Books › Grove's Dictionary of music and musicians, 1927 › scan 640
Scan 640
Grove's Dictionary of music and musicians, 1927
28 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 572. See the scan on archive.org.
1fol. 53. For the details of his career, and the list of his works, see D.N.B.
3VOWEL SOUNDS. In speaking and singing there is an essential difference between consonants and vowels. A vowel is a continuous sound which can be sustained for as long as may be desired, and will retain throughout the characteristics by which it is distinguished from another vowel. A consonant is in general merely a method of beginning or ending a vowel and cannot be maintained. Consider, for instance, such a word as book. The letter b represents a particular kind of explosion at the beginning of the vowel sound, and the letter k represents another kind of explosion at the end of the vowel. Both these are momentary, whilst the vowel sound can be prolonged indefinitely, and is recognised as oo whether the beginning and end are heard or not. Each vowel sound has a characteristic similar to what is called tone or quality in the case of musical notes. We distinguish between a and o, for instance, in the same way as we distinguish between the note of a violin and that of a flute.
5There are certain consonants, such as s, f, v, m, etc., sometimes called semi-vowels, which can be maintained, though not in singing, as most of them are merely hisses. What is said below does not apply to these.
7It has been shown by Helmholtz that the tone of a musical instrument is dependent on the relative strengths of such harmonic overtones as may be present along with the fundamental (see Acoustics), and it must be some similar feature that gives its special character to any one vowel. The cavity of the mouth serves as a resonator, which intensifies one or more of the constituents of the complex note produced by the vocal cords. The pitch of the note strengthened can be varied by altering the position of the tongue or by varying the extent to which the lips and teeth are separated. Further, by raising the centre of the tongue the cavity of the mouth can be converted into two connected chambers, whereby two distinct notes can be strengthened.
9Helmholtz maintained that each vowel is characterised by the presence of overtones strengthened by the mouth resonance. He believed that some vowels have only one such resonance tone, whilst others have two, and that these tones have a definite fixed pitch for any one vowel whatever may be the pitch of the larynx note on which the vowel is sung. His theory is known as the Fixed Pitch Theory.
11Other physicists maintain that the overtones which give the vowel its character rise and fall with the larynx note, always remaining at the same intervals above it. This is known as the Variable Pitch Theory and makes the difference between two vowels result from the same cause as gives rise to the differences of quality of the same note played on different instruments.
13The exact cause of vowel differences cannot be said to be settled. The majority of physicists, however, regard Helmholtz's Fixed Pitch Theory as being correct as a first approximation, but the matter is probably not quite so simple as Helmholtz imagined it to be.
15J. W. C.
17VOX HUMANA (Voix Humaine), an organ stop of 8-feet tone and of the reed family, but with very short capped pipes, which therefore reinforce only the overtones of the fundamental. The pipe for the CC note, which would in the case of an ordinary reed-stop be nearly 8 feet in length, is here often only 13 inches. The pipes vary little in length, and there are perceptible breaks in the timbre.
19As its name implies, the stop is supposed to resemble the human voice. Burney,1 speaking of the specimen in the Haarlem organ, says:
21'It does not at all resemble a human voice, though a very good stop of the kind; but the world is very apt to be imposed upon by names; the instant a common hearer is told that an organist is playing upon a stop which resembles the human voice, he supposes it to be very fine, and never inquires into the propriety of the name or the exactness of the imitation. However, I must confess, that of all the stops I have yet heard which have been honoured by the appellation of Vox humana, no one, in the treble part, has ever yet reminded me of anything human so much as of the cracked voice of an old woman of ninety, or, in the lower parts, of Punch singing through a comb.'
23This description is by no means out of date. In acoustically favourable buildings, and when only just audible, the stop has sometimes a weird effect which is not unimpressive, but distinctness is quite fatal. The Vox humana should be placed in a box of its own inside the swell box. It is nearly always used with the tremulant. Opinions differ as to its capacity for combining pleasantly with other registers, and this depends upon the kind of stop. There are instances where it gives a piquant quality to other light stops. Its voicing is very delicate and it is liable to get soon out of tune, but a great improvement in this respect can be made by careful scaling, and by giving attention to the consonance of the tube. (See Organ: Vocabulary of Stops.) W. P.A.
25VOZ, LAURENT DE (b. Antwerp, 1533; d. Cambrai, Jan. 1580), brother of the painter Martin de Vos. After having been engaged for some years as a musician at Antwerp Cathedral, Laurent de Voz was appointed master of the children and director of music at Cambrai Cathedral by Archbishop Louis de Berlaymont. His attachment to the latter caused him, during the troubrous times which followed, to compose a motet, in which the text was compiled from the Psalms in such a manner as to describe the banishment of Berlaymont, the usurpation of Inchy, his iniquities, the murder of citizens, the vain hope of release
271 Present State, Germany, vol. ii. p. 303.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.