The Child-Voice in Singing | Page 7

below the pitch indicated, will be sung in a
thin quality of voice. The place of the break or the absence of any break
at all will depend upon the degree of loudness permitted.
Pass now to a grade in which the pupils average eleven years of age.
These can use the thick tones as high as
[Music: d'' e'']
only with great exertion, and, if required to sing softly, will pass into
the thin register at a lower pitch than the primary class. Now, go to a
room where the children range in age from thirteen to fifteen years. The
girls will still use thick tones up to
[Music: b' c'' d'']
The pitch at which the break occurs will vary in individual cases
according to physique or ambition to sing well; but the boys (excluding
those whose voices have begun to break) will manifest the utmost
repugnance to singing the higher notes. "Can't sing high" will be the

reply when you ask them why they do not sing. And they are correct.
They cannot, not with the thick voice. Even when putting forth
considerable exertion, they will pass to the thin voice at
[Music: g' {or} a']
and lower, if they sing softly. This phenomenon, then, is the "movable
break" of the child-voice. The pitch at which the child-voice passes
from the thick to the thin voice depends first upon the age; second,
upon the amount of physical energy employed, and third, upon the
bodily vigor of the child.
It may also be added that boys' voices break lower than girls' during the
year or two preceding change of voice. When, now, it is remembered
that the adult female voice leaves the chest-register at
[Music: f' f#']
it will be admitted by everyone who has had actual experience in class
singing in schools or elsewhere, that the facts set forth in reference to
the ability of the child to carry the thick voice from one to eight tones
higher than the adult, has a very important bearing on the subject of
training children's voices.
But, is it physically injurious? It may be said that, as regards upward
forcing of the vocal register, authorities upon the adult voice are united.
Leo Kofler, in "The Art of Breathing," p. 168, says: "I have met female
trebles that used this means of forcing up the chest-tones as high as
middle A, B, C, and (one can hardly conceive of the physical
possibility of so doing) even as far as D and E flat. The reason why this
practice is so dangerous lies in the unnatural way in which the larynx is
held down in the throat, and in the force that is exercised by the tension
muscles of the vocal ligaments and the hard pressure of the muscles of
the tongue-bone.... I have examined with the laryngoscope many ladies
who had the habit of singing the chest-tones too high, and, without
exception, I have found their throats in a more or less diseased
condition. Laryngitis, either alone or complicated with pharyngitis,
relaxation of the vocal ligaments, and sometimes paralysis of one of

them, are the most frequent results of this bad habit. If a singer is
afflicted with catarrhal trouble, it is always aggravated by this
abominable method of singing."
Emma Seiler, in "The Voice in Singing," p. 54, after describing the
action of the vocal ligaments in the production of the chest-voice and
alluding to the fact that such action can be continued several tones
higher than the proper transitional point, goes on: "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 parts of the larynx near the glottis,
betrays the effort very plainly; as the tones ascend, they grow more and
more red. Thus, as at this place in the chest-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." And again: "In the ignorance existing concerning the natural
transitions of the registers, and in the unnatural forcing of the voice, is
found a chief cause of the decline in the art of singing, and the present
inability to preserve the voice is the consequence of a method of
teaching unnatural, and, therefore, imposing too great a strain upon the
voice." Quotations innumerable might be made, to give more emphasis,
were it needed, to the evils of register forcing.
The only point remaining is the one very often raised. Is it not natural
for children to use the chest or