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Musical Courier 1895-02-27: Vol 30 Iss 781, 1895
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1The Human Voice as a Force Acting Through the Physical Body.
3SCIENCE teaches us that surrounding the earth is a universal ether, and in this ether are contained a great number of yet finer ethers which we often term forces. These forces are undeviated atoms only waiting for a correct knowledge of their laws to be set into activity to become the friends or foes of mankind.
5The process of evolution is going on in every department of life, and man never seemed so anxious to understand his own mental and physical make-up as at the present time.
7After centuries spent in the outward man and his visible environment, at last he is beginning to investigate invisible forces and to connect his very essence with all the surrounding forces of nature. Discoveries have been made as to the power of mind over matter, and in studying all expressions of life we find both mind and matter are vibratory action or a continual change of atoms. These atoms, following law, produce various results, some times discordant and again the perfection of harmony.
9Scientific education proves to us that everything in the universe is vibratory action, from the seemingly inanimate objects around us to the mind which pervades the universe. We find subtle forces ready to do our bidding in the very air we breathe. It would take too much time for me to illustrate the subject of vibration satisfactorily, so I will confine myself to the voice and its relations and only discuss a few discoveries made by me during the past few years.
11The voice treated as a force outside the body may be new to you, but a little consideration of the subject will show the strong claim it has to being a subtle force, with the larynx and adjoining parts as a media.
13Formerly in our ignorance the voice has not been treated as a subject to be improved upon or investigated, but as something God given and not to be improved upon. This belief is not altogether strange, for man in no particular has really grasped the possibilities of any faculty; not until recently has it become fashionable to investigate the invisible forces of nature. We have yet to learn that everything, without exception, follows law, and until this important fact be understood and demonstrated we are ever at the mercy of what we term forces.
15Our very body is what I may term congealed mind. Every atom that goes to make up the whole is subject to the law of vibratory action of some force. We all recognize the inelastic body and its opposite, the cultivated, well bred speaking ensemble of the artist. Pages could be devoted to this important and fascinating subject.
17Few realize the important relation existing between the entire body and the voice, and the necessity for thorough body culture to the singer or speaker—intelligent, conscious control of the various nerve centres and muscles. Tyndall expresses our obligation to study these laws by the following: Scientific education ought to teach us to see the invisible as well as the visible in nature, to picture with the visions of the mind those operations which elude bodily vision, to look at the very atoms of matter in motion and at rest and follow them forth without ever losing sight of them integrating themselves into natural phenomena.
19We learn that all atomic action is the same, that by approximation or separation of the atoms by some extraneous force, mind, a yet finer vibratory action, we give rise to the exertion of the repulsive or attractive forces inherent in the atom, and thus all forces are brought into action. The atom itself is an unknown quantity. A collection of atoms is called molecules. These molecules are present throughout all space, subject to the action of thought.
21The law of atomic action is the same in all bodies, but the reciprocal action of the molecules composed of the atoms vary according to the relative position and the distance of the component atoms. This theory would give us various shaped molecules for the sense of hearing, sight, speaking or singing, but all governed by a common law. It would explain the difference between the piece of granite and the diamond; in singing, the difference between the colorless, throaty tone, and the brilliant, scintillating, carrying tone. The analogy seems perfect.
23Following Tyndall's suggestion of trying to see and follow the invisible, I can imagine the instrument eye, composed of cells, in a state of vibration, forming the muscles, nerves, &c., of such a nature as to admit and harmonize the molecular living force of sight, and impervious to all other vibratory action; also the larynx and surrounding parts being of such a nature as to admit only of the particular molecular living force that goes to make up the highest attenuation of sound—the voice. To parody Heine, we do not take possession of our voice, but are possessed by it.
25In a healthy body the cells are in such a condition as to allow a perfect current or circulation of the corresponding force, but when for any cause these cells become obstructed, and the living molecular force cannot enter, we become discordant or diseased, which are but other terms for saying we are out of harmony. These forces which act upon our bodies cannot be seen but by the mind's eye, and the dissecting knife of the anatomist will ever fail to locate them. Only by a study of the laws of vibratory action may we hope to gain their secrets. When this fact becomes recognized we may learn somewhat of causes and the best and quickest method of producing correct effects; until then we are at the mercy of any force and not its master.
27Nowhere can the study of atomic action be more interesting than of the so-called senses of man, their relations to the individual, and, later, their connection with the great whole. Vision has its laws of vibratory action, and no one confounds the sense with the instrument. The voice, equally a sense or force, bears the same relation to the larynx, its media, as vision to the eye.
29We find voice, the highest attenuation of sound, with its scientific relations, correlations and transmutation, and, like all vibratory action, projects itself in waves through gross media, and as related or dissonant vibrations are produced we get harmony or discord. Bearing this important fact in mind, after studying the construction of the instrument, we must continue our investigation by examining the law of atomic action as exhibited in tone.
31Anatomy has attempted to locate and limit the voice. While such study has been of advantage and a step upward, the time now seems ripe for a higher thought and a deeper investigation of causes in the light of progressive thought. To say "I see something" means that the molecular living force of vision has been set into action. "I hear" is expressing a similar operation of auditory vibration. To speak or sing, other molecules are brought into action. These combinations seem limitless. We also find the three forces are inseparably connected.
33We say tone is generated at the vocal bands by means of this or that muscle, which in a degree is correct; but we must not forget the primary cause—thought acting upon undeviated atoms of air below the bands and subject to the law of atomic action.
35Muscles and nerves are but a means and not a cause. In studying the muscular action we find the vocal bands—really folds of the lining membrane of the throat—are at the top of the trachea. The air, or a vibratory current of undeviated atoms, impelled by a thought pass to these bands, where the atoms take whatever form the extraneous agent (mind) demands. These bands or membrane possess powers of muscular action as marvelous as the eye, and in the same manner as the eye will set at defiance the scalpel of the anatomist, for it may be positively asserted that the mind of man cannot comprehend the subtle and delicate mechanism of the finest movements of the body.
37Experiments have been made and much light thrown on the varied action of the vocal bands, but it is all incomplete. Before there was much or any knowledge of anatomy the voice was divided according to sensation; thus we have the low, vibrating tone, called the chest tone, and the lightest and highest, being classed as head tones, under the impression that they were made in the head. Various experiments on man and beast have been made to decide the correct action of these bands.
39It is conceded by the best anatomists that the grave or lowest tones are produced by vibrations of the entire bands and the acute or highest sounds by a tightening and a partial closing, thus showing it requires not more than half the amount of breath to produce the acute tone than it does the grave ones. These experiments are evidently correct, and already I have proven and utilized this knowledge for the development of the highest tones of the voice; nevertheless, this fact, emphasized by most anatomists, is ignored by singing teachers.
41It was evidently understood or guessed at by the old Italians, as shown by the number of phenomenally high and agile voices possessed by their singers. It has been found that a certain elastic touch is a necessity for acquiring a correct vibrating action at the vocal bands, as well as a supple muscular action.
43Taking the other agents into consideration, I find that a combination of "scoo" and "fâ" are the best for developing a natural muscular action and at the same time focussing the vibrating current at the teeth.
45Studied carefully and intelligently, a single exercise becomes a mine of knowledge, serving simultaneously several important offices, not the least being an exercise of muscles otherwise impossible to reach. By its use, outside of singing, I have cured hoarseness (supposed to be chronic) and bad catarrhal affections, thus showing that the work performs a valuable office in exercising and clearing both muscles and the mucous membrane.
47While accepting the opinions and experiments of authorities on the voice and throat, I am convinced that the beauty and lasting quality of the voice, from a physical standpoint, is largely dependent on a healthy mucous membrane, and that the contractile tissue of the membrane is a much neglected but most important agent in voice production, particularly of the head tones. Taking my exercise with a correct touch, the female voice may with ease touch F in alt, and many voices an octave higher. This phenomena alone would support my theory that the voice is a force and limitless.
49Dr. Morrell Mackenzie substantiates my assertion that exercising the voice in this manner is harmless when he says: "Sensation, however, is a useful witness in confirming the results arrived at in other ways, and it can always be relied upon when it tells whether an action causes strain or not."
51Experience has taught me that it is highly beneficial, and assists in strengthening and developing the voice to the finest finish and most extended range. Dr. Mackenzie also says: "Singers and speakers are not only artists, but also in a certain degree athletes, their work consisting essentially in well ordered muscular movements."
53This delicate touch must be given without effort and without conscious breath, according to the theory of acute sounds. Experience teaches us that to be thoroughly harmonious every muscle in the body should be exercised, and this applies equally to the more delicate muscular action of the voice. The muscular action which develops the very highest tones are not only a necessity, but without this natural action the voice will lack in a degree smoothness and elasticity.
55While the advanced vocalist may not attain a remarkable range, possible to the coming generations, it is a grand step to learn that our ignorance of law is what limits the voice and that all is proportionate to age, experience and amount of time given to study.
57If you wished to make your daughter or son an athlete you would not wait until they were twenty or even eighteen, when the muscles are beginning to harden, and yet in singing, requiring a yet finer muscular action, how few parents or teachers look to the voice of the child with an eye to the future. Dr. Mackenzie and many others advocate beginning with the child at five or six, and consider that voices would be greatly benefited by so doing.
59Too long we have looked upon singing as a God given gift to be held for a few years, instead of a sense or force to be understood, utilized and manifested through our muscles for upward development.
61A beautiful voice means everything—mastery of the mechanical muscular action of the various agents and the higher powers of mental and psychic development, classed under the head of emotions. A correct and healthful muscular action requires time and careful study. Power of tone, like strength of body, is a result. At the same time with the muscular development we are exciting to action a nerve centre, or voice brain, which means enlarged powers of comprehension and comparison. Nature has seemed to endow a few lavishly, yet it seems possible that any nerve centre may be excited in some degree in all mankind. Future generations must profit by the beginnings of to-day; this thought should incite all to some well directed effort. The mind must clearly perceive the object in view before singing can become an intelligent act. Facts should be constantly held before the student to choose from and utilize.
63First studying the voice from principles discovered by Emma Seiler, I found that while the word touch is correct, a scientific fact is to be demonstrated and the word touch is incomplete, for it does not signify enough. A touch may linger, so when we express a scientific fact and say a point of voice, we reach nearer to the desired idea—that is, the attempt to control the first atom of the molecular living force when it is first brought into action.
65This point is beyond the reach of the senses; it can never really be attained. It can exist for man only in hypothesis. Nevertheless, the singer who would attain the finest tone finish must strive to reach this subtle thing, and certainty of result will be in exact proportion to his knowledge of its principles and his skill in applying them to the work in hand. A hypothesis is demonstrable by results, but this in no wise militates against its value.
67One antagonistic fact will destroy the value of the finest theory ever evolved, but until this fact be forthcoming I assert this same point of voice to be the nucleus of a perfect tone, and without it the voice is more or less incomplete and undeveloped. Time alone must prove my premises correct. This point should be of almost electric rapidity, giving an instantaneous contraction and relaxing of the muscular action.
69The perfection of the movement is largely dependent upon the rhythmical action of all vibratory action, or what might be termed the dynamics of the force voice. When done correctly it is not only beautiful but restful to the physical body.
71While the preceding may not be in harmony with generally accepted methods, I cannot better express my own ideas on progress in voice work than to quote from Dr. Walsh in Dramatic Singing: "The singer of the far future, though working with no better organs than his forefathers, will be enabled by utilizing every growing experience to revolve more refined, more idealized forms of vocal expression, and probably even to strike out new fashions of formulating tone into the significance of thought and emotion."
73ANNIE FILLMORE SHEARDOWN,
7462 Boylston street, Boston, Mass.
76(To be continued.)
78Mr. Charles H. Jarvis Dead.
80Mr. Charles H. Jarvis, the well-known Philadelphia pianist, died at his home on February 25, 1895. We are unable to obtain particulars for this week's issue, but will publish a full account of his life and works in our next.
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