The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-04
REGISTERS OF The VOICE.
,rryrD QUESTION AMONG SING
no TEACHERS.
,,.,,t.ts and IiasteFs Far From Agree
mcnt on ThIs subject Earliest Teach
os agree Win Modern scientists
Advice Of some Leading Instructors.

Cioyanui Lanperti says: There Is no
lorht that the greater part OF the diff
a,l,ies encountered at a change of register
Wv reu a . the uneven tones within one and
'ho same register, may be traced to faulty
hroathing AZ a change of register espe-
cisIIy the breathing must be calm and easy
Whom il Is -o and the body is in a norma
,ns;ton with the mouth and pharynx
suitably opened, no one will experience
6ihcultv at a change of register
Here again speaks the voice OF expert
.,oe and culture in the fertile field Of Italian
,radinou. Singing teachers who have
taared thai pupils might regard the science
~ singing a. too simple to Justify the ex-
orbitant prices asked for instruction in it
are among the chief inculcators Of perplex-
Inc ideas about the registers of the voice
Ne have been asked to believe that there
ara three different methods Of producing
tones. namely, the chest, the medium and
the head. The truth is that all the tones
II the voice are produced by the vibration
NJ the vocal cords and these cords are
caused to vIhrate by the passage through
them of air from the lungs.
It is equally true that there are changes
IN the position of the larynX at different
rIoces in the Gale of each singer and that
the sensations caused by these changes
sometime. produce feelings of discomfort
and lack Of freedom in the act of singing
In striying 10 get rid of these feelings singers
often resort to some abnormal pull among
the throat Muscles and thus acquire a bad
method Of singing certain tones.
When they have acquired such a method
there is a marked difference between the
tones produced without the abnormal pull
and those produced with it, and this differ
ence is called inequality of registers. One OF
the problems. therefore, that confront the
student of singing is how to equalize his
registers, which ia simply another way Of
saving how to ngthroughout his scale with
out materially altering the character of his
voice. The words of Giovanni Lamperti,
quoted above, should suggest fruitful
reflection to many who have been BAN
boozled by the pretentious nonsense put
forward Ivy so many professors of this art.
There ia no question whatever that a
mechanical change in the production OF
tone does take place in the upper range
Of any voice, or in what is now called the
head register Giulio Caccini in his "Nuove
Musiche, written at the beginning of the
seventeenth century, when the study of
artistic singing was Just stepping from
the portals Of the church to the doors Of the
theatre, recognizes W registers. which he
dsignates as "voce piena" and "voce finta."
Literally these terms mean "full voice"
and disguised voice" They correspond
to what believers in two registers now call
lower and head registers
The writers of the masterworks of church
counterpoint utilized the head tones of men
In their works. We have the careful ac-
count Of Cerone u619l on this matter. and
he recognized two re gisters-chest and head.
Since, therefore, the head voice (so-calledl
has been known and systematically used
since the earliest period of the art of sing
ing, we may accept it as a demonstrated
fact.
The name is not quite satisfactory; but
few Of the terms used in the practice of
singing are. This expression, "head voice."
simply means that the notes in its range
seem to cause vibrations in the skull or
some part of it, whereas the physical feel
ing Of vibration in the medium register
Is in the pharynx and in the lowest tones
in the upper part of the chest.
Here W. are again confronted with all
IneNOct Technology. Most masters of
singing divide registers into ~three-chest,
medium and head. Very few Of them
hold that there is any change of mechanical
operation in the passage from the chest
to the medium. They are speaking merely
Of divisions Of the scale. For practical
mIrrOsaa II iC non yaTioDt m n0o I ha thea,
terms, but their true meaning must never
be forgotten,
Sir Mor-ll Mackenzie made many careful
experiments and laryngoscnpic ~investi-
cations into this SUBJECT, and extensively
reviewed the work Of leading scientists and
teachers. His conclusion, while it may not
he that accepted by all the best contempo-
rapeons MASTER Of singing, is nevertheless
worthy Of serious attention. He found
Just ihe same number of registers ar Caccini
found three centuries a~Eo-namely, a chest
and a head.
In the chest register tho pitch of the tones
Is raised, according n Mackenzie, by an in
crease Of the tension of the vocal cords. and
also by m Glmost microscopic addition to
'helr length, In the head register, the pitch
'NN' = II Bld'lihl SifVl tSIlIlb VI JlIS
Vibrating read, which is not quite 40 tense
as in the chest register.
In other words, when the pitch has been
falsed as far as possible by an increase to
tension on the vocal cords, the mechanical
process is altered, and additional notes
can he obtained by a different method. In
producing these additional notes the
vocal cords relax a trihe and then substi-
,le Tor vibrations involving their entire
Hngfh Vibrations Of only a part of it.
Inc cords come together just az they do
IN the natural lower tones, and then a small
aperture near one end opens and allows
rseI, to be set in vibration by the air blast.
ms produces the head tones, and the prob
~m pf the singer is to learn how to pass
rom the lower register into this one with
ouI so great n change in the quality of the
'oie as to cause the nearer to notice it.
Mackenzie calls attention to the fact that
~ the scientific investigators of the voice
aVe found only two registers. He names
MULLER, Mandl, Battaile, Vacher, Koch,
meyer Gougenheim and Lermoyez. Teach
es OF singing, on the other hand, have
almost always held that there are at least
.ree registers, and some OF them have
discovered As many as five. These FIVE
Usnhot be anything more than arbitrary
VISIONS OF the scale. There are not four