrument,
and also became thoroughly familiar with the image of
the voicebox in the mirror.[M] Having thus to a large
extent mastered the mechanical part of my work, I
proceeded to make observations upon myself. I placed
to the left of the lamp an ordinary bedroom looking-glass,
in which now appeared my own face instead of
the skull which hitherto occupied this place. I opened
my mouth, and by the help of the reflector directed the
light into the image of it in the looking-glass. I then[78]
continued in every way as I had done with the skull,
with this difference, however, that I had first, as pointed
out before, to warm the little spy mirror in order to
prevent its becoming dimmed in the throat.

An instrument has since been designed by the late Dr.
G. D. Foulis, of Glasgow, which for simplicity, general
excellence, and cheapness, far surpasses the above contrivance,
and which I strongly recommend to intending students
of laryngoscopy. It consists of a plain stand on which
is placed a glass globe filled with water, the whole being
surmounted by a small square mirror. The rays from
a lamp or candle, placed behind the globe, are concentrated
into the open mouth of the observer, who is
seated in front of it, enabling him, by the use of an
ordinary throat mirror, to inspect the movements of his
own vocal ligaments.

[79]This apparatus, as shown in the annexed drawing,
including a throat mirror, and safely packed for transmission,
may be had from Messrs. W. B. Hilliard &
Sons, 65, Renfield Street, Glasgow, for the very small
sum of 7s. 6d.

Let not the reader who tries laryngoscopic investigations
be discouraged if, at first, violent retching is the
result. It does not so much arise from sensitiveness of
the parts touched, as from awkwardness in introducing
the mirror. If he perseveres he will soon be rewarded
by a view of the pearly white vocal ligaments, and a
little repeated practice upon himself will enable him also
to operate upon others without causing them discomfort.

I close this chapter by again reminding amateur
laryngoscopists that in the vast majority of cases where
the touch of the mirror causes retching and gagging,
it is due less to the sensitiveness of the person operated
upon than to the want of skill on the part of the
operator. He should in that case renew his experiments
upon himself, and continue them until he has fully
mastered the use of the instrument, as it is not fair to
make others suffer for his own clumsiness.[80]

THE TEACHINGS OF THE
LARYNGOSCOPE.

On introducing the mirror into the throat we first see
the back part of the tongue, which has a very uneven
surface, and which is, as a rule, covered with greyish
phlegm. We next notice a hollow space between the
tongue and the lid, which is divided by an elastic band
forming a little bridge between the two. Next comes
the upper free part of the lid, the shape of which
greatly varies in different individuals. It hangs over
the voicebox, which it almost completely hides from
view; but during the production of a high tone on the
vowel A, as in “sad,” it takes an almost perpendicular
position. When the lid is so raised (pl. XIV, L) we
can see right down to the bottom of it, where we observe
that it bulges out a little. Extending from either side
of the lid to the pyramids are two folds of mucous
membrane, in the hinder part of either of which are
to be observed two little elevations representing the
cartilages of Santorini (pl. XIV, S S), and the upper[81]
points of the wedges, called the cartilages of Wrisberg
(pl. XIV, W W). Looking down the kind of tube
which is formed by the parts just enumerated, we next
notice two horizontal projections running from front to
back, which are the pocket ligaments (pl. XIV, P P).
Everything we have seen so far is of a pinkish colour.
Below the pocket ligaments, right at the bottom of the
tube described above, we see the main object of our
investigation, namely, the vocal ligaments (pl. XIV,
V V). These, being almost of a pearly white, form a
strong contrast to all their surroundings, and it is quite
impossible to mistake them.

In quiet breathing the vocal chink is of a triangular
shape, of which, however, we can only see the hinder
part, the front part being hidden by the lid (pl. XIII).
In exaggerated efforts at breathing this space gets considerably
larger, so that, with a well-directed light, we
can see into the windpipe, of which the rings are plainly
noticeable. It is even possible to see the lowest part of
the windpipe, where it is divided into the two branches
entering the lungs.

For the purpose of studying the movements of the
vocal ligaments in the act of singing, the vowel A, as in
“sad” will be found the most favourable, because the
formation of the mouth, and the position of the tongue
which it necessitates, enable us to get a complete view[82]
of the interior of the voicebox, which during the emission
of other vowel sounds is more or less hidden.

As soon as we produce a tone, the pyramids, and
with them the vocal ligaments, meet, so as to touch
each other more or less closely, while there still remains
a large space between the pocket ligaments above.
Every time we take breath, the pyramids with the vocal
ligaments recede, to meet again as before, every time
we strike a new tone. The vocal ligaments, thrown into
vibrations by the stream of air passing between them,
cut, as it were, this stream of air into regular waves, and
thus (as more fully explained on p. 38) tone is produced.[83]

We notice here that this tone-production may be
originated in three different ways:—(1) The vocal
ligaments may meet after the air has commenced to
pass between them. Of this an aspirate is the result.
(2) The vocal ligaments may meet before the air has
commenced to pass between them. This causes a check
or a click at the beginning of the tone. (3) The vocal
ligaments may meet just at the very moment when the
air passes between them. In this case the tone is
properly struck. There is nothing to make it indefinite
as in case No. 1, and nothing to impede it as in case
No. 2. Production as in case No. 3 causes the tone to
travel much farther than production as in cases Nos. I
and 2, and it is this way of striking a tone which is
known under the name of “Coup de Glotte” or “Shock
of the Glottis.”

[84]

Plate XIII.

LARYNGOSCOPIC IMAGE.
BREATHING.

Plate XIV.

LARYNGOSCOPIC IMAGE.
UPPER THICK.

[85]

Plate XV.

LARYNGOSCOPIC IMAGE.
UPPER THIN.

Plate XVI.

LARYNGOSCOPIC IMAGE.
SMALL.

[86]

We now proceed to study the Registers of the human
voice. A very Babel of confusion exists on this important
subject, and we are not only perplexed by a
multiplicity of terms, but also by the various and often
contradictory meanings attached to them. Thus people
talk of chest, medium, mixed, throat, falsetto, and head
registers, and these terms being utterly unscientific—i.e.,
being based upon sensations and fancies instead of
physiological facts—no one can give a clear and satisfactory
definition of any one of them. To bring order
into such chaos is an almost hopeless undertaking, and
the first step in this direction is obviously to ask ourselves,
What is the meaning of the word “Register?”
My reply is this: A register consists of a series of tones
which are produced by the same mechanism. Then comes
the question, Can any such registers be demonstrated
in the vocal apparatus; and if so, what are the
mechanisms by which they are produced? The
answer supplied by the laryngoscope is, Yes. There
are, broadly speaking, three registers in the human
voice, and the mechanisms are plainly visible, as
follows:—(1) During the lowest series of tones the
vocal ligaments vibrate in their entire thickness (pl.
XIV). (2) During the next series of tones the vocal
ligaments vibrate only with their thin inner edges
(pl. XV). (3) During the highest series of tones a
portion of the vocal chink is firmly closed, and only a
small part of the vocal ligaments vibrates (pl. XVI).[87]

In accordance with these physiological facts, Mr.
Curwen, in his admirable book “The Teacher’s Manual,”
calls the registers the Thick, the Thin, and the Small.
These names have a scientific basis, and their meaning
cannot be misunderstood. They are already familiar
to thousands who study music by Mr. Curwen’s method,
and I have myself made use of them in my lectures
at University College and at other places. I shall,
therefore, also adopt them in this little work, and hope
they will soon find general acceptance among teachers
and learners, as thereby a great many misunderstandings
will be avoided.

Our next business will be to ascertain how these
registers are divided among various voices, and the
result as revealed by the laryngoscope is rather startling.
It consists in this, that the break between the
Thick and Thin occurs in both sexes at about
[LISTEN].

In order to realize the full meaning of this, the reader
must bear in mind that music for tenors is generally
written an octave higher than it is sung, so that the
tones we are now speaking about would, as a rule, in
a tenor part be expressed by
[LISTEN]. My assertion,
therefore, amounts to this, that everything below[88]
 [LISTEN]
whether sung by soprano, contralto, tenor,
or bass, is produced by one mechanism—that is to say,
by the vocal ligaments vibrating in their entire thickness;
and that the series of tones above
 [LISTEN]
whether sung by bass, tenor, contralto, or soprano, is
again produced by one mechanism (although a different
one from the last), that is to say, by the vocal ligaments
vibrating only with their thin inner edges. Then there
remains the small register, which belongs almost exclusively
to sopranos, and which represents the series
of tones above [LISTEN].

I thus maintain, not only that the great break
between the thick and the thin occurs (individual
differences apart) at the same place in both sexes, but
that (leaving for the moment sub-divisions out of consideration)
the male voice has but two registers—i.e.,
the Thick and the Thin, while the female voice has
three registers—i.e., the Thick, the Thin, and the
Small. From this it follows that the female voice is
not, as supposed by some, simply a reproduction of the
male an octave higher.

I have spoken of the above results of the investigations
with the laryngoscope as startling, because the[89]
female voicebox is generally imagined to be exactly like
the male, save in size, and the inference that the female
voice must be exactly like the male, save in pitch, is,
therefore, a very natural one. Neither am I surprised
that those who hold an opposite view to mine are never
tired of advancing this argument.

I have, however, shown by the measurements of
Luschka, on p. 64, that the proportions of the female
voicebox are materially different from those of the
male, and I have also pointed out differences in shape
noticeable to any observer. Now, although I do not
pretend that I have by these facts and figures sufficiently
accounted for the difference in the registers of
the male and the female voice; yet these facts and
figures are nevertheless greatly in my favour, and they
are certainly a sufficient answer to the above argument
of those who differ from me.

My case is further strengthened by the testimony
of that eminent physiologist, Dr. Merkel, who says,[N]
“In the male organ there are only two materially
different registers to be noticed, the chest and the[90]
falsetto, … on the other hand, in the female
organ there are clearly to be distinguished three
registers—a low, a medium, and a high.” (From
Dr. Merkel’s definitions on pp. 148, 149, and 152, it
will be seen that low, medium, and high, are but
other names here employed for Thick, Thin, and
Small.) Dr. Merkel, speaking of the chest (thick)
register, goes on to observe, on p. 148, “It ceases,
very curiously, in both sexes on one of the first four
tones of the one-lined octave (der ein-gestrichenen
Octave) [LISTEN] so that it is about one
octave longer [deeper] in man than in woman.”

Let it be observed above all things that I am
not propounding a theory, but explaining a fact; a
fact, moreover, which I have before now demonstrated
to men holding opposite opinions, thereby convincing
them, and which I am willing at any moment to
demonstrate again. A very striking proof that the
distribution of the registers is in accordance with my
explanations may be further found in the circumstance
that it is often impossible to distinguish a male voice
from a female when (other things such as power and
quality being equal) both sing in the same registers.
The similarity is, of course, greatest between tenor
and contralto, and in case of a trial they must confine[91]
themselves to the compass easily belonging to both;
neither should the singers be seen by the listeners.
I have frequently by these experiments convinced
sceptics; and it has happened more than once when
the female voice was slightly more robust than the
male, that, to the great amusement of those present, the
judges emphatically and without the slightest hesitation
pronounced the lady to be the tenor and the gentleman
the contralto.

We have so far only spoken of three registers,
the Thick, below [LISTEN]; the Thin, between
[LISTEN];
and the Small, above
[LISTEN]. The distinguishing
features of these are so very clear as to make any
mistake impossible. But now we come to sub-divisions,
and with regard to these the matter is not so simple.
Singers know very well that other breaks occur in
the human voice besides those hitherto mentioned, and
the question arises how they are to be accounted for
by corresponding changes in the vocal organ. The
evidence furnished on this point by the laryngoscope
is, in my opinion, not sufficient, because the alterations
in the vocal ligaments are so exceedingly minute as to
be capable of being differently interpreted by different
observers. I have consequently come to the conclusion[92]
that they cannot be accepted as indicating changes of
mechanism unless corroborated and amplified by other
signs.

In order to place the whole subject before the
reader in a comprehensive form, I cannot do better
than quote the elaborate description which Madame
Emma Seiler gives of the registers in “The Human
Voice in Singing” (Philadelphia, 1875). Madame
Seiler, to whom Mr. Lunn is pleased to refer, on p.
65 of his treatise, as an “ignorant person,” assisted
Professor Helmholtz, of Heidelberg, in his essay upon
the Formation of the Vowel-tones and the Registers of
the Female Voice. He says he thus had “an opportunity
of knowing the delicacy of her musical ear, and
her ability to master the more difficult and abstract
parts of the theory of music.” The Professor further
speaks of her as “a very careful, skilled, and learned
teacher.” Professor Du Bois-Reymond, of Berlin, also
describes her as “a lady of truly remarkable attainments.”
With such recommendations I make no apology
for quoting at length from Madame Seiler’s writings;
and it will be readily understood that whenever I differ
from her, I do so with some diffidence, and only after
careful conviction of the accuracy of my own independent
observations.

I shall substitute the terms hitherto used in these
pages for others employed by Madame Seiler, and I[94][93]
have added a diagram of the registers, which may assist
the reader in forming a clear idea of the subject.

THE THICK REGISTER.

“When the vowel A, as in ‘man,’ was sung, I
could, after long-continued practice, plainly see how
the pyramids quickly rose with their summits in their
mucous membranous case and approached to mutual
contact. In like manner the vocal ligaments approached
each other so closely that scarcely any space between
them was observable. The pocket ligaments formed
the ellipse described by Garcia in the upper part of
the glottis.”

The word “glottis” really signifies the vibrating
element in the voicebox. I suppose, therefore, that
by “the upper part of the glottis” Madame Seiler here
means the “part above the glottis.”

“When, in using the laryngoscope upon myself,
I slowly sang the ascending scale, this movement of
the vocal ligaments and pyramids was repeated at
every tone. They separated and appeared to retreat,
in order to close again anew, and to rise somewhat
more than before. This movement of the pyramids
may best be compared to that of a pair of scissors.
With every higher tone the vocal ligaments seemed
more stretched, and the vocal chink somewhat shorter.
At the same time, when I sang the scale upward,[95]
beginning with the lowest tones, the vocal ligaments
seemed to be moved in their whole length and breadth
by large, loose vibrations, which extended even to all
the rest of the interior of the voicebox.

“The place at which the pyramids, almost closed
together, cease their action and leave the formation of
the sound to the vocal ligaments alone, I found in
the thick register of the female voice at C, C♯

[LISTEN], more rarely at B

[LISTEN]. In the thick
register of the male voice this change occurs at A, B♭

[LISTEN]. With some effort the above-mentioned
action of the pyramids may be continued several tones
higher. But such tones, especially in the female voice,
have that rough and common timbre which we are too
often compelled to hear in our female singers. The
glottis also, in this case, as well as the parts of the
voicebox near the glottis, betrays the effort very
plainly; as the tones ascend, the glottis and the surrounding
parts grow more and more red. As at this
place in the thick register there occurs a visible and
sensible straining of the organs, so also is it in all the
remaining transitions, as soon as the attempt is made to
extend the action by which the lower tones are formed
beyond the given limits of the same. These transitions,[96]
which cannot be extended without effort, coincide
perfectly with the places where J. Müller had to
stretch the ligaments of his exsected voicebox so
powerfully in order to reach the succeeding half-tone.
Garcia likewise finds tones thus formed disagreeable
and imperfect in sound.

“Usually, therefore, at the note C♯
[LISTEN]
in the female voice, and A, B♭
[LISTEN] in the
male voice, the vocal ligaments alone act in forming
the sound, and are throughout the register moved by
large, loose, full vibrations. But the instant the vocal
ligaments are deprived of the assistance of the pyramids
they relax, and appear longer than at the last
tone produced by that aid. But with every higher
tone they appear again to be stretched shorter and more
powerfully up to F, F♯
[LISTEN]
the natural transition
from the thick to the thin register, as well
in the male as in the female. The voicebox is perceptibly
lower in all the tones of the thick register
than in quiet breathing.”

I confess my inability to understand how the vocal
ligaments can get longer by relaxing and shorter by
stretching. But apart from this I assert that there is[97]
no relaxing of the vocal ligaments at the break between
the Lower Thick and the Upper Thick at all.
This is clearly proved by the ring-shield aperture,
which would open immediately if such were the case.
I also doubt whether the action or inaction of the
pyramids determines the break between the Lower
Thick and the Upper Thick, as they are cartilages—i.e.,
pieces of gristle—and cannot, therefore, by any
vibrations of their own assist in the production of tone.
The tension of the vocal ligaments increases as we
sing up the scale until the ring-shield aperture has
quite disappeared. But while it remains so closed,
and without the vocal ligaments being any further
stretched, we can yet sing higher still. The gradations
of tone are now no longer formed by the action of
the ring-shield muscles (see p. 34), but by the shield-pyramid
muscles which press the vocal ligaments more
and more closely together, until at last scarcely any
trace of a slit remains between them. Another result
of this action of the shield-pyramid muscles must also
be to narrow the space below the vocal chink, which,
as we know from the experiments of J. Müller, has
the effect of raising the pitch of tones. I think it very
likely, therefore, that the change from the lower to
the upper thick is really brought about by the shield-pyramid
muscles coming into play after the ring-shield
muscles have done their share.[98]

THE THIN REGISTER.

“All the tones of the thin register are produced
by vibrations only of the fine, inner, slender edges of
the vocal ligaments. In this action the vocal ligaments
are not so near together, but allow of a fine
linear space between them, and the pocket ligaments
are pressed further back than in the production of the
tones of the thick register. The rest of the action of
the glottis is, however, entirely the same. With the
beginning of the thin register at F♯

[LISTEN]
the
whole vocal chink appears again longer, and the vocal
ligaments are much looser than in the highest tones
of the thick register. The united action, already
described, of the pyramids and the vocal ligaments in
forming the deeper tones of the thin register, extends
to C, C♯

[LISTEN]
in the female voice, and in the
male voice to E♭, E

[LISTEN]
commonly written
thus, E♭, E

[LISTEN]
but which only rarely occurs
in composition, and then is sung by tenors as I have
given it; that is, one octave lower.[99]

“With the C♯

[LISTEN]

in the female voice, and the
E♭, E

[LISTEN]

in the male voice, the pyramids
cease again to act, and, as before, in the Upper Thick,
leave the formation of the sounds to the vocal ligaments
alone, which at this change appear again longer
and looser, but with every higher tone tighten up to
F, F♯

[LISTEN]

in the female voice, and in the
male voice to G

[LISTEN]
or as it is commonly written,


[LISTEN].
In the thin register the voicebox preserves
its natural position as in quiet breathing.”

I must say here that I have never had any very
clear conception of Madame Seiler’s meaning when she
speaks of the action or inaction of the pyramids in the
formation of the registers. In the lower thick register
there is, as a rule, a small triangular space between
them which gets gradually smaller as the tones ascend,
until it is quite closed in the upper thick. Dr. Merkel,
also, has made the same observation. So far, therefore,
we are agreed. But even of this I can find no
trace in the thin register, where I have always noticed
that the pyramids are quite close together. On this[100]
point, my assertion is borne out by Dr. Merkel, who
insists upon the same thing. I also demur to Madame
Seiler’s statement that in this register again the vocal
ligaments relax at the beginning of the upper division,
and I invite the reader to test the matter by reference
to the ring-shield aperture. The evidence furnished
by this experiment is conclusive, because the vocal
ligaments cannot possibly relax without a corresponding
enlargement of the ring-shield aperture. A very
striking illustration of this occurs during the transition
from the Upper Thick to the Lower Thin. During
the highest tones of the Upper Thick, when the
tension of the vocal ligaments is greatest, the ring-shield
aperture, as we have seen before, completely
closes, while immediately opening very widely during
the lowest tones of the Lower Thin, when the vocal
ligaments are quite relaxed. Nothing of the kind
takes place during the change either from the Lower
Thin to the Upper Thin, or from the Lower Thick to
the Upper Thick. It appears to me that Madame
Seiler has rather exaggerated the importance of these
minor breaks, while she does not make enough of the
great break between the Upper Thick and the Lower
Thin. If there is straining anywhere, it is during the
attempt to carry the mechanism of the Upper Thick
beyond its natural limit. In this case the tension of
the vocal ligaments, as indeed of all surrounding[101]
parts, becomes so tremendous that at last the whole
thing looks as though it were literally going to fly to
pieces in every direction. Now change into the Lower
Thin, and the relief is wonderful. Let tenors make
a note of this. If they will violate Nature, they must
pay the penalty!

As regards the transition from the Lower Thin to
the Upper Thin, I would suggest the following explanation:—The
vocal chink is at first, as Madame
Seiler says, linear, and the gradations of tone are
caused by simple tension of the vocal ligaments,
which is proved by the diminution of the ring-shield
aperture. While this goes on we are in the Lower
Thin. Now the laryngoscope reveals another method
of still further raising the pitch, which consists in a
gradual shortening of the vocal chink. This is caused
by the shield-pyramid muscles pressing together the
ends of the vocal ligaments, thereby giving the vocal
chink a slightly elliptic shape. When this mechanism
comes into play we are in the Upper Thin.

THE SMALL REGISTER.

“When in the observation of the thin register I
had sung upwards to its highest tones, and then sang
still higher, I became aware, with the F♯

[LISTEN]
[102]
of a change in the motions of the organ of singing,
and the tones thus produced had a different timbre
from those of the Thin. It required long and patient
practice before I finally succeeded in drawing forward
the lid so that I could see the glottis in its whole
length. Not until then was I able to observe the
following: With the F♯
[LISTEN] the vocal ligaments
suddenly closed firmly together to their middle, with
their fine edges one over the other. This closing appeared
as a fine red line extending, from the pyramids
at the back, forward to the middle of the vocal ligaments,
and leaving free only a third part of the whole
glottis, immediately under the lid, to the front wall of
the voicebox.

“The foremost part of the glottis formed an oval
orifice, which, with every higher tone, seemed to
contract more and more, and so became smaller and
rounder. The fine edges of the vocal ligaments which
formed this orifice were alone vibrating, and the
vibrations seemed at first looser, but, with every
higher tone, the ligaments were more stretched.”

I have repeatedly had the opportunity of observing
the mechanism of the small register, and I only differ
from Madame Seiler in this, that I did not notice that
“with every higher tone the ligaments were more[103]
stretched.” It appeared to me, on the contrary, as
though the raising of the pitch was produced by a
contraction of the vocal ligaments. In all other
respects I entirely agree with the above description.
According to Madame Seiler the small register is
formed by the action of the wedges, as described on
p. 54.

We have thus become acquainted with the mechanism
of the registers of the human voice. We
have also seen that it is possible to carry these up
beyond their natural limits, though the process is
accompanied by visible signs of straining. The practice
of teachers, therefore, whose aim it is to “extend”
voices upwards, and who are very proud, especially
in tenors, of their “made tones,” is strongly to be
condemned, and is sure to have disastrous results. It
is, on the other hand, equally possible to carry the
registers down several tones below the places called
the breaks, so that at the limits of each register there
are a number of tones which may be produced by two
different mechanisms. The carrying down of a register
causes no fatigue, and though its volume is weak as
compared with the corresponding lower register, it is
surprising how soon it can, by judicious practice, be
made to acquire fulness and power.

In order to prevent misunderstandings, it may be
well to add that the breaks as indicated in the pre[104]ceding
pages are intended only to show the average
compass in the great majority of voices. As, for
instance, there are basses who have an exceptional
extension of the Lower Thick downwards, so there are,
undoubtedly, tenors who have an exceptional extension
of the Upper Thick upwards. It must, therefore, be
the voice trainer’s business very carefully to ascertain
the exact limits of the registers in every single case.
In choral singing, however, where individual attention
is impossible, the breaks as given above may be implicitly
relied upon. Not only should the registers
never be carried above these points, but if the teacher
is wise he will insist upon his pupils forming the
habit of changing the mechanism a tone or two below.

Never “extend” lower registers upwards, but
strengthen the upper registers, and carry them
downwards, thus equalizing the voices from top to
bottom, and enabling your pupils to sing without
straining. That is the great lesson taught by the
investigations described in these pages. I have seen a
singer pull himself together, and with a tremendous
effort shout a high A in the thick register. His neck
swelled out, his face became blood-red, and altogether
the “performance” was of an acrobatic rather than
of an artistic nature. The general public, of course,
loudly applauded, but people of taste and refinement
shuddered. Such exhibitions are, unfortunately, not[105]
rare. If this little book should contribute, however
remotely, to discourage them, it will not have been
written in vain.[106]

APPENDIX TO THE THIRD EDITION

It has been suggested to me that the usefulness of my
little book would be enlarged if I were to add an
appendix containing some application to practical
work of the physiological laws already explained.
This I have endeavoured to do in the following chapter,
and I trust the simplicity of the directions will enable
the reader to carry out my instructions, to vary them,
and to enlarge upon them according to circumstances.

HINTS ON TEACHING.

One of the most important lessons taught us by the
study of Vocal Physiology is the correct method of
breathing and of obtaining control over the respiratory
muscles. I will now give a few exercises for this purpose.

Divest yourself of any article of clothing which at
all interferes with the freedom of the waist. Lie down
flat on your back. Place one hand lightly on the
abdomen and the other upon the lower ribs. Inhale,
through the nostrils, slowly, deeply, and evenly, without
interruption or jerking. If this is done properly
the abdomen will, gradually and without any trembling
movement, increase in size, and the lower ribs will
expand sideways, while the upper part of the chest[107]
and the collar-bones remain undisturbed. Now hold
the breath, not by shutting the glottis, but by keeping the
midriff down and the chest walls extended, and count
four mentally, at the rate of sixty per minute. Then
let the breath go suddenly. The result of this will be
a flying up of the midriff, and a falling down of the
ribs; in other words, there will be a collapse of the
lower part of the body. This collapse may not at first
be very distinct, as the extension has probably been
insufficient; but both will become more and more
perfect as the result of continued practice.

Let it be clearly understood: The inspiration is to be
slow and deep, the expiration sudden and complete.
In inspiration the abdomen and the lower part of the
chest expand, and in expiration they collapse.

The time of holding the breath is not, at the outset,
to exceed four seconds, and the student must never,
on any account, fatigue himself with these exercises;
they may, however, be frequently repeated at intervals.
It will be found by occasional trials upon the spirometer
that the breathing capacity increases with these
exercises. The process of abdominal respiration
becomes easy and no longer requires constant watchfulness,
and the student will soon be able to carry it
on, not only lying down, but while he is standing or
walking, though not at once with the same ease. He
must now, for a time, be careful to see that he has the[108]
same physical sensations in breathing which he noticed
while making his first experiment when lying down;
and he must exercise special care when running, going
upstairs, &c., and, of course, in speaking or singing.

The criterion of correct inspiration is, as I have said
before, an increase of size of the abdomen and of
the lower part of the chest. Whoever draws in the
abdomen and raises the upper part of the chest in the
act of filling his lungs does wrong.

Meanwhile, in continuing the breathing exercises,
the time of holding the breath may be increased at the
rate of two seconds per week; so that the student who,
during the first fortnight, limited himself to four
seconds will, at the end of six weeks, hold his breath
during twelve seconds. I have, in some instances, with
students of mine, gone as far as twenty seconds;
but I desire very earnestly to warn my readers to be
cautious and not to go to extremes. Nothing will be
gained, but infinite harm may ensue by over-doing
these lung gymnastics, and persons at all inclined to
bleeding from the lungs should not undertake the
exercises at all, except with the sanction of their
medical adviser, who will limit the practice according
to circumstances.

The second breathing exercise is the exact opposite
of the first, and consists in taking a rapid inspiration
and making the expiration slow, even, uninterrupted[109]
and without jerking or trembling. My musical readers
will at once see the importance of this exercise for the
purpose of singing sustained tones and florid passages;
but it would be quite useless to attempt it before No. 1
has been sufficiently practised.

The third and last breathing exercise consists in
taking the inspiration as in No. 1, and the expiration
as in No. 2. After the two preceding ones have been
fully mastered this last is easy enough; and the
student who has persevered so far will now have overcome
one of the greatest difficulties of a vocalist,
namely, the proper management of the breath, an
accomplishment which seems to become more and
more rare in our go-ahead times of electricity.

I feel that my description of these breathing exercises
is far from complete, and what is worse, that it
may lead to misunderstandings, the results of which
will hereafter be laid to my charge. But writing,
however lucid and careful, can never take the place of
vivâ voce instruction; and I wish it to be distinctly
understood that the explanations here given are not
by any means intended to supersede the aid of a competent
and painstaking teacher.

I will take leave of this part of my subject by warning
my readers against the mistake, which may be
caused by a superficial perusal of these pages, that it
is the chief aim of the above breathing exercises to[110]
enable the singer or speaker to cram as much air as
possible into the lungs. I have pointed out some of the
evils which are likely to arise from exaggerated breathing
efforts; yet I wish to say again, most emphatically, that
it is quite possible to overcrowd the lungs with air. This
is a matter of every-day occurrence, which is not,
however, on that account any the less reprehensible;
for, as I have already mentioned, it is sure to lead,
sooner or later, to forcing and inequality of voice, and
to congestion of the vessels and tissues of the throat
and of the lungs.

Now we come to the question of the production
and cultivation of the voice, including the nature and
the proper treatment of the registers. In this connection
I shall endeavour to explain a series of exercises
based upon physiological facts, which will enable the
reader to strike out a safe and direct path, avoiding
much useless drudgery, and leading to eminently
satisfactory results. As it is not my object to supply
a singing manual, but simply to point out the way
of treating the voice upon scientific principles, I
shall not attempt to deal separately with the different
classes of voices, or to go into minute details;
but it will rather be my aim to lay down general principles,
leaving my readers to carry them into practice,
and to elaborate them according to individual circumstances.
It must also be borne in mind that the[111]
exercises I am going to recommend will here be taken
as they suggest themselves, while passing in review the
various parts which unitedly form the mechanism of
the human voice. Therefore, in the actual process of
training a voice, they will have to be taken in a different
order from that in which they are discussed here, in
accordance with the general plan of this book.

The movements of the pyramids with the vocal
ligaments attached to them are governed by two sets
of muscles pulling them either together or away
from each other. These have been fully described
under the names of the “Closing Muscles” and the
“Opening Muscles;” and the reader will at once see
the importance of devising a set of exercises which shall
call these opening and closing muscles into play,
thereby making them powerful, and bringing them
under the control of the will.

This is, fortunately, a very simple matter; for all we
have to do is to sing a series of short tones, each tone
to be followed by a short inspiration. We have learnt
that every time we strike a tone the vocal ligaments are
made to approximate; by so doing we therefore exercise
the closing muscles. Every time we take an inspiration
the vocal ligaments are separated; by so doing therefore
we exercise the opening muscles. It is plain from
these explanations that, by practising in the manner
just indicated, we shall gain the same results in five[112]
minutes which it would take us half an hour to obtain
by singing sustained tones after the usual method of
teaching.

Let me now give as clear a description of the exercise
as possible. Find the pitch of your speaking voice,
which we will say is F. Then sing the following:—

Strike the tone firmly and clearly, avoiding alike the
check of the glottis and the glide of the glottis. This is
often a matter of great difficulty, requiring much
patience and perseverance on the part of the teacher as
well as on that of the student. The glide of the glottis
is particularly hard to eradicate, and in many instances
the case seems to be hopeless. Do not, however,
despair, but try this: Pronounce vigorously the word
“Up.” Then whisper, but still very vigorously and
distinctly, three times the vowel u, as you just had it
in the word “up.” Immediately afterwards sing “Ah.”
Thus—

I recommend this device from extended personal ex[113]perience,
and hope my fellow-teachers may find it as
useful as I have found it myself. Another point of
importance in practising the exercise for strengthening
the opening and the closing muscles is the breathing
after every tone; and this must be done gently and
without effort, the only perception which the singer
should have of it being a slight movement of the
midriff. When you can sing the exercise in this manner
on F, your supposed speaking tone, then go up the
scale, semitone by semitone, to B or C above, and down
again, semitone by semitone, to B or C below. Of
the quality of tone I will say nothing here, because
that part of the subject will be discussed later on in
connection with the tongue and the soft palate.

The next thing in connection with the physiology of
the vocal organ from which we can deduct a practical
lesson is the action of the muscles governing the pitch
of the voice. This process is a very complex one, and
can be made clear only by vivâ voce explanations, with
the help of good models and moving diagrams, by
demonstrations with the laryngoscope, and by carefully
watching external signs. There is no doubt,
however, that a set of muscles, described as the
“Stretching and Slackening Muscles,” play the most
important part in this matter, and I advise the reader
to study carefully the chapter on “The Movements of
the Voicebox,” and try the experiments mentioned in it.[114]
It will thus be seen that the flexibility of the voice
depends in a great measure upon the control we have
over the muscles governing the pitch; that is to say,
upon the readiness and exactness with which we are
able to allow them to contract or to relax.

Performers upon various instruments, as for instance
the piano and the violin, know that certain exercises
are indispensable to brilliant execution, because they
strengthen the muscles of the wrist and of the fingers,
and make them obedient to the will. It has even been
found that simple finger gymnastics, exercising separately
different sets of muscles, and making them
independent of each other, are of the greatest value,
and save long hours of tedious and wearisome practising.
In a similar manner we may spare ourselves much
trouble and gain our end most readily by vocal
gymnastics, calculated to bring into play the stretching
and slackening muscles of the larynx. There is no
difficulty about it. Sing F, the same tone from which
we started when exercising the opening and the closing
muscles, and add to it G. The alteration of the pitch
is brought about by a contraction of the stretching
muscles overcoming the resistance of the opposing
slackening muscles, thereby tensing the vocal ligaments.
If you again sing F, the case is reversed, and the new
alteration in pitch is brought about by a contraction of
the slackening muscles overcoming the resistance of the[115]
opposing stretching muscles, thereby relaxing the vocal
ligaments.

o	o
ah	ah
ai	ai
[LISTEN]

The above is an example. Take great care to render it
perfectly. Sing every tone clearly and distinctly, but
without jerking, at the same time uniting all the tones,
but without drawling. Do not try how quickly you
can sing, but rather how distinctly. Commence slowly,
and be in no hurry to increase the speed. Raise and
lower the exercise semitone by semitone within the
medium part of your voice. A variety of exercises
founded upon the same principles may be introduced,
and will serve to increase the flexibility of the voice
in a very short time.

Now we come to the “Registers” of the voice. I
have defined a register as “a series of tones produced
by the same mechanism.” The five registers of which
the human voice, taken as a whole, consists, are carefully
described, and the means by which they are
formed minutely explained in a former part of this
book. These registers, nevertheless, continue to be a
stumbling-stone to many, and the fact of the existence
in the throat of different actions for the production
of different series of tones has led some teachers into[116]
the deplorable mistake of developing and exaggerating
them, instead of, on the contrary, smoothing them
over and equalizing them. The result is that we often
hear singers who seem to have two or three different
voices. They are growling in the one, moaning in the
second, and shrieking in the third; while it should
have been their aim so to blend and to unite the
registers as to make it difficult even for a practised
ear to distinguish the one from the other. Such
singing is outrageous, and I protest against the opinion
expressed in some quarters that it is the natural outcome
of the teachings of the laryngoscope.

In developing and strengthening the registers I base
my first exercises upon the fact that the “Vowel
Scale” goes from low to high in this order; oo, oh,
ah, ai, ee, so that consequently the highest tones will be
produced most readily when singing the vowels in the
order just given.

[LISTEN]

Sing this exercise quite softly, strike each tone clearly
and distinctly, and take a slight inspiration after every
tone. Be careful to take a full inflation only at the
beginning, and afterwards to inhale less air than has
been consumed in every preceding tone, or you will
[117]
after a while overcrowd the lungs, and experience a
sensation of being choked. This is a thing to be avoided
in any case; but under present circumstances it should
be remembered that the short inspirations are not
taken for the purpose of re-filling the lungs, but simply
to compel the “opening and closing muscles” to do
their work. By so doing we give them six times more
exercise than by breathing only once at the beginning;
and, what is more important still with regard to our
immediate object, we greatly facilitate the task of the
vocal ligaments to arrange themselves in different ways
according to the registers they are to produce.

It is self-evident that the danger of carrying the
mechanism of a register beyond its proper limit is
greater if the vocal ligaments are kept together, than
it would be if they were made to separate, thereby
being enabled to close again under different conditions.
It will be seen, therefore, that the slight inspirations
after every tone are an essential part of the exercise,
and must on no account be omitted. The exercise is
to be taken at a convenient pitch, and then to be raised
semitone by semitone in accordance with the requirements
of individual voices. It may, after some time,
be taken right through upon the vowel ah, and finally
legato, gradually increasing the speed, to the Italian
word scala, singing the syllable la to the last note.

The change from one register to another should[118]
always be made a couple of tones below the extreme
limit, so that there will be at the juncture of every
two registers a few “optional” tones which it is possible
to take with both mechanisms. The singer will
be wise, however, to avail himself of the power of
producing an optional tone with the mechanism of
the lower register only on rare occasions. To force
the register beyond its natural limit is, of course,
infinitely worse, and should never be tolerated. The
practice carries its own punishment, as it invariably
ruins the voice; and tones so produced always betray
the effort (frequently in a most painful degree), and are
consequently never beautiful.

It is to be observed that the exercise given above
may be varied to any extent, so long as it is based
upon the principle which has been explained. The
beneficial results in the development of the voice will
speedily be noticed, and then sustained tones may
be sung through the whole compass after the orthodox
fashion.

This brings me to the consideration of the “mixed
voice,” which is essential in bridging over the break
between the “upper thick” and the “lower thin” of
the tenor, and which is also frequently made use of
by baritones and basses in the production of their
highest tones.

The “voce mista” is “mixed” in this sense, that[119]
it combines the vibrating mechanism of the “lower
thin” with the position of the larynx of the “lower
thick;” that is to say, while the vibrations are confined
to the thin inner edges of the vocal ligaments,
the larynx itself takes a lower position in the throat
than for the “lower thin,” and the result is a remarkable
increase of volume without any corresponding
additional effort in the production of tone. A few
trials before a looking-glass will at once prove the
correctness of this explanation, and, what is of more
practical consequence, will enable the student with a
little practice to overcome the serious difficulty of
singing high tones without straining, yet with a fulness
capable of being increased or diminished at
pleasure.

The last thing we have to consider is the “resonator”
of the human voice, namely, the upper part of
the throat, the mouth, and the nose. Whether we sing
ah, ai, ee, o, or oo, the original tone produced by the
vibrations of the vocal ligaments is in either case
absolutely the same, and it takes the form of one
vowel or another, solely according to the shape which
the “resonator” assumes, and which may be described
as a mould into which the tone is cast. The quality
of the voice also—its throatiness, its nasal twang, its
shrillness, harshness, and ugliness, or its purity,
roundness, fulness, and beauty—depend mainly upon[120]
the nature of the resonator, and upon the way in
which we work it. It is, therefore, a matter of the
highest importance to be fully acquainted with this
part of the vocal apparatus, and I hope my readers
will follow me in a brief consideration of it with the
more pleasure, as we are now speaking of parts which
are directly under the control of our will, and upon
the proper management of which so much depends.

There is a most able, most painstaking, and most
instructive work upon this subject, “Pronunciation
for Singers,” by Alexander Ellis, Esq., F.R.S., &c.,
published by J. Curwen and Sons, to which I would
call the attention of all who desire to make the best
use of their voices. To be really understood this book
requires that the student should conscientiously carry
out all the experiments Mr. Ellis suggests. But any
one doing so will, I venture to assert, rise from the
study of this subject with a deeper conviction of the
immense importance of the “resonator,” and with a
clearer perception of the best way of managing it
than he ever had before. I obtain better and quicker
results with my pupils since I have learnt the lessons
Mr. Ellis teaches, and I have no doubt my fellow
teachers will derive similar benefit from their study.

One of the few points upon which “doctors” do
not differ is that the tone, in order to be pure, resonant,
and far-reaching, must be allowed to come well[121]
to the front of the mouth. It should, as the phrase
goes, be directed against the hard palate just above
the front teeth. But this is an unfortunate way of
putting it, as the tone fills the whole cavity of the
mouth, and cannot be “directed” like a jet of water
upon any given point. Nevertheless the idea sought
to be conveyed by the injunction is good, for it is
certainly essential to good quality that the tone should
be brought well forward in the mouth. This is frequently
prevented by several circumstances which we
will now consider:—

The “soft palate” may be in the way. This is the
movable partition shaped like an arch with the little
pendant called the “uvula” hanging down in the
centre. It acts like a curtain. If we lower it, it hangs
upon the back of the tongue, shutting off the mouth
from the throat, thereby compelling the tone to pass
through the nostrils, and thus giving it a nasal quality.
This nasal quality increases the more the passages
through which the tone has to travel are impeded;
but the first and indispensable condition for its existence
is the lowering of the soft palate. Raise this, and you
may completely shut the nostrils and yet produce
a pure vocal tone. The reason is that, with the
soft palate up, the nose is shut off from the throat,
thereby compelling the tone to pass through the
mouth.[122]

But more, the soft palate is never still for a moment
while we are singing or speaking, as it assumes a
different degree of tension for every vowel and also for
every pitch of the voice. We see, therefore, that
this curtain has great influence upon the management
of the voice, and we should do all we can to get it
under our control. In order to accomplish this,
arrange a mirror so that you get the light reflected
upon the back of your throat without bending the
head, stretching the neck, or otherwise assuming an
awkward position. I recommend reflected instead of
direct light, because with the latter it is almost impossible
to get a perfect sight of the soft palate without
making any contortions, and these, however slight,
are fatal to success. The management of the light
will, no doubt, offer a little difficulty to those not
practised in these matters, but once made it is easily
rearranged, and the gain is great.

The mirror mentioned above is to throw the light
into your mouth; you will require another one in
which to see the image. Now try the following:
Open your mouth and breath through the nostrils;
the soft palate will immediately drop upon the tongue.
Sing while it is in this position, and you will produce
nasal tone. Now breathe through the mouth, and the
soft palate will rise. Raise it higher still, by attempting
to yawn, till the uvula almost disappears. Sing[123]
again with the soft palate in this position, and if
nothing else interferes you will produce pure vocal
tone. If you sing up and down the scale you will
perceive that the soft palate to some extent rises and
falls with the pitch of your tones. You will also notice
that the tension of it increases as you approach the
the limit of one register, and that it diminishes as soon
as you change into the next register above. All these
things, and a great many besides, you will notice if
you observe carefully, and by a little steady practice
you will acquire easy control over the movements of
your soft palate, the beneficial results of which will
soon be manifested in the improved quality and the
better management of your voice.

This leads me to remark that the soft palate should,
as a matter of course, be in a perfectly healthy condition,
or it cannot perform the infinite variety of
movements required from it. In many cases however,
it is in a very different state, the arch being congested,
the uvula elongated, and the tonsils greatly enlarged.
People with a soft palate like this are handicapped.
They might as well try to run a race with a heavy
weight on their shoulders as to sing or speak with such
impediments in their throats. They should at once
put themselves in the hands of a properly qualified
medical practitioner, who may probably recommend
clipping of the uvula or excision of the tonsils. Either[124]
operation is a slight one, and in suitable cases nothing
but good can follow from it.

Another obstacle to the forward production of tone
is often caused by that great movable plug called the
tongue. We have it on the highest authority that
the tongue is an “unruly member.” It is sometimes
difficult to keep it under proper control, and with some
people it is continually running away altogether. As
under ordinary circumstances, so in singing. Instead
of peacefully assuming the position necessary for the
production of the various vowels, the tongue rises in
rebellion; it arches up, stiffens and defies all attempts
to keep it in order. The tone is consequently more or
less impeded and shut in, with the result of making it
guttural or throaty. Here again singing before the
mirror as described above will enable the student to
master his tongue and to improve his voice to a wonderful
extent. All voice trainers, as I have said before,
agree that tone should be allowed to come well forward,
and the best plan to bring about this desirable end is
to sing oo, then to allow oo to dwindle into o, and
finally to allow o to dwindle into ah.

In some cases these oo-o-ah exercises are insufficient
because the throatiness of tone is partly brought about
by a stiffening of the throat in general. The oo-o-ah
must then be preceded by staccato exercises upon the
syllable Koo, which have the effect not only of throw[125]ing
the tone forward, but also of making the throat
supple. Make the experiment before a mirror and you
will see the reason.

I should have pointed out in the course of this
chapter that one of the great secrets in the production
of fine resonant and far-reaching tone consists in using
as little air as possible; and I conclude by advising all
those who want to be heard to open their mouths, a
thing which, curiously enough, many people in these
islands seem to be determined not to do.[126]

APPENDIX TO THE NINTH EDITION

VOICE FAILURE.

A New Chapter, written for the Ninth Edition, by
Mrs. Emil Behnke.

The large and ever increasing number of professional
voice users of all classes and of all grades who break
down in voice is matter for serious and earnest consideration.
Innumerable students of singing of both
sexes, in England and abroad, suffer shipwreck of their
hopes and ambitions in the loss of their voices during
the process of training, long before the period arrives
for professional and public voice use. In some of
these cases general delicacy of constitution has been
the principal factor in the failure; in others weakness
of throat or lungs may have been a cause. But after
making ample allowance for such physical contributories,
we are still face to face with the fact that voice
failure, accompanied by throat ailments, more or less
serious, occurs with startling frequency, and no other
reason is assigned for it than the irresponsible, indefinite
one that the voice broke down under training. Of the
infinitesimal number of successful students—that is to
say, of those who, having completed their studies, come
before the public as professional singers—so few escape
the common lot that it would almost appear as if a[127]
fatality attended the following of the vocal art; yet
from a health point of view, singing is an admirable
exercise, and abundant medical testimony has been
adduced in proof of this statement.

There are, of course, other causes of non-success in
vocal students besides break-down of voice. A fine
voice and good musical knowledge are but parts of the
equipment of the singer; if he have not the soul of an
artist he will never rise above mediocrity. With
musical and artistic failures this chapter has nothing to
do, but only with preventible causes of break-down,
such as have come under my personal observation from
close association with the work of my late husband,
and also in my own and my daughter’s work since his
lamented decease.

In the establishment of a rule or law founded upon
general truths, a number of examples bearing upon the
subject under consideration are relied on as conclusive
evidence, and by their use we are enabled to analyse
reasons and deduce conclusions.

From the examination of a large number of cases of
vocal failure in singers and in speakers who have
placed themselves under my tuition for recovery of
voice, I have found that among the most frequent and
most injurious mistakes are:—

1st. Wrong methods of breathing and of breath
management.[128]

2nd. Loud singing and shouting.

3rd. Neglecting to cultivate the resonators.

4th. Forcing: (a) the registers; (b) the top notes.

INCORRECT BREATHING.

As regards methods of breathing, the descriptions and
instructions given in this volume require no addition,
and if carefully followed will prove of inestimable
advantage both hygienically and vocally. It is, however,
a fact that, not only in England, but also on the
Continent, pupils are taught to breathe clavicularly, in
opposition to Nature’s method, which is diaphragmatic—i.e.,
the combined forms of rib and diaphragm
breathing. The following is a striking example of the
evil of clavicular breathing.

During last summer an American lady, who had
been studying singing in Milan for three years, came
to me in great distress. She had expected to appear in
Grand Opera in London, but, alas! her voice broke
down, and serious throat troubles manifested themselves.
She had lost all the upper notes of her voice from C
in alt. down to D in the stave, and what was left of
it was thin, reedy, and tremulous, like that of an old
woman instead of a girl of 24. Her master had
insisted on clavicular breathing, the result being that
when her lung capacity was tested it registered only
80 cubic inches instead of 240. In addition to faulty[129]
breathing, she had been allowed to force up the
registers of the voice to such an extent as to bring on
serious congestion, with varicose veins in the vocal
ligaments and in the pharynx. After several lessons
the breathing capacity increased to 200 cubic inches,
the voice regained some of the upper notes, and lost
the “cracked,” tremulous sound. In time, with great
care, the majority of the notes will come back, but
probably C in alt. will never be reached again, and the
general deterioration of voice may never be fully
overcome.

Numerous similar instances, in men’s voices as well
as in women’s, could be adduced, but the foregoing
suffices; the results of incorrect breathing and of
forcing being much the same in all cases, differing
principally in degree.

In the “Treatise on the Art of Singing” by the late
Signor Lamperti, occurs the following passage, which
fully bears out the necessity for diligent acquirement
of correct methods of breathing:—”Masters of the
present day, instead of obliging pupils to make a
severe study of the art of respiration, as a rule, omit
it altogether, and take them through the greater part
of a modern opera at every lesson, to the certain ruin
of their voices, and often at the expense of their
bodily health. How many young singers come to
Milan or to Paris with beautiful voices, musical talent,[130]
and every other natural gift, who, after putting themselves
under the guidance of a master for two years,
study modern operas; how many of these unfortunately
find at the time of their début that their voices, instead
of being fresh and improved by education, are already
worn and tremulous, and that, through the ignorance
of their master, they have no longer any hope of
success in their artistic career, which was finished
before it was begun.” A sad but an “ower true”
description, applicable to other centres of voice-training
besides Milan and Paris.

It is scarcely possible to over-estimate the importance
of correct methods of breathing and of breath management
to all voice users, whether they are singers or
speakers. As breath is the motive power of all voice
it needs but little consideration to arrive at the
conclusion that the best method of supply and control
of this motor power is of vital necessity to those who
depend upon their voices for success in their vocation,
whether it be that of singer, clergyman, lecturer, or
actor.

Some of the worst descriptions of stammering owe
their origin to improper breath management, and numbers
of such cases which have been under my care
have been perfectly cured by specially designed breathing
exercises, adapted to the requirements of each individual
case, combined with training of the various muscles[131]
employed in articulation. As no two persons stammer
alike there can be no universal panacea for the cure of
this terrible affliction; it is, therefore, necessary to
study the peculiar idiosyncrasies of each case before
formulating a plan of treatment; and this makes it
impossible to write rules for self-cure suited to every
case.

LOUD SINGING.

The practice of always singing loudly is greatly to
be deprecated, leading as it does to undue strain, to
coarseness of the voice, and to utter inability to modulate
it into softness and purity of tone. Anyone can
shout and bawl, but not every one can sing softly—therefore
always practise softly until the voice be well
formed, when it will be easy to increase the volume of
sound. Constant shouting causes the muscles of the
larynx to lose their contractile power, and a condition
is brought about which is analogous to writer’s cramp.
Sometimes no voice can be produced, while at others it
is given forth in a series of uncontrollable jerks.
Singers deficient in resonance, and who have not
acquired the best use and control of the various parts
of the resonator, resort to the objectionable practice of
forcing their voices, relying upon power of blast and
vigour of shout instead of cultivating resonance. A
loud, big voice, produced with effort, is a manifestation
of a certain amount of physical power; but such [132]voice-production
is not singing, it is mere shouting. Tones
so produced will ultimately show their bad origin by
the effect left behind on the misused muscles.

CULTIVATION OF THE RESONATORS.

The resonators of the human voice, about which
years ago Emil Behnke lectured and wrote, are only
just beginning to receive the attention which their
important functions deserve. Over some of the resonating
cavities we can obtain no voluntary control; but over
the whole of the mouth, of the buccal cavity, and over
part of the pharyngeal we may, by education, gain as
much influence as over the fingers of the hand, and the
results obtained by such training are frequently
astonishing. A student at one of our colleges came to
me recently whose first question was “Can you teach
me how not to sing with a ‘squeezed’ throat?”
“Nothing easier,” was my reply. On his singing a
few notes to me, the tone of the voice revealed that
owing to want of knowledge of the action of the
resonators, he was closing his throat in such a manner
that the voice sounded as if he were singing through
the teeth of a comb. Without looking in his mouth, I
drew on a piece of paper the position in which were
his soft palate, the pillars of the fauces, the uvula,
and the tongue, telling him that was the picture he
would see on looking at his throat while singing.[133]
This proved on examination to be the case; and great
was his wonderment to find that, after a little practice
he could voluntarily remedy this squeezed position
until it gradually disappeared altogether, and with it
the unpleasant quality of voice which had caused him
so much trouble.

The inherent quality of tone is reinforced by the co-vibrations
of the air in the resonance cavities, the
greater fulness of the sound being caused by the increased
quantity of air which is set into vibration. The
slightest alteration in the shape of these cavities affects
the quality of vocal tone by altering the direction and
size of the air columns.

There is for every tone an air column of a certain
size which most powerfully reinforces that tone; and
every resonance cavity answers to some particular note
better than to others. Timbre in the voice depends
largely upon the echoing and re-echoing of these
resonance chambers; and it needs but little reflection
to see that the shape given to the mouth in pronouncing
speech sounds—more especially vowel sounds, with all
their various shades—interferes more or less with the
purity and quality of tone. Hence the necessity in
singing for modifying vowel pronunciation to suit the
various tones and pitches of the voice. Every shade
of vowel has a certain pitch of its own which is best
produced by certain positions of the mouth, tongue,[134]
and soft palate. It is, therefore, necessary, carefully to
shape the mouth so that, on notes of different pitches,
the configuration of the mould may be that which
gives the best quality of the particular vowel tone. There
must be an unimpeded passage for the voice from the
larnyx to the lips, and this cannot be obtained if the
same vowel shades are maintained in song as in speech.
The vowels which require the greatest alteration in
position of the mouth are A, E, and U; E being quite
the most difficult, because, contrary to the opinion of
some teachers who consider it the best for forward
production of tone, it keeps the sound farther back in the
throat than any other vowel, shutting it up and making
the sound thin and poor. Diligent practice before a
mirror is necessary in order to acquire the best position
of the buccal resonance chamber; its attainment will
well repay the trouble taken, for not only will the
voice gain in timbre, in resonance, and in ease, but
pronunciation will become pure and clear.

The vowel “ah” is frequently chosen as the best
one for vocalising, because in its pronunciation it is
easy to put the mouth in a good position; and voices
are trained on it exclusively, with the result that no
other vowel, or vowel shade, is perfectly produced.
Actual false intonation often arises from want of
practice in adjusting the cavity of the mouth to that
shape required for producing the best tone and resonance
on the different notes; the absence of co-ordination[135]
between the fundamental tone and the overtones
preventing perfect tune.

The absolute truth of the foregoing remarks may
easily be proved by singing the vowels at either
extreme of the “vowel scale of nature,” viz., “oo and
ee,” over the whole compass of the voice, having
regard to the beauty of tone. Although the singer
may be quite unaware of the science underlying the
fact, it will be found that the quality of the voice at the
bottom of its range as these vowels are sung is very
different from that at the top of the range, the alterations
taking place in almost imperceptible gradations.
By reference to the foregoing pages of this book it
will be seen that the late Emil Behnke attached great
importance to vowel training, and exemplifications of his
methods are to be found in “Voice Training Exercises”
and “Voice Training Studies” written in conjunction
with C. W. Pearce, Mus.Doc. The subject is also
fully explained in “Voice, Song, and Speech,” by
Lennox Browne, F.R.C.S., and Emil Behnke; and the
whole matter is most ably discussed in “Pronunciation
for Singers,” by the late Dr. A. J. Ellis, F.R.S.,
published by Messrs Curwen & Sons.

In thus strongly advocating education of the resonator
in the production of vowel sounds in singing, let me
not be supposed to ignore the necessity for also
cultivating pronunciation of consonants, which have
been termed the checks and stops of sound.[136]

Clearness of enunciation and purity of pronunciation,
which are great aids to the voice, and possess a charm
all their own, depend upon both vowels and consonants
being accurately rendered.

The English are the worst enunciators of all
European peoples, and their custom is to lay the blame
on the language, than which none other is deemed by
them so unvocal. There is, however, a vast amount of
sonority and musical charm in our grand and noble
language, second only to the Italian, when properly
spoken.

The cultivation of pure, accurate, and refined pronunciation
in speech will greatly facilitate good enunciation
in singing, and should he sedulously acquired; for there
are numbers of vocalists who leave us in doubt as to
whether the words they sing are English, French,
Italian, or German; while the number of those who
mispronounce words in a deplorable manner is legion.

FORCING THE REGISTERS.

The next factor which has much to do with voice
failure is forcing the registers beyond their proper
point of change. The erroneous belief appears to exist
that, by carrying up the registers a few notes beyond
their natural limits, the tones thus produced are fuller
and richer. But if in training a voice this practice be
followed the result will be serious injury to the vocal
organ.[137]

This is not a theoretical statement; we can easily
see with the laryngoscope the great amount of congestion
of the vocal ligaments immediately caused by thus
forcing up a register; and not only are these affected
by the strain put upon them, but the whole interior
of the throat becomes blood-red, and looks irritated and
inflamed. As soon as the change to the right register
is made the vocal apparatus returns to its normal state.

Now we all know the effects of undue strain on
muscles in other parts of the body, and have felt the
pain and weakness arising therefrom; but far worse
results follow the damage to the throat caused by the
strain of forcing up the registers, by both speakers
and singers. The quality of the voice becomes impaired,
and actual loss of notes follows. In some extreme cases
which I have had under my care, there has been entire
absence of voice both in speaking and in singing, and
much suffering has been experienced from granular inflammation
of the throat brought on by this faulty voice use.

Another method of forcing the voice is the almost
universal endeavour to acquire “top notes” which do
not belong to the singer’s compass. Because of the
high notes in some voices exceptionally endowed by
nature, it seems as though all singers, no matter what
their natural range, have made it the one object of
their training to strive after a vocal attainment whose
rarity appears to be almost its only justification to be[138]
considered as an artistic merit. Why should these ever
vanishing “top notes” be so much craved and striven
for? Can it be said that, as regards each individual
voice, these notes are higher in a scale of excellence
than the rest? What merit does their acquisition
promise as a set-off to the deterioration of the voice
and its inevitable ultimate failure? A high note, per se,
is not necessarily “a thing of beauty” to the listener,
while the result of its attainment is often the converse
of a “joy for ever” to the singer; for in those cases
of forcing up the voice above its natural compass,
violence is done to the throat, which in time results in
some of the many ailments peculiar to singers who use
faulty methods. The middle range of the voice becomes
proportionately weaker and thinner as the cult of the
extra “top notes” becomes greater, until the anomalous
position is reached of a voice with two ends and no
middle; while these superadded, artificial, high notes
are wanting in timbre, in purity, in strength, and in
ease. It is easily demonstrable by the laryngoscope
that the forced and strained action of the vocal ligaments,
and of other laryngeal and throatal muscular action,
exercises an injurious influence upon the voice. The
endeavour to sing notes beyond the extreme of the
compass, or notes which do not naturally lie within
any one register—particularly the chest register—causes
great fatigue of the tensor muscles of the vocal[139]
ligaments, and serious congestion, extending to the
windpipe and pharynx has, in many cases, followed
this practice.

More time and energy are devoted to the acquirement
of what the late Emil Behnke called “mere acrobatic
skill” than is given to the purely artistic side of voice
use, and it follows that we get “the survival not of the
fittest” but rather of those with exceptionally strong
physical organisations, instead of refined artists.

The deterioration throughout the whole compass of
the voice is often painfully noticeable during an entire
song, but the forcible shouting of a full, high-pitched
note at its close seems to be intended to compensate
for all the misery previously endured by the sensitive
listener.

Now the maintenance of a healthy condition of the
vocal muscles depends to a great degree upon the right
use of those muscles in the formation of tone. There
should never be any feeling of fatigue, strain, pricking,
tightness, aching, or of pain in the throat, nor yet of
huskiness after vocal practice. The method of voice
use which produces such results, or any one of them,
is wrong. Nature is pointing out as forcibly as
possible the injury which is being done. Her warning
should be heeded before conditions, getting worse, lead
up to the sad ailments from which so many suffer, and
which are disastrous to both voice and health.[140]

The foregoing facts and illustrations force upon us
the conclusion that the large majority of throat
affections from which both speakers and singers suffer
might be entirely prevented by correct methods of voice
use. As prevention is proverbially better than cure, it
must be infinitely more advantageous to acquire correct
methods than to unlearn bad ones which exercise a
deleterious influence, always recognisable even when
entire voice failure has not followed their practice.[141]

APPENDIX TO THE TENTH EDITION

DOES DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING APPLY
EQUALLY TO WOMEN AS TO MEN?

In a kind notice of the first edition of this brochure,
which appeared in The Medical Press, the editor raises the
above question. He says: “The evils attending faulty
methods of voice-production are pointed out both from
an anatomical and from an artistic point of view,
diaphragmatic breathing being especially insisted on in
opposition to mere clavicular breathing. This is undoubtedly
correct; but we think the advice here embodied
would have been even more valuable had the authoress
mentioned if from her experience she thought it applied
in an equal extent to both sexes, as it is well known that
nature, or we may perhaps more correctly say, the art of
dress, causes women to breathe in a far more ‘clavicular
manner’ than men.”

This is a valuable criticism, and as the point indicated
is likely to be of interest to many persons, I append my
reply, which appeared in the next number of The Medical
Press:—

“To the Editor of the Medical Press and Circular.

“Sir,—I intended the advice on breathing to apply to[142]
both sexes, diaphragmatic breathing with perfect control
being the foundation of all good voice-production, whether
in speaking or in singing, in men and women alike, while
clavicular breathing is a potent factor in voice-failure
accompanied by throat ailments. From the examination
of a large number of cases, I find it exceptional for a
woman, when dressed, to breathe diaphragmatically, but
when the garments are unfastened, and a few simple
directions followed, Nature’s mode of breathing commences
to re-assert itself, feebly at first, but vigorously
after a little practice. Very many men also breathe
clavicularly, to the great detriment of their voices,
whether in speaking or in singing. I have noticed, however
that whereas the majority of women always breathe
clavicularly, comparatively few men adopt this pernicious
habit unless when using the voice, which is, of course,
the worst time for them to employ it. As a rule, men
re-acquire the natural manner of breathing more easily
and quickly than women; this may be partly accounted
for by their greater freedom from constricting garments.
After a few weeks’ training of the respiratory muscles,
the lung capacity frequently exceeds, in women especially,
the average given in Hutchinson’s tables.

“Thanking you in anticipation for your courtesy in
publishing this letter,—I am, sir, yours &c.,

“K. BEHNKE

“18, Earl’s Court Square, S.W.”
[143]

INDEX.

Artificial female voice, Roman teachers, 2

Back ring pyramid muscles, 46, 48

Bands uniting shield and tongue-bone, 34

Belts v. braces for men, 25

Breast bone, 11

Breathing, Collar-bone, 17
——, Curing defective,  23
—— during sleep,  28
—— exercises,  106
——, midriff and rib combined,  17
——, Mouth v. nostril,  26
—— neglected by teachers,  19
——, View of larynx,  84

Breath, Singers’ half-, 26

Browne, Lennox, on breathing, 18, 22

Carpenter, Dr., How tone is produced, 39

Cartilages of Santorini, 51, 54, 80
—— of Wrisberg,  51, 54, 81

Catlin on American Indian breathing, 28

Chest described, 12
—— voice used for pay,  4

Chink, Vocal, 45, 81

Clergymen’s sore throat, 22

Collar-bones, 11

Composers disregarding voices, 3
——’ ignorance of harp,  3
——, Modern, wed music and words,  3
—— to blame for vocal decline,  4

Cords, Vocal, a misleading term, 38
——, ——, False,  60
——, ——, origin of term,  8

Corsets for gentlemen, 26

Curwen’s names for registers, 87

Czermak’s test in vowel formation, 59
—— use of the laryngoscope,  75

Duprez’ Chest C, 5

Eberth’s case, voice-box without lid, 35

Elsberg on nose-breathing, 28
—— on wedges  (posterior nodules),  55

Eustachian tubes, 58

Exercises, Ah, legato, scala, 117
——, Breathing,  106
——, Controlling tongue,  124
——, glottis, check and glide,  112
—— for tone quality,  119, 121
—— in changing registers,  118
——, Mixed-voice,  119
—— on koo,  124
—— on vowels,  116
——, Opening mouth,  125
——, Resonator,  119
——, Soft palate,  121
—— to govern pitch,  115
——, Voice production,  110

Experiment, calf’s lungs, 12
——, Czermak on vowels,  59
——, defects in breathing,  23
——, feeling ring-shield aperture, 72, 100
[144]—— in telling male and female registers,  90

Experiments, Marshall on animals, 39
——, Müller on dissected larynges, 7, 96
——, pressing shield to test pitch, 71
——, Spirometer, 20
——, Violin tone, 57
——, whisper and feel voice-box, 70
—— with laryngoscope, 76, 92
—— with mirror, for nasal tone, 60

Falsetto register neglected, 4, 6

Female and male minstrels, 15
—— voice spoilt by tenor pattern, 2

Foulis’ laryngoscope, 78

French singers subject to tremolo, 20

Garcia and the laryngoscope, 74
—— on forced registers, 96

Garrett, error in describing glottis, 45
—— on a blackbird’s larynx, 40
—— on differences in larynges, 64

Glogg-ner-Castelli on chest voice, 5

Glottis, Chink of the, 45, 81
——, Defects to avoid, 112
—— in producing sound, 46
—— in repose, 46
—— in respiration, 46
——, Shock of the, 83
——, sphincter muscle, 44

Heart, 11

Helmholtz on whispered vowels, 70

Horns, Upper and lower, 34, 37, 42

Human voice, four parts, 9
—— voice, incomparable, 9

Huxley’s description of respiration, 14

Illingworth, Rumney, on falsetto, 39, 52

Inspiration and expiration, 14
—— of men and women, 15
——, Three ways of, 14
—— through the mouth, 26

Isenschmid’s throat apparatus, 77

Italian composers studying voices, 3

Lacing, Tight, 25

Laryngo-Phantom, Isenschmid’s, 77

Laryngoscope described, 73
——, Errors in using, 79
——, How to use, 73
——, What is seen, 80

Laryngoscopic images, 84, 85

Larynx generally described, 31
—— (see Voice-box)

Levers of the Pyramids, 36

Lid and its function, 32, 35, 80

Ligaments, Pocket, 50, 81
——,  ——, not tone producers, 52
——,  ——, their functions, 53, 83
——, Vocal, described, 36, 81, 94
——,  ——, how produce tone, 32, 81
——,  ——, how stretched, 47
——,  ——, in S.C.T.B. voices, 66
——,  ——, size, movement, 41
——,  ——, Three actions of, 83
——,  ——, View of, 37

Lung gymnastics, 21

Lungs described, 9
——, Experiment with calf’s, 12
——, their function, 12

Lunn on “Coup de glotte”, 83
—— on differences in larynges, 64, 89
—— on laryngoscopic views, 82

Luschka, and term “vocal chink”, 45
——, how tone is produced, 40

Luschka’s measurements of larynges, 64

Male contralti, 2
—— soprani, 1

Malrespiration, 28

Marshall, experiments on animals, 39

Merkel on male and female larynges, 90
—— on pyramids and registers, 99
—— on tension of ligaments, 67

Merkel’s terms for registers, 90

Meyerbeer and the falsetto, 5

Midriff, 11
—— described, 12

Mixed voice, defined, 119

Mouth, its part in singing, 59
——, when to keep it shut, 29

Mozart studied voice before composing, 4

Mucous membrane, 61, 80

Müller’s experiments on larynges 7, 96

Muscles, back ring pyramid, 46, 48
—— governing pitch, 113
——, How to strengthen, 113
——, ligament tension theory, 67
[145]——, Pyramid, 49

Muscles, Ring-shield, 41
——, ——,  how change registers, 97
——, Shield-pyramid, 41
——, Shield-pyramid, how change registers, 97
——, Side ring-pyramid, 48
——, Summary of uses of, 49

Nasal tone, various theories, 60

Nose cavities, 59

Nostrils best adapted for breathing, 27

Nourrit and Duprez, 5

Novello, Sabilla, how tone is produced, 39

Palate, Soft, exercising, 121
——, ——, its movements, 59

Paris Conservatoire method of inspiration, 20

Pharynx, 58

Pitch, Mechanism affecting, 72
——, Rise of, strains voice, 4

Pronunciation for Singers, Ellis’s, 120

Pyramids, how act in registers, 99
——, Levers of the, 36, 46
——, side view, 37
——, their shape and motion, 36, 82, 94

Register, Mechanism of thick, 94
——, Thick, described, 94
——, Thin,  “, 98

Registers, Compass of the, 93
——, Teachers’ Manual on, 87
——, definition, 86
——, described by Mme. Seiler, 94
——, distinguishing sex, 90
——, Evil of straining, 101
——, How ligaments act in, 86
——, how small is formed, 101
——, how upper thick formed, 95, 97
——, Images of, 84, 85
——, Laryngoscope and sub-division of, 91
——, “Mixed voice”, 118
——, optional tones, 118
——, places of break, 87, 96
——, Straining of, 95
——, Three female voice, 88
——, to equalise, not expose, 116
——, Two male voice, 138
——, Upper and lower thick, 96
——, —— —— —— thin, 100
——, what laryngoscope teaches, 104

Resonator changes by vowel, 70
——, effect of formation, 58
——, its parts, 9, 56

Respiration described, 13

Ribs, 11

Ring cartilage, 31, 32

Ring-shield muscles, 41, 70

Roger, the French tenor’s style, 4, 6

Rossini on decline of vocal art, 2

Seiler, description of the registers, 92
——, Madame, on “wedges”, 54
—— on action of vocal ligaments, 100

Shield and ring, Motion of, 34, 71

Shield cartilage, 34

Shield plates, 33, 71

Shield-pyramid muscles, 41

Singable music, 3

Singing v. speaking, 18

Snoring and keeping mouth open, 30

Sphincter muscle of the glottis, 44

Spirometer tests recommended, 19

Teaching, Hints on, 106

Tenors as teachers of female voice, 2
——, Short vocal life of, 1
—— sing octave lower than written, 87

Tobold, how tone is produced, 40

Tone, how produced, 56
——, loudness, 56
——, pitch, 56
——, quality, 56
——, Three ways of producing, 83

Tongue-bone, 34
——, Exercises to control, 124

Tonic Sol-fa College, Experiments, 20

Tremolo, Controlled artistic, 22
——, Involuntary, 21
—— mars fine voices, 20
——, Origin of, 21

Violin, Experiments for tone on a, 57

Vocal gymnastics, 114
[146]Voce mista, 118

Voice-box, Attempts to see the, 74
—— compared with instruments, 8
——, differences in size, 62
——, dissecting, 7, 44, 57
——, its parts specified, 31
—— measurements, 64
—— movements, teaching of, 70, 72
——, visible movements, 69

Voice-breaking, Cause of, 63

Voice, Cause of high or low, 65
—— cultivation exercises, 110
——, female, Wrong use of, 95

Voice, period of change in youth, 63
——, quality of, exercises, 119
——, poverty of the age, 1
—— sufferers, Cure of, 24

Vowel scale, Order of the, 116
——, Use of palate in forming,  59

Wedges, Action in small register, 103
——, or cuneiform cartilages, 51, 54, 81

Whispering, Voice-box movements in, 70

When to keep the mouth shut, 29

Wilson, Erasmus, on cuneiform cartilages, 54

Windpipe described, 31, 81

Witkowski on “the wedges”, 55
—— on views of specialists, 8

Women in church music, 2

Words ignored by composers, 3

INDEX TO “VOICE FAILURE.”

Breathing, Evils of clavicular, 128

Breathing, Lamperti on, 129

Breathing, Wrong, 127, 128

Forcing, 128

Forcing, Acquiring top notes, 137

Intonation affected by resonance, 134

Laryngoscope, Its lessons, 137, 138

Lung capacity, 128

Pronunciation, 136

Registers, Forcing, 128, 136

Resonators, Neglect, 128, 132

Shouting, 128

Singing, Loud, 128,, 131

Stammering, 130

Symptoms of faulty voice use, 139

Throat, Inflammation of, 137

Timbre, 133

Tone, Squeezing, 132

Vowels, Shaping mouth for, 134

Vowels, Scale of nature, 135
[147]

Opinions of the Press and the Medical
and the Musical Professions on
the Author’s Book, Lectures, and
Teaching.

SIGNOR GARCIA writes to the Author:—

Dear Sir,—Very many thanks for the copy forwarded to me of
your most interesting work. It will prove of an inestimable advantage
to students, being, in my humble estimation, one of the clearest
and most practical treatises on the subject which contemporary
literature has produced. Accept also my sincere thanks for the
description contained in your work of the origin of the laryngoscope,
and believe me, dear sir, yours most sincerely, M. Garcia.

THE ATHENÆUM.

Interesting, compared with those previously published, as being
written by a musician and not by a medical man. Hence we are not
surprised to find purely musical questions discussed here with great
ability.

NATURE.

The object of this little book is to give singers a plain and comprehensible
view of the musical instrument on which they perform.
The author seems to have succeeded in this attempt remarkably
well. He has evidently had much practical work himself, and has
especially set himself the task of examining the action of the vocal
organs during singing by means of the laryngoscope; and his
record of his own experience in acquiring the use of that beautiful
instrument is not only interesting, but of much practical value.
The last section of the book is devoted to the teachings of the[148]
laryngoscope as to the action of the vocal ligaments in producing
voice, with especial reference to the so-called registers.
“A register consists of a series of tones which are produced by the
same mechanism,” is his definition (p. 86), which is new and complete,
and he proceeds to explain the different mechanism of each
kind of register as actually observed on singers. There are some
good remarks on breathing (pp. 17-22). All information is given
throughout in clear, intelligible language, and illustrated by fourteen
woodcuts…. The book may be safely recommended to all
singers, and others who are desirous of knowing how vocal tones are
produced.

SATURDAY REVIEW.

On the important question of the different registers of the voice
and their proper use, Mr. Behnke practically breaks new ground.
He has carefully gone over the whole subject of the production of
the voice as far as the larynx is concerned, and worked it out anew
by a long and careful series of experiments and observations with
the laryngoscope…. Mr. Behnke’s book is clearly written, and
the plates well drawn and printed; while the anatomical details
are made clear to the general reader by the use of English names
for the different parts…. It is a very valuable book, and ought
to be read and thought over by all who have the training of young
singers, and indeed by all musicians.

MEDICAL PRESS AND CIRCULAR.

In clear and untechnical language the author gives an accurate
account of the construction and mode of action of the human
larynx, its differences in men, women, and children, and the
teachings of the laryngoscope, notably with respect to the “registers”
of the voice…. M. Behnke is evidently an accurate observer
and a logical reasoner, and a study of his work side by side with
Witkowski’s “Movable Atlas of the Throat and Tongue” must be
advantageous to any one desiring to make the best use of his voice.

THE SPECIALIST.

This useful little book is the outcome of the author’s large
experience and careful research. It is written concisely, in clear
and untechnical language, and frequent references are made to[149]
such authorities as Huxley, Lennox Browne, Eberth, Carpenter,
Marshall, Luschka, &c. That Herr Behnke thoroughly understands
his subject no one who reads his book can doubt, and if those who
wish to know the right way to sing and avoid the wrong way will
carefully study this little manual they will not go far wrong. For
all who are dependent on the right use of their voices for their
daily bread, Herr Behnke’s book will be most opportune.

MUSICAL STANDARD.

An excellent specimen of a familiar way of putting unfamiliar
truths.

MUSIC TRADES REVIEW.

There are excellent reasons why singers should possess an intimate
knowledge of the structure and functions of the various organs
concerned in the production of the voice, and this knowledge they
are likely to gain more easily and effectually from the present
treatise than from any other with which we are acquainted. Mr.
Emil Behnke writes in a singularly clear and lucid manner, and if
his book be not exactly light, it is very interesting reading. Much
of the information conveyed is invaluable. We cannot too strongly
recommend the present volume to the perusal of vocal students.

MUSICAL EDUCATION.

After carefully reading the book we are at no loss to understand
how it is that there is such a demand for it amongst the members
of the musical public. The style is admirably simple and lucid,
and every statement made is in accordance with the latest views
on the subject held by physiologists and anatomists of acknowledged
eminence.

KEY BOARD.

The most reasonable, practical, and common-sense work to be
found anywhere.

THE VOICE.

This book is clear and plain, and gives just the information that
every singer and speaker should have. It is the ablest and most
practical treatise on the voice we have seen.[150]

THE INQUIRER.

Men have set themselves to try and ascertain the actual process
by which vocal sounds are produced, and thus to form a scientific
basis on which to found a way of training voices. Herr Behnke,
in a singularly clear and lucid manner, brings the whole subject
before the reader, and, to make it readily understood by non-scientific
people, gives a translation of the Greek terms used by
physiologists side by side with the originals. We cannot too
strongly insist upon the necessity of forming a scientific basis for
teaching singing, and, indeed, for training the voice for public
speaking, &c. We congratulate Herr Behnke upon the patience and
perseverance with which he has pursued his investigations with the
laryngoscope.

MUSIC.

Mr. Emil Behnke has already made himself known to the leading
members of the musical and medical professions by his learned
lectures on “The Theory of Voice Production,” and has gained the
esteem of those interested in the subject by the masterly manner in
which he deals with the matter, as well as his unaffected and, as far
as possible, untechnical treatment of it. Mr. Behnke has done much
to popularize the study of the human voice, and his book (which
abounds in admirable plates) deserves to be widely known.

EDUCATIONAL TIMES.

It is but rarely that science figures as the handmaid of art, yet
this book is a signal instance of it, for it is one of the first
attempts, if not the very first, at an investigation, on strictly
scientific principles, of the normal and the abnormal development
of the voice, both in speaking and singing. Herr Behnke, who is
both a musician and a physiologist, has brought to bear upon this
subject his knowledge as a musician, and the results of several
years of patient and careful scientific experiments. We cannot too
highly commend this little work to the attention of all those
interested in so important a subject.[151]

BIRMINGHAM DAILY GAZETTE.

Since Herr Behnke’s removal from Birmingham to London he has
become an accepted authority on the subject of voice production,
and we are glad to see the results of his studies presented in the
useful way in which they are in this little volume. Earnest and
conscientious students of the vocal art need not be reminded that
the production of fine tone is not the all-in-all of the excellences of
singing, but they will certainly know better how to employ their
gifts after mastering the secrets Herr Behnke reveals.

Opinions of Mrs. Emil Behnke’s Pupils.

VOICE TRAINING.

From an Old Pupil.

Gresham Hotel, Dublin.

Dear Mrs. Behnke,—It is indeed regrettable that Mr. Behnke
was not spared to reap to a greater extent the reward of his wonderful
work. You, I know, must have acquired an adequate
knowledge of his magnificent system of teaching to enable you to
continue on the same course, and so perpetuate his memory. This
is a source of comfort to your many friends.

From a Lady Lecturer.

Edgbaston, May 11th, 1893.

My dear Mrs. Behnke,—I feel I must write to tell you how
much better I am, and how greatly indebted I am to your treatment….
I can take two or three meetings a week with ease, thanks to
your training, and the deeper and fuller tone of my voice has been
remarked upon by many.

Larne, Ireland.

I have no hesitation in saying that, under God, you were the
means of curing my voice.

From a Clergyman who had broken down in Voice.

London, July, 1893.

My voice gives me no trouble now; it is indeed very much fuller
and more resonant. I can fill my church without the least effort.[152]

From a Clergyman who had suffered from “Clergyman’s
Sore Throat.“

Brighton, 26th June, 1893.

Dear Mrs. Behnke,—I take this opportunity of thanking you
very much for what you have done for my voice. I shall try to
keep up your exercises, and hope to receive more lessons later on in
the year.

From a Clergyman who stammered, and whose voice was weak.

“The Parsonage,” Feb. 7th, 1893.

Dear Mrs. Behnke,—I told the Rev. Mr. S. of the great benefit
I had derived from your instruction. He proposes to bring the
subject of your work, and the importance of it to young clergymen,
before the Bishop, with a view to something being done for
ordination candidates.

From a Teacher of Singing.

Scarborough, Jan. 6th, 1894.

Dear Mrs. Behnke,—For some years I have been teaching
successfully on the lines laid down in your late husband’s
publications and his own “Voice Training Exercises;” and have
put into the hands of some of my pupils your “Voice Training
Primer.” One of them has just passed Trinity College Senior
Singing Examination with honours (84 marks out of 100). My own
experience is that no exercises I have ever used have so helped to
produce “forward” and to cure “throaty” tone, and I have long felt
I owed to Mr. Behnke a debt of gratitude for his works. May I be
permitted to acknowledge it to you?

STAMMERING.

THE TIMES.

Pre-eminent success in the education and treatment of stammering
and other speech defects.

THE BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL.

Dr. F. L. Nicholls writes:—”This infirmity is so great a
drawback to almost every walk in life, and for public speaking
so complete a hindrance, that a cure is of the utmost importance.[153]
It may therefore be of interest, and possibly of some use to
members of the medical profession having a case of this nature in
their practice, and desiring assistance for its cure, if I mention that
I have recently had the most satisfactory experience of the cure of
such a case. The father, a minister, was very anxious for his son to
follow in his own footsteps, while the lad stuttered so badly it was
not to be thought of, unless a cure could be effected; and for this
purpose he was sent to Mrs. Behnke, of Earl’s Court Square,
London. Mrs. Behnke was chosen from high recommendations, and
very thoroughly has she proved worthy of them. The lad has just
returned home, and speaks without the slightest impediment. I
should state that previously to going under Mrs. Behnke’s hands we
had tried various rules and recommendations without the least
success.”

“Stammering: its Nature and Treatment.” Price 1s, of
Mrs. Emil Behnke.[154]

Causes of Voice Failure.

By Mrs. EMIL BEHNKE.

Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

THE WEEKLY ECHO.

A very useful pamphlet by a very able teacher. It is published
at sixpence, but contains many guinea fees’ worth of knowledge,
and hints where to procure more.

THE SHREWSBURY CHRONICLE.

Ought to be perused by all who seek distinction as vocalists.

BRISTOL TIMES.

A valuable little brochure. It is one of the most concise and
practical treatises on the subject we have seen, and if only the hints
contained therein were more generally observed, we should have not
only less voice failure, but more good singers with strong, resonant,
and lasting vocal organs. The little book should be in the hands of
all singers, students especially.

HEARTH AND HOME.

Mrs. Behnke’s pamphlet should be eagerly read. I advise all
those who are interested in the preservation of their voices to invest
sixpence in the purchase of this admirable booklet, as they cannot
fail to gain much assistance from the excellent matter therein
contained.

HALIFAX GUARDIAN.

The pamphlet is terse and valuable in the information it affords.[155]

THE MEDICAL PRESS.

“Causes of Voice Failure,” by Mrs. Emil Behnke, has the merit
of being practical and of containing truths which must appeal
forcibly not only to singers, but also to listeners.

WARRINGTON GUARDIAN.

“Causes of Voice Failure.” This important subject is well treated
by Mrs. Emil Behnke.

THE QUEEN.

Well worth reading for the valuable hints which it contains.

THE PRACTICAL TEACHER.

The husband of Mrs. Behnke was the greatest authority in his
day upon voice-training, and, in recommending his wife’s book we
need only say that her knowledge of this subject is only second to
what his was.

MUSICAL OPINION.

This is a small, cheap, and useful pamphlet by Mrs. Emil Behnke.
The quiet, clear, convincing manner in which she writes deserves
full recognition.

SUSSEX DAILY NEWS.

“Causes of Voice Failure,” by Mrs. Behnke, is a useful little
tract which may be confidently recommended to the notice of
singers, professional and amateur, for the sound advice and cautions
against common faults of training contained in it.

BRISTOL OBSERVER.

Mrs. Emil Behnke has written a little work on “Causes of Voice
Failure” which deserves to be widely circulated among students of
singing. It should be carefully read.

CAMBRIAN.

Excellent advice is given which must be of great value to those
who contemplate adopting the vocal profession either from a
pecuniary or from an artistic standpoint.[156]

THE SCHOOLMASTER.

Mrs. Behnke goes to the root of the matter, and her proposals are
urged clearly. Incidentally she touches on stammering, and we
recommend those interested in the subject to give her ideas, at
any rate, consideration.

THE PROFESSIONAL WORLD.

We would recommend it to all interested in the question of voice
production and voice preservation.

LITERARY WORLD.

The writer of this essay is a well-known expert in her subject.

TUNBRIDGE WELLS ADVERTISER.

In a concise form Mrs. Behnke gives some valuable hints that
singers would do well to note and pay attention to.

WEST SUSSEX GAZETTE.

Mrs. Behnke was well advised to consent to the publication of
this valuable chapter added to the ninth edition of her husband’s
well-known work, “Mechanism of the Human Voice,” and we are
glad to note it has already run to a second edition.[157]

BEHNKE VOICE-TRAINING METHOD.

Voice-Training Exercises

ALSO

Voice-Training Studies

BY

EMIL BEHNKE and Dr. C. W. PEARCE.

In separate books for Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano,
Contralto, Tenor, Baritone, and Bass.

Price: Paper Covers, 1s. 6d. net cash; Bound in Cloth,
3s. net cash.

Voice-Training Primer

By MRS. EMIL BEHNKE.

Price 2s. net cash; Bound in Cloth, 3s. net cash.

These works are highly recommended by the musical,
medical, and general press, and by teachers.

CHAPPELL & Co., Ltd., 50 NEW BOND STREET, LONDON, W.
Melbourne and New York.

And may be had of all music-sellers.[158]

The Musical Herald.

A Journal for the Professor and Amateur.

PUBLISHED ON THE 1st OF EACH MONTH. PRICE TWOPENCE.

The Musical Herald was established in 1851; it is the most widely circulated and
read of all the musical papers.

The Musical Herald gives no music; it is bought because of the importance of its
articles and news.

The Musical Herald is indispensable to the up-to-date Pianoforte Teacher, Voice
Trainer, Organist, and Choirmaster.

The Musical Herald freely replies to questions on musical subjects which are of
general interest. In this way One Thousand enquiries are answered each year.
Most of them concern matters that the ordinary text-books and manuals do not touch.

The Musical Herald gives each month, in reply to questions, lists of songs, pianoforte
and organ pieces, violin pieces, orchestral pieces, choral works, all of which carry its
recommendation.

The Musical Herald devotes much space to Voice Training matters. It gathers up
opinions and hints from all quarters, favouring no clique; interested only in obtaining
good singing.

The Musical Herald provides each month a full biography, with portrait, of a
leading musician, who relates his experiences and their lessons.

The Musical Herald is read all over the world. The compact and newsy quality of
its matter, and its broad outlook command attention everywhere.

The Musical Herald reports musical doings of importance in France and Germany,
translating and summarising articles from the European press.

The Musical Herald reports papers, speeches and discussions at the various musical
societies.

The Musical Herald, in its Editorials, speaks out plainly, showing neither fear nor
favour.

The Musical Herald has a prize competition each month on some subject relating to
harmony, composition, musical rudiments, or the literature of music. A guinea is
given as the first prize.

The Musical Herald reports all important Choral Contests, sending its representatives
to any part of Great Britain or of Europe where events of interest are proceeding.

The Musical Herald interviews musicians who have things of weight and interest
to say.

The Musical Herald has correspondents in every district of Great and Greater Britain
who supply the pages of “News from all Parts.”

The Musical Herald is invaluable to students preparing for music examinations,
because of the help given by its practical articles and answers to enquiries.

Published by

J. CURWEN & SONS Ltd., 24 BERNERS STREET, LONDON, W.[159]

History, Biography, Church Music, &c.

HANDBOOK OF ACOUSTICS. By T. F. Harris, B.Sc., F.C.S. Price
33. 6d.; postage 3d. A handbook for musical students. Contains
18 chapters profusely illustrated; with numerous questions and an
Appendix of Examination Papers.

HISTORY OF ENGLISH MUSIC. By Henry Davey. A monumental
work tracing the history and proving the advanced position, past and
present, of English music. Contains many new and important facts.
Price 6s.; postage 4 ½d.

HYMN LOVER, THE. By Rev. W. Garrett Horder, Price 5s.;
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progress of Hymnody.

MEMORIALS OF JOHN CURWEN. By his Son, J. Spencer Curwen.
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MUSICAL HAUNTS IN LONDON. By F. G. Edwards. Chapters on
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stories and pictures of their residences in London. Price 1s.; post. 2d.

MUSICIANS OF ALL TIMES. Compiled by David Baptie. Second and
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teachers, artists, and all other musical workers, containing 5,000 names.

STUDENT’S MUSICAL HISTORY. By H. Davey. Price 1s.; postage
1 ½d.; cloth, 1s. 6d.; postage 2 ½d. The cheapest historical handbook;
comprehensive, concise, brought up to date.

STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. First Series. By J. S. Curwen.
Price 5s.; postage 4d. Contains articles and information on various
matters relative to Worship Music, arranged in three divisions—Historical,
Practical, Descriptive. Revised and enlarged.

STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. Second Series. By J. S. Curwen.
Price 2s. 6d.; postage 2 ½d. Continues above work—articles on the
Chapel Royal, Westminster Abbey Choir, &c.

SHORT DICTIONARY OF MUSICAL TERMS, A. By Arnold Kennedy.
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UNITED PRAISE. By F. G. Edwards. Price 3s. 6d.; postage 3d.
Originally advertised as “Common Praise.” A practical handbook of
Nonconformist Church Music.

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STANDARD WORKS ON MUSIC.

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A B C OF MUSICAL THEORY. R. Dunstan,
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ART OF BREATHING. Leo. Kofler. Price,
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BOY’S VOICE, THE. J. S. Curwen. Price
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CANDIDATE IN MUSIC, THE. H. Fisher,
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CONSTRUCTION, TUNING, AND CARE OF
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CYCLOPÆDIC DICTIONARY OF MUSIC. R.
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FIGURED BASS. Geo. Oakey, Mus.B.
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FIRST STEPS IN HARMONY. R. Dunstan,
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HANDBELL RINGING. C. W. Fletcher.
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HANDBOOK OF ACOUSTICS. T. F. Harris,
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HARMONY ANALYSIS. Geo. Oakey, Mus.B.
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HISTORY OF ENGLISH MUSIC. H. Davey.
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HOW TO READ MUSIC. John Curwen.
24 chapters, pp. 128, price, cloth, 1/6;
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HOW TO TEACH THE STAFF NOTATION.
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HOW TO TRAIN CHILDREN’S VOICES.
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HYMN LOVER, THE. Rev. W. Garrett
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MANUAL OF MUSIC, A. Ralph Dunstan,
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MANUAL OF ORCHESTRATION. Hamilton
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MANUAL OF VOICE PRODUCTION. H. J. B.
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MUSICAL HAUNTS IN LONDON. F. G.
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MUSICAL INSPECTION. By a School
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MUSICIANS OF ALL TIMES. Compiled by
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MUSICIAN, THE. Ridley Prentice. Six
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ORCHESTRA, THE, and how to write for it.
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ORGANS, ORGANISTS, AND CHOIRS. E.
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PIANIST’S MENTOR. H. Fisher, Mus.D.
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PLAYING AT SIGHT. R. T. White, Mus.D.
Oxon. Price 1/6.

PRIMER OF ELOCUTION. F. Harrison,
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PRONUNCIATION FOR SINGERS. A. J.
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SCHOOL MUSIC TEACHER, THE. J. Evans
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SHORT DICTIONARY OF MUSICAL TERMS.
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SINGER’S GUIDE. J. Adcock. Price 1/-.

SINGING IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. A.
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SOLO SINGER. Sinclair Dunn. Price 1/-.

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SPECIMEN LESSONS ON THE TONIC SOL-FA
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STANDARD COURSE, THE. J. Curwen.
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STUDENT’S MUSICAL HISTORY. Henry
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STUDIES IN WORSHIP MUSIC. J. Spencer
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TEACHER’S MANUAL, THE. John Curwen.
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TEXT-BOOK OF COUNTERPOINT. Geo.
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TEXT-BOOK OF HARMONY. Geo. Oakey,
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TEXT-BOOK OF MUSICAL ELEMENTS. Geo.
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TRAINING COLLEGE MUSIC COURSE. B.
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UNITED PRAISE. F. G. Edwards. Price
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VOICE PRODUCTION IN SINGING AND
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VOICE TRAINER, THE. J. A. Birch. Both
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