Morning journal and courier., 1892-09-09
THE RISE AND FALL OF VOICE.

| Once No Living Thing Had One, an,
Il the Same VIII He True gain.
from the San Francisco Chronicle.l
There was time in the history of tn
world when even the animals had no voice
There were no sounds or noises then bu
those made by the winds whistling abou
mountain tops and bowling through pr
meval forests, or of the waves dashing ol
shores absolutely silent and dead. Tn
animals of those geological epochs, beinl
in the plastic state preceding the develop
ment of the osseous structure that nov
gives form and comeliness to the human
body, were just beginning to breathe th,
external air with a gentle respiration
Ages, it should rather b. said epochs, wer,
passed in this manner, in the course o.
which the habit of respiration developed
the lungs. Then the use of the throat es
sential to the taking of food produced
those organs necessary to speech, which
are called the phsrynx, glottis and lsrynx
1t seems that providence, as a matter OF
/ supreme convenience, made the same pas
cage serve for eating, speaking and breath
i ing, although ANOTHER arrangement was
possible, like the respiratory apparatus oi
| the gras hopper, which ia placed at the
/ sides. This is one of the very few excep
tions to the rule which applies in common
| to man and most animals.
When the upper part of the throat was
in an advanced state of development the
| act of respiration began to be accompanied
by certain inarticulate sounds, at first re-
| sembling the rough breathing of a person
whose air passages are obstructed by a bsd
cold. Instinct soon taught the animal
that these noises could be increased by
forcing slightly the inspiration or expira-
ion of the breath, or by contracting the
muscles of the throat and 60 emitting the
voice in a rspid succession of indefiuite
sounds. We have the right to suppose
that the yelpiDg of sea lions represents
very nearly the human voice in its early
stages of development. The sounds of
the voice of the human being are, like
those Of all animals and of all instruments.
the result of vibration of chords, and
are grave or acute according to the size of
these chords. There is little reason to
doubt that the first sounds made by ami
mails were low down in the musical scale
but as the voice, guided by instinct, was
more and more used, either for the pur-
pose of amueement or to inspire terror,
| they would naturally, in the case of msny
| species in which there was a more pro-
nounced development of the Uranium, be
made more in the head and become what
We now call head tones. This change was
more rapid in animals living on the land,
the voice of those whose habits continued
to be amphibious remaining much the
same. There came in the course of time
to be a great variety in the voices of ami
mails determined partly by their size, but
generally by the circumstances in which
they were placed. The different species
of the feline race living in forests cultivst-
ed the higher tones The lion adapted
his voice to the vast desert spaces where
he rosmed and gained a scanty subsistence.
The dog in his wild state probably con-
fined himself to the lower notes of the
scale and expressed his hostility only by
barking. Since his domesticaiiOn, having
acquired sort OF human sentiment, he
yelps and whines in the higher tones to
express feelings that are but imperfectly
understood. The Cat initiates the high So
pranos. The horse, having a long neck
and head nearly as long. initiates in his
neighing most of the modern tenors The
animals of the bovine tribe produce the
voice from low down n the throat, only
occasionally ventuTing TN certain higher
and exceedingly unnatural notes. i great
variety of tone and compass is found
am ong the birds, from the shrill scream
of those of ravenous kind down to the
parrots, among which ara found the bas-
sos, baritones and contraltos of the race.
The singing birds combine the high and
low tones with extraordinary fexibility of
voice and a perfection of vocalism at
which they arrived probably at a very re-
mote period of the worlds history.
Man inherited from his immediate an
cestors, the apes and monkeys, a voice of
considerable altitude. in which the lower
IL
keys chartered to their fellows from tree
to tree in shrill head tones, the natural
vocal expression of a WEAK and timid race,
in whose physical formation the head had
begun to hold an important place. The
upper notes of the register We're character
istic of the first men, as they still are OF
savage tribes and peoples, and of the half
civilized members of modern society,
whose voices have never been subjected to
discipline. The voices of country people
accustomed to magnificent distances and
conversation at long range are, if not
keyed higher, oftener used in the upper
ranges than those of city people, who feel
obliged by the necessities of good breed
ing to moderate their tones. When man
is self contained he Uses the middle and
lower tones of his voice: when su-ry the
voice mounts gradually to the head. If
the gentler sex would oftener bear in mind
| the eulogies of Shakespeare and Scott of
| that voice gentle and low, which is an ex-
cellent thing in woman, they would more
rarely have occasion to wonder why they
have ceased to be attractive. The music
of the Chinese, Japanese and of all wild
tribes is keyed high and sung usually in
| falsetto, the lower notes being obtained
| by drums, tomtoms or some other instru-
ments of the kind Although their songs
are far from agreeable to the ear, they
still think they can sing, an illusion
shared, it must be confessed, by a consid-
erable number of persons In the most re-
fined modern society.
The facts and sus gestions contain proba-
bly, the reason for the belief expressed by
French writer that the human voice is
gradually descending the scale. High ten
ors and sky-scrapirg sopranos are more
and more difficult to find, a great misfor-
| tune in these times when the Wagner ope-
ras demand such extraordinary vocal ef-
forts. The Chronicle hiss already endeav-
ored to explain tine awful consequences Of
this theory carried to its logical results.
1t has shown how the sopranos will gradu-
ally become contraltos; the contraltos ten
ors, regardless of sex; the tenors baritones
and the baritones bassos. 1t would be
well if the misfortune ended here, but
| this is by no means all. When the whole
human race is only able to speak in bass
tones there will continue to be depres-
sion of the higher of these, until one sim
gle dead level is reached, above which the
voice will be unable to rise. To this un-
fortunate voice music in all its forms will
long have been impossible. For a while a
conversation, whose ghostly solemniiy can
only be imagined, will be carried on, and
then the vocal organs will cease entirely to
exist.
FOREST IN A LAKE.
| Gina In ha Arr r.