The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-03-28
A NEW VOICE CULTURE
OLD SYSTEMS TURNED TOPSY-TURvY
BY AN TEACHER.
Wonderful Results Alleged from
Only-Music and Musicians.

wilson Palmer. an English vocalist. after
1--we or six years OF experimenting with
the so-called falsetto voice. are con-
firmed, says the Literary Digest. there
is a revelation near at hand i'm the
development of the male voice. These con-
illusions are, he says, of so startling a ma
ture and so utterly at variance with all
that is taught on the subject, that. though
he reached them by reason of his own per-
sonal experience long before his expert
ments upon others began, yet he felt the
hopelessness of announcing them until he
had fully fortified himself with confirma-
tory evidence. This evidence he thinks he
now has. and he gives it TO the public in
the Nineteenth Century february These
conclusions are stated by him at the outset
as follows:
The result OF these experiments was
such as to fully confirm me in the views
which / had long entertained. by the es-
adjustment of the remarkable fact that by
bringing down the so-called falsetto to
within a few notes of the bottom OF the
vocal compass, and by exercising it fire.
quently and persistently, il is possible at
this low pitch to gradually strengthen and
develop II until ii acquires all the robust
ness of the ordinary chest voice When
this process of development is completed
the voice may be said to be entirely trans
formed. The old chest voice is discarded,
and in place of the two registers of which
the voice formerly consisted there is now
only enc register. which extends from one
extremity of the voice to the other. This
new voice, while as regards strength and
volume of tone it bears a great resemblance
to the discarded chest voice for which IL
may easily be mistaken. differs from it in
three important particulars: firstly. in the
peculiar beauty and sweetness of its quail
ity; secondly. in its exceptionally extended
compass. and. thirdly. in the perfect ease
with which II can be carried TO its upper
limit"
Mr.. Palmer then proceeds to describe
his experiments. Here is one of them:
"One of the voices with which I was most
successful was that of a young man of
when he came to me-, had already had some
little training. His voice, which was tenor.
consisted of the two registers commonly
known as chest voice and falsetto. The
break between these two registers was
quite conspicuous. and the difficulty in pro-
lister was unmistakable. He had been
taught to exercise the chest voice and let
the sO-called falSetto alone. i advised him
TO do exactly the reverse. On getting him
to bring the upper register down as far as
G in the fourth space of the bass stave,
nearly an octave lower than it is supposed
TO be of any practical use. L found it, as
was TO be expected. exceedingly weak and
'breathy.' Below that point il was little
better than a whisper. On this weak and
'breathy' voice he now began TO work un-
der my directions. by means principally of
three months of regular and diligent prac-
tice a very remarkable increase of strength
was observable In all the notes as lar down
as the G. just mentioned. These notes had
lost their falsetto character, and had be-
gun to sound like chest notes. In a few
more months the Improvement had extend
ed itself to the lower notes as far as the
low ID. Thus the development process
went on until, in less than a year. the
chest voice had been entirely discarded
and Superseded. and i'm its place was what
voice with an available compass of two
octaves and a fourth. extending from the
low A fiat to the high ID fiat, every note
strong and of good quality. and every note
produced in exactly the same way as the
SO-called falSetto-"
Other cases in which similar results were
achieved are mentioned. but admission is
made that a number of failures and partial
successes have been interspersed among
the complete successes, some of the fail
ures being due TO lack of practice because
of business pursuits. but most to the lack
OF necessary patience and perseverance.
Several OF the partial successes were men
over forty years of age" Another discov-
cry was made, namely, that the so-called
falsetto not only strengthens that voice
itself. but is beneficial to the chest voice
also" Says Mr.. Palmer:
1T is generally supposed that its exer-
else TO any great extent is productive of
serious injury to the chest voice and the
assertion has been made. and is Endorsed
by high authority. that, if il be exercised
exclusively, the chest voice will be en-
tirely destroyed. There is not a vestige of
and prolonged experiments which i have
made d%isprove. it completely; and not only
do they do this. but they also show that,
while the so-called falsetto is improved by
being exercised the chest voice is i'm
proved by being let alone"
Another important point is brought out
by the writer. He has occasionally met
with adult males who possessed unframed
voices which. contrary to the Common
teaching. had but one register, not two,
nature having made them in her 3wn way
in defiance of all the great musical author
tiles. Even when examined with sthe
~laryngoscope no break in the voice could be
discerned to Indicate two registers. Voices
so produced are exceptionally fine voices,
and in adult males have the popularity of
seeming to be all chest voice. hut can
be carried to the highest limit of the voice
with perfect ease. The means by which
such voices are produced he has discovered
TO be simply and solely that which is en-
ployed in the production of the so-called
~falsetto. He continues:
IF this conclusion be true. ard I fail to
see how it can be successfully disputed,
then the question, What is falsetto? which
has always been a puzzle to the phySiolo-
gist, may be satisfactorily answered.
F'alsetto is the remains of a voice a por-
ticr of which has been wrongly produced.
and the wrongly produced portion is not
the falsetto itself. as is commonly sup
posed. but that portion which is known by
the name of chest voice Signor Garcia,
in his Hints on Singing says that falsetto
is a remnant of the boys voice. This is
perfectly true. although the majority of
professional singers and many teachers of
singing are quite unaware of ii. But il is
not the whole truth. Falsetto is not only a
remnant of the boys voice. but il is a
emnan of the rightly produced voice.
| Moreover. in every case where il exists as
a separate register ii is the only rightly
produced voice.
That the theory of voice production
startling theory TO PROFOUND is not to be
denied. But / have brought forward some
strange and startling facts. and these facts
cannot. / believe. be accounted for by any
other theory. Nor is this all. Strong and
conclusive as these facts appear to me.
they are not the only facts by which the
theory may be supported. Others may be
noted which point plainly in the same di-
rectiOn. There are many musical men who
had good voices when they were boys. but
have anything but good voices now. These
men have n distinct recollection of the kind
of voice which they formerly used when
they sang soprano as children. and are well
aware that. whatever were the mechanical
means by which il was produced. the mode
OF production was exactly the same as
wish TO produce the voice which is called
falsetto. In other words. they are fully
conscious of the fact. already referred to.
that the falsetto of the present voice Is the
remains of their former soprano voice,
while the voice which they now use. both