For the purpose of studying the movements of the vocal ligaments in the act of singing, the vowel A, as in "sad" will be found the most favourable, because the formation of the mouth, and the position of the tongue which it necessitates, enable us to get a complete view of the interior of the voicebox, which during the emission of other vowel sounds is more or less hidden.
Mr. Lunn objects that all investigations with the laryngoscope are valueless on account of the supposed necessity of holding the tip of the protruding tongue. He says, in a letter to the "Orchestra" (January, 1880): "One of our most promising singers told me he could not rightly produce his voice when under laryngoscopic investigation. It is a moral impossibility for all!" (A physical impossibility would be more to the purpose.) "Let the reader pull his tongue out with a napkin as far as he can, and sing, and he will get some notion of the tone producible." There is no foundation for this objection, because if a singer has his tongue under proper control there is not the slightest occasion to put it out and to hold it. As to pulling it out as far as one can, that should not be done under any circumstances, and no man having the slightest knowledge of laryngoscopy would suggest such a ridiculous proceeding. In my own case the vocal ligaments can be seen from one end to the other while I keep my tongue in its natural position, and I am willing to demonstrate this fact to any one who has any doubt in the matter.
As soon as we produce a tone, the pyramids, and with them the vocal ligaments, meet, so as to touch each other more or less closely, while there still remains a large space between the pocket ligaments above. Every time we take breath, the pyramids with the vocal ligaments recede, to meet again as before, every time we strike a new tone. The vocal ligaments, thrown into vibrations by the stream of air passing between them, cut, as it were, this stream of air into regular waves, and thus (as more fully explained on p. 38) tone is produced.
We notice here that this tone-production may be originated in three different ways:—(1) The vocal ligaments may meet after the air has commenced to pass between them. Of this an aspirate is the result. (2) The vocal ligaments may meet before the air has commenced to pass between them. This causes a check or a click at the beginning of the tone. (3) The vocal ligaments may meet just at the very moment when the air passes between them. In this case the tone is properly struck. There is nothing to make it indefinite as in case No. 1, and nothing to impede it as in case No. 2. Production as in case No. 3 causes the tone to travel much farther than production as in cases Nos. I and 2, and it is this way of striking a tone which is known under the name of "Coup de Glotte" or "Shock of the Glottis."
"But it is not a shock of the glottis at all," says Mr. Lunn, on page 68 of the book quoted before. "It is an audible result arising from the false cords [pocket ligaments] releasing condensed air imprisoned below them, which air in its release explodes." I beg leave to observe that condensed imprisoned air thus released could produce a puff, but not a musical tone. The matter is, moreover, capable of being demonstrated to the eye. The process takes place as described above, and I am ready at any moment to show that the pocket ligaments never meet in singing. There can, therefore, be no possibility of condensed air being imprisoned below them, and we need not enter into any further argument on the subject.
Plate XIII.
LARYNGOSCOPIC IMAGE.
BREATHING.