The Voice: Its Production, Care and Preservation

by Frank E. Miller

Above the larynx is the pharynx, a space extending to the base of the skull and opening into the mouth, and higher up connecting with the base of the

nose by means of two passages, the posterior nares, or back nasal passages. The walls of the pharynx are permeated by a network of muscles, so that this important space or resonance-cavity immediately above the larynx is susceptible of numerous adjustments and readjustments in size and shape; and as it lies with its back wall against the spinal column, it also is susceptible and immediately responsive to suggestion from the mind.

Another important resonance-cavity, indeed, the most important, is the mouth, roofed by the hard palate which separates the mouth from the nasal chamber, to which latter it also forms the floor. In the mouth is the tongue, extremely mobile, and thus capable of materially changing the size and shape of the mouth-cavity. Hanging from the rear of the hard palate, like a veil over the root of the tongue, is the soft palate; attached to which is the uvula. This hangs vertically down from the soft palate and, if the rear end of the tongue is allowed to bulge upward slightly, can be made to form with it a kind of valve, by which voice is conveyed directly into the mouth-cavity without any of it escaping up the posterior nasal passage; while the soft palate by itself alone can be drawn up so as to touch the back wall of the pharynx, completely

closing the passage to the nose, so that a continuous curved resonance-cavity is afforded from larynx to lips.

The soft palate is continued on either side by two folds known as the fauces; and each of the fauces has two ridges, the pillars of the fauces, between which are the tonsils. The pillars of the fauces enclose muscular fibres which act respectively on the tongue, the sides of the pharynx, and the upper part of the larynx, and thus aid in the necessary movements of the vocal tract.

The nasal passage, divided into two ducts by a vertical partition, the vomer septum, was referred to in the chapter on inspiration. The so-called sinuses are hollow spaces in small bones on either side and above the nasal passage and communicating directly or indirectly with it. A question regarding the nasal cavity, including the sinuses, suggests itself. Of what use is the nasal passage as a cavity of resonance if, in order to prevent a nasal quality of tone, the passage during voice-emission is shut off by the action of the soft palate, or by the combined action of the soft palate, uvula and tongue? The answer is, first, that it is not always to be closed off, because there are times when a slightly nasal timbre in voice is desirable; secondly, that

even when the nasal cavity is shut off, the hard palate being not only the roof of the mouth but also the floor of the nose, its vibrations are communicated to the nasal cavity, but not directly enough to give a disagreeable nasal quality to the voice.

From this survey it will be seen that the cavities of resonance along the vocal tract may be divided into such parts as are solid, pliable and movable. The solid parts are sharply resonant; they are, par excellence, the resonators in voice-production; while a pliable part, like the pharynx, although resonant in a less degree, is valuable in adjusting structural shape to every condition that arises; and the most movable parts of all, the tongue and the lips, probably wholly devoid of resonance, have their great rôles to play in effecting what may be called wholesale changes in the size and shape of the mouth-cavity, which could not be brought about by any other agencies less mobile. The roof of the mouth, the teeth, the hard gums, the cones of the nasal passage, and the sinuses are the solid portions of the cavities of resonance. When Svengali gazed into Trilby's mouth and exclaimed, "Himmel, what a roof!" he spoke from the depths of vocal knowledge. For a highly arched mouth roof,

especially if the tone enters the mouth cavity from a wide, well-rounded pharynx, is of great value to the singer. So is a fine, shapely, regular set of teeth, especially as regards the upper front teeth, behind which the vibrations appear to centre in so called "forward production." Cautiously brought into play, the posterior nasal passage assists, with its resonance, the head tones of the female voice and the upper range of male voices; but care must be taken not to carry the tone up into the nose and thus give it a nasal quality.

Some writers class the walls of the pharynx with the solid parts of the vocal tract. But the walls of the pharynx are pliable, as already has been pointed out, together with the admirable results to be derived from their flexibility when under the singer's control. The movable parts of or pertaining to the resonance-cavities are the soft palate with the uvula, the fauces, the cheeks, the lips, the lower jaw and, most mobile of all, the tongue.