Voice Production in Singing and Speaking | Page 9

out. The student was
recommended to take walking exercise, and to practice filling the chest
in the manner to be explained later.
After six weeks she again asked to be heard. The change effected was
wonderful; she was another type of vocalist now. Without any loss in
quality her voice had a volume and intensity that made it adequate for
singing in at least a small hall; her attacks were good, though not
perfect; and at the end of a very large room it could easily be seen that
her chest was, when necessary, filled full, so that she was able to
produce a large and prolonged tone. But, best of all, her health had

greatly improved, and she had gained in size and weight.
It is but fair to point out that, in the present case, the student was an
unusually intelligent and thoughtful person. Had it been otherwise,
more consultations would have been necessary, with probably many
detailed instructions and much practice before the teacher. But the case
sufficed to convince me afresh that only physiological teaching meets
the needs of pupil and teacher. I do not claim, of course, that it is a
panacea. It will not supply the lack of a musical ear or an artistic
temperament. Vocalization does not make an artist, but there can be no
artist without sound vocalization.
All the author's experience as a laryngologist tended to convince him
that most of those evils from which speakers and singers suffer,
whatever the part of the vocal mechanism affected, arise from faulty
methods of voice-production, or excess in the use of methods in
themselves correct. A showman may have a correct method of
voice-production--indeed, the writer has often studied the showman
with admiration--but if he speak for hours in the open air in all sorts of
weather, a disordered throat is but the natural consequence; and the
Wagnerian singer who will shout instead of sing must not expect to
retain a voice of musical quality, if, indeed, he retain one at all.
Throughout this work it will be assumed that the speaker and the singer
should employ essentially the same vocal methods. The singer should
be a good speaker, even a good elocutionist, and the speaker should be
able to produce tones equal in beauty, power, and expressiveness to
those of the singer, but, of course, within a more limited range, and less
prolonged, as a rule. To each alike is voice-training essential, if artistic
results are to follow; neither rhetorical training on the one hand nor
musical training on the other will alone suffice.
So that it may be clear that the same physiological principles apply to
the vocal mechanism as to all others in the body, a short chapter
dealing with this subject is introduced, before taking up the structure
and functions of any part of that apparatus by which the speaker or
singer produces his results as a specialist.

The laws of health known as hygiene follow so naturally on those of
physiology that brief references to this subject, from time to time, with
a chapter at the end of the work bearing specially on the life of the
voice-user, will probably suffice.
CHAPTER II.
GENERAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS.
The principle that knowledge consists in a perception of relations will
now be applied to the structure and functions or uses of the different
parts of the body.
The demonstration that all animals, even all living things, have certain
properties or functions in common is one of the great results of modern
science. Man no longer can be rightly viewed apart from other animals.
In many respects he is in no wise superior to them. The most desirable
course to pursue is to learn wherein animals resemble and wherein they
differ, without dwelling at great length on the question of relative
superiority or inferiority. It may be unhesitatingly asserted that all
animals live, move, and have their being, in every essential respect, in
the same way. Whether one considers those creatures of microscopic
size living in stagnant ponds, or man himself, it is found that certain
qualities characterize them all. That minute mass of jelly-like substance
known as protoplasm, constituting the one-celled animal amoeba, may
be described as ingestive, digestive, secretory, excretory, assimilative,
respiratory, irritable, contractile, and reproductive: that is to say, the
amoeba must take in food; must digest it, or change its form; must
produce some fluid within itself which acts on food; must cast out from
itself what is no longer of any use; must convert the digested material
into its own substance--perhaps the most wonderful property of living
things; must take up into its own substance oxygen, and expel carbonic
acid gas (carbon dioxide); and possess the power to respond to a
stimulus, or cause of change, the property