The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-03-28
A VOCAL DISCOVERY.
MIR. Palmer's Experiments in Develop
ing the FaIsetto Voice.
Literary Digest.

Literary Digest.
IL the conclusions announced by E pa
wilson Palmer, an English vocalist. alter
i've or six years of experimenting Win
the so-called falsetto voice. are confirmed
there is a revolution near at hand IN the
development of the male voice. These con-
illusions are. he says, of so startling n 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 MS expert
ments upon others began, yet he felt the
hopelesSneSs of announcing them until he
had fully fortified himself with coptirma-
tory evidence. This evidence he thinks ne
now has. and he gives ii to the pubic in
the Nineteenth Century (February.) THESE
conclusions are stated by him at the out
set as follows:
The result of these experiments was
such as to fully confirm me In the views
which I had long entertained, by the estab-
ishment 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 II ire
quently and persistertly, it Is possible AT
this low pitch to gradually strengthen ana
develop II until 1T 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 the place of the two registers or
which the voice formerly consisted there
IS now only one register; which extenSs
other. This new voice. while rs regards
strength and volume of tone IT bears a
great resemblance 10 the UlStdIutu CHtSb
voice, for which ii may easily be mistaken,
differs from it in three important p%articu-
lars: Firstly, in the peculiar beauty and
sweetness of its quality: secondly. I'm its
exceptionally extended compass. and. third
ly. in the perfect ease with which 1t 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 L 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
break between these two registers was
quite conspicuous, and the difficulty in pro-
ducing the upper notes of the chest reg
lister was u~nmiStakable. He had been
taught to exercise the chest voice and let
the SO-called falsetto alone. / 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 opposed
10 be of any practical use, ] found IT, as
was TO be expected. exceedingly weak and
better than a whisper. on this weak and
'breathy' voice he now began to work UNI
der my directions, by means principally of
octave and arpeggio exercises.
After about three months OF regular and
diligent practice a very remarkable increase
of strength was observable in all the notes
as far down as the G just mentioned. These
notes had lost their falsetto character, and
had begun to sound like chest notes. in
a few more months the Improvement had
extended itself 10 the lower notes, as far
as the low d. Thus the development pro-
cess went on until. in less than a year, the
transformation was complete. The old
chest voice had been entirely discarded
and superseded. and in it's place was what
may be described as a new kind OF chest
voice. with an available compass of two
octaves and a fourth. extending from the
low a fiat to the high d fiat, every note
strong and of good quality, and every note
produced in exactly the same way as the
SO-calIed falSettO-'