The Child-Voice in Singing | Page 8

thick voice? If their vocal organs are so
flexible, may they not carry such tones higher than adults, and younger
children higher than those a little older, and so on?
It is quite obvious, for reasons herein set forth, that children do not
experience the same degree of difficulty in continuing the use of the
thick voice to their higher tones as do adults, but as to the effect upon
their vocal organs there need be no reasonable doubt. A. B. Bach, in
"Principles of Singing," p. 142, says: "If children are allowed to sing
their higher notes forte, before the voice is properly equalized, it will
become hard, harsh and hoarse, and they will fail in correct intonation.
A mistake in this direction not only ruins the middle register but

destroys the voice altogether. The consequence of encouraging forte
singing is to change a soprano rapidly to an alto; and they will
generally sing alto equally forte because their vocal cords have lost
their elasticity through overstraining and the notes will no longer
answer to piano. . . . . The fact is that reckless singing often breaks
tender voices and breaks them forever." It may be observed that the
writer cited evidently accepts the same classification in register for
children and adult women's voices, but this does not make the above
extract any less applicable. The baneful effects of forcing the voice is
clearly set forth. How to avoid it is another matter.
Leo Kofler, in the work previously mentioned, p. 168, refers to this
point as follows: "It frequently happens that the tones of the lower
range, or the so-called chest-tones, are forced up too high into the
middle range. This bad habit is often contracted while the singers are
quite young. Boy trebles have this habit to an unendurable degree,
usually screaming those horrible chest-tones up to middle C. Of all bad
habits, this one is the most liable to injure a voice and to detract from
artistic singing."
To cite Madame Seiler once more, p. 176: "While it often happens that
at the most critical age while the vocal organs are being developed,
children sing with all the strength they can command. Boys, however,
in whom the larynx at a certain period undergoes an entire
transformation, reach only with difficulty the higher soprano or
contralto tones, but are not assigned a lower part until perceiving
themselves the impossibility of singing in this way, they beg the
teacher for the change, often too late, unhappily, to prevent an
irreparable injury. Moderate singing without exertion, and above all
things, within the natural limits of the voice and its registers, would
even during the period of growth be as little hurtful as speaking,
laughing or any other exercise which cannot be forbidden to the vocal
organs."
Browne and Behnke, who separately and together have given most
valuable additions to the literature of the voice, in a small book entitled
"The Child-Voice," have collated a large number of answers from

distinguished singers, teachers and choir-trainers to various questions
relating to the subject. The following citation is from this interesting
work, p. 39: "The necessity of limiting the compass of children's voices
is frequently insisted upon, no attention whatever being paid to
registers; and yet in finitely more mischief is done by forcing the
registers than would be accomplished by allowing children to exceed
the compass generally assigned to them, always provided that the
singing be the result of using the mechanism set apart by nature for
different parts of the voice."
There can really be no doubt that the use of the chest or thick voice
upon the higher tones is injurious to a child of six years, or ten years, or
of any other age. The theory that in the child-voice the breaks occur at
higher fixed pitches than in the adult is shown to be untenable. The fact
would seem to be that comparisons between the registers of the child
and the adult voice are misleading, since the adult voice has fixed
points of change in the vocal mechanism, which can be transcended
only with great difficulty, while the child-voice has no fixed points of
change in its vocal registers. This point must not be overlooked. It is
the most important fact connected with the child-voice in speech or
song. It is the fundamental idea of this work and is the basis for
whatever suggestions are herein contained upon the management of the
child-voice. The rigidity of the adult larynx, the strength of the tensor
and adductor muscles and the elastic firmness of the vocal ligaments,
are to those of the child as the solid bony framework and strongly set
muscles of maturity are to the imperfectly hardened bones and soft
muscles of childhood. Nature makes no fixed limits