interesting way. We will, therefore, let Professor Stoerk speak in his own words:

"Whenever conversation turns on phonetics, singing teachers or pupils, the word position is always heard mentioned. This word is often mere empty sound; its signification appears lost in obscurity. Students, as well as teachers, fondly fancy to possess a peculiar, particular position. As often as a pupil changes his master he says: 'I have now got a new position. Position and attack seem closely allied conceptions, and yet each is quite different from the other. By position we understand a peculiar grouping of the muscles of the larynx in the throat, in order to give the larynx a certain position in which it can produce the desired phonetic result. A singer has a posi tion and so has a speaker. The whisper of an actor is quite different from that of an ordinary person. Just so an actor, who has spoken loudly for a number of hours, must have a different position from that of one not required to perform such a task. If a person sees a heavy load approaching him, he must, in order to keep it off or force it back, cause a certain group of muscles to enter into action with a certain amount of power; that is to say, he puts himself on guard. This we know from experience. We know from practice which group of muscles to put into action, and with what degree of energy in any given case. These explanations may be applied to the larynx in regard to the so-called position. That is to say, the larynx, with its muscles, must so place itself that it rests in the correct position for a certain manifestation of power. There is a good and a bad position. The good is that in which only those muscles necessary for the intended tone-production are employed.

"We know that the larynx descends for deep tones and ascends for high ones. A certain degree of position has then been conferred on man by nature. Strange to say, there are singing teachers who allege that they have made the larynxes of their pupils quite independent of phonation for ascending and descending. How does the normal position look? For the position of the deep and chestnotes, where the object is to have the greatest possible number of muscles act and to effect a rounding of the larynx, not a square stretching of frame, let it be so placed that, if possible, it be exactly held in that position in which it ordinarily lies. The correct grouping and holding of all these muscles, which must have a firm tension, constitute a correct position.

"There is still another thing necessary, however. When, for instance, a person grows fatigued in one set of muscles-let us say the inner muscles of the larynx,—this deficiency must be covered by the action of other muscles. If it be conceived that every movement of a muscle is not the result of the contraction of one muscle alone, but of the combined contraction of several groups of muscles, then it will be understood how phonation is brought about by the action of a number of muscles. All these muscles must act simultaneously, and when one of them grows tired another must be all the more tensely drawn.

"If we look with the laryngoscope into the larynx while it is set for chest-notes, as Fig. XXXII shows, then the larynx must be broadly stretched, the false vocal cords more tense than the true, the soft-palate drawn up so that only a part of the air is carried into the nose, and the muscles of the throat lie close to the sides; this is the correct position for a normal chest-voice. At the moment of exhaustion, the muscles, which reach to the tongue

for the support of the larynx, rise, and at the instant when the correct tension is produced, the arches advance a little. There are persons, however, who always have this tension; that is to say, they sing with a wrong position.

"In falsetto singing the arrangement is, of course, an entirely different one. The frame of the larynx is here more oval (Fig. XXXIII). The muscles, from the larynx to the sternum, must be more tense, as also those imbedded in the arches; a free space must be left toward the central line, as in falsetto voice the correct position is to have the soft-palate quite drawn up, the larynx elevated and the resonator shortened. Were the palate not closed the tone would not be carried to a distance. To prevent this, the soft-palate rises and the arches approach each other. If this does not happen there is a wrong action of the organs; the position is incorrect. Through the soft-palate not being drawn up, a nasal tone would be produced.

"In normal singers, fatigue is often the effect of wrong position. An overtired singer will give forth a pinched

tone. Normally, the space, which I have designated as a canal from the larynx to the lips, is open. When the singer grows tired, however, he narrows this space by elevation of the tongue and sinking of the epiglottis, whereby sufficient room for free exit of the air is no longer given; the air is, so to say, pressed together.

"This state of affairs, which in normal singers ensues only when they are fatigued, is with others quite a common thing. Such persons have a wrong position."

In regard to attack, Prof. Stoerk tells us nothing new, nothing that we have not already learned in this book, or will yet learn in Section XXI, that is: The note must sound forth instantaneously at the correct pitch and without any previous aspiration; hence not as spiritus asper (h), but as spiritus lenis. (See beginning of Part II.) No more pressure of the muscles must be applied than the desired tone requires, be it in piano, forte, or mezza voce. This the singer must learn to do, and then we say he has a correct attack. This can be acquired only by a good ear, which will contribute greatly to its perfect development.

SECTION 17.

HOW TO INCREASE THE COMPASS OF THE VOICE.

A belief still prevails among pupils and teachersespecially among piano teachers who, without any

knowledge of the human voice, but simply because they can perform on the piano, pretend also to be able to give instruction in vocal music that it is possible to alter the compass of the voice at will, to make it ascend or descend in the scale, according to one's desire. This belief is the ruin of many a voice which, with proper training, might have achieved fine results.

Nature has provided every human being with vocal organs; but the structure of these organs varies in different persons; the vocal cords being longer or shorter, the larynx larger or smaller, the air-passages more or less elastic, and the resounding walls of the passages stronger or weaker.

If it is sought to increase somewhat the compass of the voice, especially to increase the upward range, then the only way to do this is for the pupil to make the sum of the tones which he can readily produce and can properly designate as the compass of his voice, the exclusive subject of his study; to cultivate these tones alone, with a correct method. Only in this way will the vocal cords gradually acquire increased elasticity, extensibility and power of vibration,—qualities which are the essential condition of the formation of high tones.

If the teacher fails to examine closely the natural