Voice Production in Singing and Speaking

Production in Singing and
Speaking, by Wesley Mills

Project Gutenberg's Voice Production in Singing and Speaking, by
Wesley Mills This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost
and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it
away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Voice Production in Singing and Speaking Based on Scientific
Principles (Fourth Edition, Revised and Enlarged)
Author: Wesley Mills
Release Date: November 20, 2006 [EBook #19880]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VOICE
PRODUCTION IN SINGING ***

Produced by David Newman, Linda Cantoni, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

VOICE PRODUCTION
IN

SINGING AND SPEAKING
BASED ON
SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES
BY
WESLEY MILLS, M.A., M.D., F.R.S.C.
EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY IN McGILL
UNIVERSITY, AND LECTURER ON VOCAL PHYSIOLOGY AND
HYGIENE IN THE McGILL UNIVERSITY CONSERVATORIUM
OF MUSIC, MONTREAL, CANADA
FOURTH EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED
[Illustration: publisher logo]
PHILADELPHIA & LONDON J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
The Rights of Translation and all other Rights Reserved
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
Electrotyped and Printed by J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia,
U.S.A.
[Transcriber's Notes: In this e-text, illustrations of music notation have
been rendered using standard text notation, e.g.: C = C two octaves
below middle C; c = C one octave below middle C; c' = middle C; c'' =
C one octave above middle C, etc.
Macrons are indicated thus: [=a], [=e], [=i], [=o], [=u].]
[Illustration: Illustrations of the appearance of the larynx during
phonation in two special cases. (Grünwald.)]

EXPLANATION OF THE COLORED ILLUSTRATIONS.
They contrast with each other in that the one (upper) is too red; the
other, too pale. The upper represents appearances such as one gets with
the laryngoscope when the subject has a very severe cold, or even
inflammation of the larynx, including the central vocal bands. In this
particular case, a young woman of twenty-five years of age, there was
inflammation with a certain amount of weakness of the internal
thyro-arytenoid muscles. Speaking was almost impossible, and such
voice as was produced was of a very rough character. In the lower
illustration we have the appearances presented in a man affected with
tuberculosis of the lungs and larynx. The pallor of the larynx is
characteristic. There is weakness of the internal thyro-arytenoid muscle
on the right side, which results in imperfect tension of the vocal band
on that side, so that the voice is uncertain and harsh. Such illustrations
are introduced to impress the normal by contrast. The reader is strongly
advised to compare these figures with others in the body of the work,
especially those of Chapter VII.

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH REVISED AND ENLARGED
EDITION.
In addition to certain emendations, etc., introduced throughout the work,
I have thought it well to add a chapter in which the whole subject is
treated in a broad and comprehensive way in the light of the latest
scientific knowledge.
In this review the psychological aspects of the subject have not been
neglected, and the whole has been related to practice to as great an
extent as the character of the book permits.
It is significant that on both sides of the Atlantic there is a growing
conviction that the foundations for speaking and singing as an art must
be made as scientific as the state of our knowledge will permit.
THE AUTHOR.

January, 1913.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
No preface to the Second Edition was written, so few were the changes
that were made in the work, and the same might apply to this Third
Edition. However, the fact that within a period of less than two years, a
Second English and a Third American Edition have been called for,
seems to the Author to be so conclusive an endorsement of the
application of science to vocal art, that he may be entitled at least to
express his gratification at the progress the cause, to which he has
devoted his pen, is making. It would seem that the better portion at
least of that public that is interested in the progress of vocal art has
made up its mind that the time has come when sense and science must
replace tradition and empiricism.
THE AUTHOR.
MONTREAL, September, 1908.

PREFACE.
The present work is based on a life study of the voice, and has grown
out of the conviction that all teaching and learning in voice-culture,
whether for the purposes of singing or speaking, should as far as
possible rest on a scientific foundation.
The author, believing that practice and principles have been too much
separated, has endeavored to combine them in this book. His purpose
has not been