Results of the Foregoing Observations
In consequence of the observations above described, the following facts may be established:
I. We have found five different actions of the vocal organ:
1. The first series of tones of the chest register, in which the whole glottis is moved by large, loose vibrations, and the arytenoid cartilages with the vocal ligaments are in action.
2. The second series of the chest register, when the vocal ligaments alone act, and are likewise moved by large, loose vibrations.
3. The first series of the falsetto register, where again the whole glottis, consisting of the arytenoid cartilages and vocal ligaments, is in action, the very fine interior edges of the ligaments, however, being alone in vibrating motion.
4. The second series of the falsetto register, the tones of which are generated by the vibrations of the edges alone of the vocal ligaments.
5. The head register, in the same manner and by the same vibrations, and with a partial closing of the vocal ligaments.
II. We have learned the transitions of the registers, i. e., those tones where a different action of the vocal organ takes place; and observation has further taught us that these natural limits of the registers cannot be exceeded without a straining that may be both seen and felt; that is, that we may not preserve the action of a lower series for the tones of a higher. On the other hand, the vocal organs show no straining when the action of a higher series of tones is kept for a lower, only the fulness of the tones is thereby diminished.
III. We have further seen that only the transition from the chest register to the falsetto is in all voices at the same tones, the fa fa♯ (f¹ f♯¹); but, both in men’s and women’s voices, the other transitions of the registers are different. As the male larynx is about a third larger than the female, it is plain that the registers in the male voice have a greater expansion. The transitions, however, in the tenor, as in the bass, are at the same tones, and only sometimes a half tone higher or lower in one voice than in another. The organs of the man are stronger and harder than those of the woman, and they are not often capable of producing tones with the vibrations of the edges of the vocal ligaments (falsetto tones), but the lower series of tones of the chest register has, in such voices, a much greater extension downwards. The difference between the bass and tenor voices lies in the greater or less ease with which the tones of the higher or lower registers are sung, and in the greater fulness and beauty, always connected therewith, of the higher or lower register, that is, in the timbre of the voice; not, as is commonly thought, in the difference of the transitions of the registers.
The same is also the case with the female voice; as well in the contralto as in the soprano voice the transitions of the registers are at the same tones, and the difference of the voices lies only in the timbre, and in the greater facility with which the higher or lower tones are produced, and not in the different compass of the voice.
The transitions of the registers are:
The investigation and discovery of the facts here stated have been made with the utmost conscientiousness, repeated by men of science in Germany, and acknowledged as correct.