The Voice: Its Production, Care and Preservation

by Frank E. Miller

[A] These articles have been reprinted in four slim but interesting pamphlets published by William Wood & Co., New York.

Clergyman's sore throat, as Dr. Van Baggen says, is a disease known to every throat specialist. "It

is produced by misuse of the voice, and the same disease, often in more aggravated form, is produced in the singer and by the same cause. The patient, after singing, will experience a dry and hot feeling in the pharynx and larynx, irritation, and a frequent cough. Examination of the patient discloses catarrh of the pharynx and of the larynx; congested and swollen mucous membrane; pillars of the fauces swollen and unduly developed; all these symptoms accompanied by paresis of the vocal cords, which are red or yellow and do not approximate well. To this paresis of the cords is united a paresis of certain muscles of the larynx; to which is added, in serious cases, a swelling of the aryepiglottic ligament."

That this disorder is not organic, but functional—not caused by enlarged tonsils, adenoids, nasal polypus or malformation of the tongue, but by misuse of the voice—can be proved by the beneficial effect produced upon the organs by complete rest from singing; the symptoms sometimes disappearing entirely, only to reappear, however, when singing is resumed—further proof that misuse of the voice is at the root of the evil.

"Dividing the muscles into those used in breathing, in articulation of consonants and in vowel enunciation,

the physician will find that in his patient there is no proper coördination between these three groups of muscles—that through faulty respiration and articulation the respiratory and articular muscles fail to support sufficiently the vocal muscles, with the result that the vibration of the vocal cords is weakened. One fault begets another. The faulty use of the respiratory muscles directs the vibrating air-column to the soft palate, where the tone is so smothered that the singer has to over-exert himself to be heard, instead of directing it against the hard palate, where it would gain vibrance and carrying quality."

The faulty use of the muscles of articulation is disclosed when the back of the tongue rises like a flabby partition between the opening of the mouth and the pharynx, the consonants being formed thereby far back in the mouth, instead of forward with the tip or middle of the tongue leaning against the hard palate. The articulation is, in consequence, thick and dull. The vocal muscles are contracted to an unnatural degree, and every vocal tone is accompanied by an audible shock or spasm of the glottis. All this adds to the exertion required of the singer to make himself heard, an exertion and strain which eventually result in the symptoms that have

been described, and which most singers believe due to colds and other troubles, whereas they are the result of the singer's own misuse of his voice.

I have said that correct breathing is one of the fundamentals of correct voice-production. No wonder, therefore, that incorrect breathing is one of the most potent factors in the misuse of the voice that sends the singer as a patient to the physician. I have stated that there are three kinds of breathing—clavicular, costal and diaphragmatic; and these have been described. It has also been pointed out that the teacher who instructs in one kind of breathing to the exclusion of the other two makes a serious mistake. For in correct breathing, all three are coördinated. Usually it is spoken of as mixed costal and diaphragmatic. In truth, however, it is mixed costal, diaphragmatic and clavicular; but, aside from the awkwardness of combining all three terms in characterizing correct breathing, the clavicles play a less important part in it than the diaphragm and the ribs. In their relative importance to correct breathing the diaphragm comes first, the ribs next and then the clavicles. I feel certain that Dr. Poyet means the coördination of the three when he speaks of mixed costal and diaphragmatic breathing,

and that Dr. Van Baggen also means this when he speaks of diaphragmatic breathing. In fact, his description of diaphragmatic breathing involves the ribs; and if he omits mention of the clavicles, this may be explained by the slight part they play in correct breathing, merely topping off, as it were, the action of diaphragm and ribs.