Scan 371
The American history and encyclopedia of music, 1908
4 lines. Read by computer on 9 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1amount of cultivation in the matter of moderation in expenditure of breath such as most of us have accomplished, that when we allow no excitement or unnatural physical or mental state to rob us of our self-control that the muscles concerned in speech move in broad, loose vibrations, and produce our lowest and strongest tones of voice. With every higher tone the vocal ligaments stretch and the space between them is narrowed, making the air passage smaller. The singer learns to control that air passage and to produce tones of a like quality in different registers. We expect the singer to possess just such mastery over his vocal instrument as the violinist possesses over the mechanical difficulties of his violin. Theorists differ in their opinions as to the number of registers in human voices, but it will answer our purpose here to speak only of upper or lower registers which we all recognize, and the equalizing of which is the first requirement of the singer. Some voices are so poorly equalized that as they pass from lower to upper they sound like two different voices, whereas one of the first requirements of a good singer is that there shall be no noticeable change of quality between the two.
3With the proper management of breath comes the clear, pure and free tone. All the breath should seem to be turned into tone, and the tone should never sound as though there were a physical effort to produce it. It must seem to come easily and naturally, and not make us aware in any way of the mechanism necessary to give quality and force to a note. A good singer will, as we have said, change imperceptibly from one register to another in order to vary the force of a tone, or can keep the same register and increase or diminish its force. Without increasing the volume of sound the artist will intensify the different gradations of force introducing the softest effects to great advantage, even in a large theatre or hall. If he has his voice under perfect control he can even by the use of very little voice intensify the very softest tone and make it heard nearly as far as a loud one. If a poorly trained singer ventures on a soft effect he often fails to make his tones heard, and in trying to swell out a note the result
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