The following pages are the result of several years’ experience in teaching, and of careful study of children’s voices. The author has attempted to describe the physiological characteristics of the child-voice and to give some practical hints regarding its management. It is sincerely hoped that what is herein written may be useful and helpful to those engaged in teaching children to sing.
FRANCIS E. HOWARD,
Bridgeport, Conn.
December, 1895
[ CONTENTS.]
| PAGE | |
| Preface to the Second Edition, | [3] |
| Preface, | [7] |
| CHAPTER I. | |
| Physiology of the Voice, | [13] |
| CHAPTER II. | |
| Registers of the Voice, | [25] |
| CHAPTER III. | |
| How To Secure Good Tone, | [44] |
| CHAPTER IV. | |
| Compass of the Child-Voice, | [72] |
| CHAPTER V. | |
| Position, Breathing, Attack, Tone-Formation, | [81] |
| CHAPTER VI. | |
| Vowels, Consonants, Articulation, | [95] |
| CHAPTER VII. | |
| Mutation of the Voice, | [112] |
| CHAPTER VIII. | |
| The Alto Voice in Male Choirs, | [125] |
| CHAPTER IX. | |
| General Remarks, | [132] |
[ CHAPTER I.]
PHYSIOLOGY OF THE VOICE.
In former times the culture of the singing-voice was conducted upon purely empirical grounds. Teachers followed a few good rules which had been logically evolved from the experience of many schools of singing.
We are indebted to modern science, aided by the laryngoscope, for many facts concerning the action of the larynx, and more especially the vocal cords in tone-production. While the early discoveries regarding the mechanism of the voice were hopefully believed to have solved all problems concerning its cultivation, experience has shown the futility of attempting to formulate a set of rules for voice-culture based alone upon the incomplete data furnished by the laryngoscope. This instrument is a small, round mirror which is introduced into the throat at such an angle, that if horizontal rays of light are thrown upon it, the larynx, which lies directly beneath, is illuminated and reflected in the mirror at the back of the mouth—the laryngoscope. Very many singers and teachers, of whom Manuel Garcia was the first, have made use of this instrument to observe the action of their vocal bands in the act of singing, and the results of these observations are of the greatest value. Still, as before said, the laryngoscope does not reveal all the secrets of voice-production. While it tells unerringly of any departure from the normal, or of pathological change in the larynx, it does not tell whether the larynx belongs to the greatest living singer or to one absolutely unendowed with the power of song. Also, the subject of vocal registers is as vexing to-day as ever.