Voice Production in Singing and Speaking | Page 3

eminence is recommended--Madame Melba--Guiding sensations--Summary 161
CHAPTER XII.
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING VOICE-PRODUCTION.
Artistic expression only through movements--Emotions and technique--Relation of ideas to movements--Memories and movements--Guiding sensations essential for movements--The principles underlying all movements the same--Associated reflexes and habits--How habits are formed--inhibitions and their importance--Early practices only before the teacher--Careful practice with concentration of energy the best--Queries as to practice--Fatigue a warning--Practice in the early hours of the day, and short of fatigue--Quality to be aimed at rather than quantity--The total amount of time to be devoted to practice--"Hasten slowly;" "Little and often"--The treatment of the voice ruined by wrong methods--Summary 179
CHAPTER XIII.
CHIEFLY AN APPLICATION TO VOICE-PRODUCTION OF FACTS AND PRINCIPLES PREVIOUSLY CONSIDERED.
Vowels, consonants, noise--Consonants and pauses--Voice-production and vowels--Certain vowel sounds common to most languages--Why German and English are relatively unmusical--The needs of the musical artist--The mechanism required for the production of a vowel sound--Reconsideration of the resonance-chambers--The larynx to be steadied but not held rigidly immovable--The principal modifiers of the shape of the mouth-cavity--Breath to be taken through the mouth--The lips--Tongue and lip practice before a mirror--Importance of the connection between the ear and the mouth parts, etc--"Open mouth"--The mouth in singing a descending scale--Undue opening of the mouth--Proper method of opening the mouth--Causes of compression and the consequences 195
CHAPTER XIV.
SOME SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS OF PRINCIPLES IN TONE-PRODUCTION.
Principles and their expression in a few exercises--Analysis of the methods of tone-production--The sustained tone--Smoothly linked tones--The legato--The staccato and kindred effects--The mechanisms concerned--Perfection requires years of careful practice--The bel canto and the swell--The same exercises for singer and speaker--"Forward," "backward," etc., production--Escape of breath--The action of the soft palate--When to use "forward" and when "backward" production--Voice-placement--Nasal resonance, not nasal twang--Summary 207
CHAPTER XV.
THE ELEMENTS OF SPEECH AND SONG.
The subject may be made dry or the reverse--Vowels, consonants, noise--The position of the lips and the shape of the mouth-cavity in sounding the various vowels--How to demonstrate that the mouth-cavity is a resonance-chamber--Practical considerations growing out of the above--Speaker, vocalist, and composer--Bearing of these facts on the learning of languages--Consonants as musical nuisances--Their great variation in pitch--Brücke's division of consonants--Tabulation of the same 218
CHAPTER XVI.
FURTHER THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL CONSIDERATION OF VOWELS AND CONSONANTS.
The best vowel to use in practice--Necessary to practise all--The guttural r and the lingual r--Consonants that favor nasality of tone--Overtones and fundamental tones--Relation of intensity and quality--The carrying power of a tone--Unusual distinctness in practice as related to ease--The registers of the speaking voice according to Madame Seiler--The range in speaking--Summary 230
CHAPTER XVII.
THE HEARING APPARATUS AND HEARING IN MUSIC.
Why this chapter is introduced--The essential mechanism of hearing--The part played by waves and vibrations--Divisions of the ear--The external ear in lower animals--The drum-head or tympanic membrane--The middle ear and its connections--Relation of the throat and the ear--The inner ear or labyrinth--The end-organ and its relations--The connection of the ear and various parts of the brain--The musician's ear--Relation of music and hearing--Lack of ear and inattention--The artist and the musician--The ear and the speaking voice--General musical training in relation to intonation, etc--The appreciation of music, and training to that end--The art of listening with close attention--Summary 236
CHAPTER XVIII.
CONSIDERATION OF GENERAL AND SPECIAL HYGIENE AND RELATED SUBJECTS.
Hygienic as related to physiological principles--Hygiene in the widest sense--Unfavorable conditions in the public life of an artist--Qualifications for success--Technique and a public career--The isolation of the artist and its dangers--The need for greater preparation now than ever--Choral singing and its possible dangers--The tendencies of the Wagner music-drama--Special faults, as the "scoop," "vibrato," "tremolo," "pumping"--Desirability of consultations by teachers of the use of the voice--Things the voice-user should avoid--Mouth-toilets--Lozenges--The sipping of water--What one should and should not eat--Tea and Coffee--The whole subject of congestion from compression, straining, etc., of the utmost importance--A sore throat when frequent should give rise to inquiry as to methods--Constipation--Exercise--Bathing 251
CHAPTER XIX.
FURTHER TREATMENT OF PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HYGIENE.
Stammering and stuttering--Those who have broken down--The increase of the range of a voice--The part the student plays in settling such questions--Selections to be avoided--Conservation of energy--Change and contrast--The voice as related to the building in which it is produced--The listener and pauses--Nervousness, and how to ward it off--General conclusion 268
CHAPTER XX.
REVIEW AND REVISION.
The object of the speaker or singer--The idea of co-ordination--The study of vocalization may be considered a study of movements--The psychic condition--The instrument which is played upon--How is this instrument played upon?--Vibration of the air--Breathing--The aim of all training--The whole subject of breathing--Breathing exercises--The resonance chambers--The formation of vowels--Muscular efforts for the production of consonants--The pronunciation of words--General health of great importance 276

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG. PAGE
Appearance of the larynx during phonation in two special cases (in colors) Frontispiece
1. Muscle-fibres from the heart, much magnified 34 2. Small portion of muscle, moderately magnified 34 3. Muscle-cells from coats of intestine 35 4. Body of a nerve-cell of the spinal cord 38 5. Large nerve-cell from spinal cord of an ox