The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-02-01
News Of Recent Science
THE HUMAN vIocE.

THE HUMAN VIOCE.
Perfectly pure tones or sounds are rare
| ", if ever heard, writes Elisha Gray IN
the Chicago Times-Herald. If we stretch
a cord or wire and vibrate it as whole II
also vibrates in its aliquot parts. The VI
bration as a whole is called its funda-
| mental. If cord vibrates as a whole and
also in halves, forming a modal point in
the center of the string. there would be
| composite tone; the strings as whole
will be vibrating at the rate, say, OF IVo
| vibrations per second. The two halves
will be each vibrating at the rate OF zVo
| per second. The lower tone will be the
one that determines its pitch, and the
| others that are superposed on this founda
| ton motion will simply determine the
! quality of the fundamental tone. If now,
the two halv es are subdivided into
shorter set of superposed motions the
| quality of the fundamental tone Will De
| changed again. Those superposed vibra-
| lions are always higher in pitch and pear
a harmonic relation to the fundamental
| tone Thousands and thousands OF these
superposed tones may be added to fund
| amental tone, and each one changes the
quality of such fundamental. These su-
| perposed tones are called overtones. The
| effect they produce is called quality
| sound tint, or timber, in French, and
! klangfarbe in German which means clang
tint, and is evry expressive when we con-
| slider the relation of sound mixtures TO
! light mixtures. We mix colors to get
| different tints, and later on we shall see
that we are only mixing vibrations of diff
| ferent rates per second, as color is as
! much vibration as sound
| If we mix standardization we are SIM
! ply getting sonorous tints that affect the
! brain through the ear very much as 1t is
| affected by mixtures of color through the
| eyes It is said that some voices that are
very rich in overtones contain as high as
| 10000 of these accompanying tones. NO
| two voices are alike, and the difference
| is what is called a difference of quality;
| and this quality is determined by then ab-
| ility Of the vocal organs to produce q
| greater or less number of overtones coup
| led with the varying pitches OF the dill
| ferent voices. If you hear violin, al
though you do not see it, you have no
hesitancy in asserting that you do hear
| one. II you hear an organ under the same
circumstances you are just as sure that
it is an organ as you would be II you
| should see it at the same time. The same
| would be true of piano and many other
| musical instruments. Why? Because
| each of these instruments has different
sets of overtones and therefore different
| quality, which gives to each an indivl-
duality. The identity of he different in
| struments has been established as thor
| oughly as though the nearer had seen
| them as well as heard them. And through
the same general medium, motion. or
| course, if he had never had seen them,
the sound alone would not convey to him
the idea of their form. So far as our OBJ
| servation is able. to determine, sound
| quality possesses differences that are in
finite in number. ss f
Musical instruments are limited in their
| powers of expression much more than is
| the human voice, but, like the human
voice, there is a great difference in the
same kinds of instruments. Violins that
are very old and have been used great
deal and have been made by masters OF
the art often command fabulous prices
because of the rich quality of their tones.
II they are made as they should be and
out of the best material they will i'm
proveby USE just as the human instru-
ment improves by practice. But no in
strument, however perfectly made, equals
the human voice in it's ability to express
ksova a0d IN
the playing of an instrument comes pri-
marily from the player himself. The hui
mau vocal organs in their power to ex-
press all kinds of emotion; through the
medium of vibration, transcend all other
mediums for producing sound quality
Emotions through these organs are i'm
pressed upon the air in the shape of vi
brations in the most intricate combina
tons, so that every vocally expressed en-
otion has its correlative in the surround
| ing atmosphere a moving form oil
shape When player or singer gives sucf
a rendering of a musical composition a:
to cause a profound emotion to sweel
over his audience we call him an artist
He puts his soul into the rendering anC
that moves our souls. Another may pla!
: the same composition with even bette
technique and yet IL is dead, cold, mech
| anical performance. It is as devoid o
feeling as the music box or the orchest
rion driven by spring or weight. I ono
: heard a street singer VINO had a fairl,
good voice but wholly uncultivated. Sh
sang in a manner that showed she ha
in her the soul Of a true artist. Her word
t were in a foreign tongue. but that mad
! no difference: she told her story more Ell
fectually because the words could not b
: understood, but left the imagination t
t supply them.
No words have ever been invented tina
5 will convey the sensation of profoun
emotion so well as the language of must
= when it really is music. She did NOR
Z than sing song: it had the plant of he
e own burdened soul floating away on til
] | wings of melody" She moved me pre-
\ | foundry. 1t was not her personality, fo
| that was unattractive. She would hav
| moved me more profoundly If have No
seen but only heard her. for then my in
agination would have given to that woT
| derfui rendition a more appropriate dive
| ling place. She moved me by emotion
of her burdened heart upon the surround
ing air by throwing il into a pecula
: form of motion. and this motion was COZ
veyed to my brain through the organ
Of hearing and there translated into en-
otion What a wonderful mechanism
the human vocal organ. and what val
l Ierf,,v -ov-erS of axnresS{or IL has when