The Child-Voice in Singing / Treated from a physiological and a practical standpoint and especially adapted to schools and boy choirs

by Francis E. Howard

Sound-vibrations generated at the larynx are modified as to their form, by the size and shape of the resonating cavities of the mouth and pharynx. Through the movements of the soft-palate, tongue, lower jaw and lips, the shape and size of the mouth can, within certain limits, be changed at will. As every vowel-sound requires a peculiar form of the resonating cavity for its production, it will be easily understood that each vowel-sound of which the human voice is capable can be made by a proper adjustment of the movable parts of the vocal organs. As all singing-tone is vocal or vowel in its character, the production of the various vowel-sounds takes precedence in the study of vocal music. Just how much of this study can be carried on in school music will depend upon circumstances, the chief of which is the time assigned for music. It is very easy to suggest that if the time given is not enough, that longer lesson periods be demanded; but it is quite probable that, owing to the pressure of elaborate courses of study, the request would be seldom granted. It remains, then, for those in charge of school music to expedite their work by means of simple and direct methods.

Each division of the music work must be carried so as to secure unity of result. The vocal drill, oral or written, will train the eye and ear for sight-singing, and the sight-singing be a practical application of correct vocal drill.

The study and practice of the different vowel-sounds must then fit in with the scheme of study. The practice of singing the vowels by name as, a, e, i, o, u, is not to be recommended, as only one, namely e, stands for a single sound-element; nor is it probable that the results will justify extensive drill upon the more obscure vowel-elements, if the term may be applied to those sounds which are differentiated only slightly from the more pronounced vowel-sounds.

There are some twenty vowel-sounds that are used in English speech, but for various reasons a less number are employed in song. For, while it is desirable to give to each word and syllable its correct vowel-sound in singing, those which are unfavorable to good tone are usually approximated to the sound of those more favorable to good tone.

If too marked distinctions in the vowel-sounds are made by the singer, the result is disagreeable; while if the voice preserves a similar hue or tone-color throughout, the effect is pleasing.

The listener is unaware of the slight deviations from the spoken vowel-sound which the singer makes, that the requirements of tonal beauty may be met.

It is advisable in vowel-practice to avoid letters or symbols which represent two sounds, an initial and a vanish; and to use simple vowel elements instead. The combinations of different elements represented by certain letters and diphthongs may easily be explained when they appear in the words of a song, if, indeed, the study of phonics has not already cleared away all difficulties.

In singing, however, it is necessary to understand which of the two sounds, the initial or the vanish, is to be sustained. In ā, for instance, which is eh+e, if the vanish e is sustained in a word like day the effect is deh-ee. The first sound should be sustained, and the vanish e be heard only slightly as the mouth partly closes at the end of the tone. Ī, again, which is equivalent to ah+e, is often sung by prolonging the e instead of the initial ah, as light—li-eet. Ō is a compound sound ō+ōō, but the tendency to sing the first sound short and prolong the second is very slight usually. O, then, can be used to represent a simple element. Ū, which equals e+oo, is best sung by making the initial sound short and the vanish the longer tone.

It will thus be seen that of the five vowel names, a, e, i, o, u, e only stands for one sound, though the two sounds of o are so closely allied that the vanish is often imperceptible. The sound of ā in ăt is the most unfavorable sound for song in the language, and those extremely consistent singers who wish to use it can do so.

The nasal twang of Yankeedom is a plant that needs no nourishing. Its roots are grown wide and deep; so much so, that those who love it need not fear that it will pine away and die, if it bears no fruit of song, but only that of speech.