Voice Production in Singing and Speaking | Page 3

controversy--The break--Ignoring
registers--Modification of tones, or "covering"--Points of agreement
between different writers on the subject--The falsetto for
males--Madame Seiler's special qualifications--Behnke's and
Mackenzie's views--The author's conclusions--Rule for the extension of
a register--Why certain artists deteriorate while others do not---Males
and females compared as to registers--The division of the registers for
female voices recommended by the author--Teacher and pupil as
regards registers--Objection to registers answered--The manner of
using the breath and registers--How to distinguish registers--The
teacher's part--Hearing singers of eminence is recommended--Madame
Melba--Guiding sensations--Summary 161
CHAPTER XII.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING
VOICE-PRODUCTION.
Artistic expression only through movements--Emotions and
technique--Relation of ideas to movements--Memories and
movements--Guiding sensations essential for movements--The
principles underlying all movements the same--Associated reflexes and
habits--How habits are formed--inhibitions and their importance--Early
practices only before the teacher--Careful practice with concentration
of energy the best--Queries as to practice--Fatigue a warning--Practice
in the early hours of the day, and short of fatigue--Quality to be aimed
at rather than quantity--The total amount of time to be devoted to
practice--"Hasten slowly;" "Little and often"--The treatment of the
voice ruined by wrong methods--Summary 179

CHAPTER XIII.
CHIEFLY AN APPLICATION TO VOICE-PRODUCTION OF
FACTS AND PRINCIPLES PREVIOUSLY CONSIDERED.
Vowels, consonants, noise--Consonants and pauses--Voice-production
and vowels--Certain vowel sounds common to most languages--Why
German and English are relatively unmusical--The needs of the musical
artist--The mechanism required for the production of a vowel
sound--Reconsideration of the resonance-chambers--The larynx to be
steadied but not held rigidly immovable--The principal modifiers of the
shape of the mouth-cavity--Breath to be taken through the mouth--The
lips--Tongue and lip practice before a mirror--Importance of the
connection between the ear and the mouth parts, etc--"Open
mouth"--The mouth in singing a descending scale--Undue opening of
the mouth--Proper method of opening the mouth--Causes of
compression and the consequences 195
CHAPTER XIV.
SOME SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS OF PRINCIPLES IN
TONE-PRODUCTION.
Principles and their expression in a few exercises--Analysis of the
methods of tone-production--The sustained tone--Smoothly linked
tones--The legato--The staccato and kindred effects--The mechanisms
concerned--Perfection requires years of careful practice--The bel canto
and the swell--The same exercises for singer and speaker--"Forward,"
"backward," etc., production--Escape of breath--The action of the soft
palate--When to use "forward" and when "backward"
production--Voice-placement--Nasal resonance, not nasal
twang--Summary 207
CHAPTER XV.
THE ELEMENTS OF SPEECH AND SONG.

The subject may be made dry or the reverse--Vowels, consonants,
noise--The position of the lips and the shape of the mouth-cavity in
sounding the various vowels--How to demonstrate that the
mouth-cavity is a resonance-chamber--Practical considerations growing
out of the above--Speaker, vocalist, and composer--Bearing of these
facts on the learning of languages--Consonants as musical
nuisances--Their great variation in pitch--Brücke's division of
consonants--Tabulation of the same 218
CHAPTER XVI.
FURTHER THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL CONSIDERATION
OF VOWELS AND CONSONANTS.
The best vowel to use in practice--Necessary to practise all--The
guttural r and the lingual r--Consonants that favor nasality of
tone--Overtones and fundamental tones--Relation of intensity and
quality--The carrying power of a tone--Unusual distinctness in practice
as related to ease--The registers of the speaking voice according to
Madame Seiler--The range in speaking--Summary 230
CHAPTER XVII.
THE HEARING APPARATUS AND HEARING IN MUSIC.
Why this chapter is introduced--The essential mechanism of
hearing--The part played by waves and vibrations--Divisions of the
ear--The external ear in lower animals--The drum-head or tympanic
membrane--The middle ear and its connections--Relation of the throat
and the ear--The inner ear or labyrinth--The end-organ and its
relations--The connection of the ear and various parts of the brain--The
musician's ear--Relation of music and hearing--Lack of ear and
inattention--The artist and the musician--The ear and the speaking
voice--General musical training in relation to intonation, etc--The
appreciation of music, and training to that end--The art of listening with
close attention--Summary 236

CHAPTER XVIII.
CONSIDERATION OF GENERAL AND SPECIAL HYGIENE AND
RELATED SUBJECTS.
Hygienic as related to physiological principles--Hygiene in the widest
sense--Unfavorable conditions in the public life of an
artist--Qualifications for success--Technique and a public career--The
isolation of the artist and its dangers--The need for greater preparation
now than ever--Choral singing and its possible dangers--The tendencies
of the Wagner music-drama--Special faults, as the "scoop," "vibrato,"
"tremolo," "pumping"--Desirability of consultations by teachers of the
use of the voice--Things the voice-user should
avoid--Mouth-toilets--Lozenges--The sipping of water--What one
should and should not eat--Tea and Coffee--The whole subject of
congestion from compression, straining, etc., of the utmost
importance--A sore throat when frequent should give rise to inquiry as
to methods--Constipation--Exercise--Bathing 251
CHAPTER XIX.
FURTHER TREATMENT OF PHYSICAL AND MENTAL
HYGIENE.
Stammering and stuttering--Those who have broken down--The
increase of the range of a voice--The part the student plays in settling
such questions--Selections to be avoided--Conservation of
energy--Change and contrast--The voice as related to the building in
which it is produced--The listener and pauses--Nervousness, and how
to ward it off--General conclusion 268
CHAPTER XX.
REVIEW AND REVISION.
The object of the speaker or singer--The idea of co-ordination--The
study of vocalization may be considered a