CHAPTER I.

PRODUCTION OF THE VOICE.

SECTION 1.

GENERAL REMARKS.

WE have learned from the introductory remarks that the voice is produced by the air contained in the lungs passing through the larynx, and thereby inducing sounding vibrations of the vocal cords.

The sound, then, is not produced in the oral cavity by any certain position of its organs; it exists the moment the air escapes from the glottis, although it certainly gains or loses by the position of the organs of the oral cavity and by the pharynx. It gains in euphony by a correct, natural position of the tongue, of the soft-palate, i. e., by more passive than active position of these parts; and loses when these parts, acting in a wrong way, spoil the sound.

We know that the vocal cords, during respiration, diverge widely; that thereby an orifice, the glottis, of the shape of an equilateral triangle, or, in very deep respirations, of an oval, is left between them (Fig. XXII, 1). But to be put into sounding vibra

tions, the previously diverging vocal cords must be brought into complete (Fig. XXII, 4) or partial contact (Fig. XXII, 6).

The previously large triangular or oval glottis contracts to a narrow chink, and the current of air is thereby for a time either entirely interrupted by perfect closure, or decreases in rapidity by incomplete closure, an impediment being formed to the expiration. Through this hindrance above, by the continuous pressure of the true expiratory muscles (the abdominal muscles), a great tension of the air contained in the lungs arises, and with that greater force of the air-current previously passing freely through the trachea, but now restrained by a narrow exit, it thereby becoming possible to bring the vocal cords into a vibratory and sounding motion.

The vocal cords having approached so closely that by their vibrations (alternate opening and closing of the respiratory canal, that is, continual interruptions of the air-current are produced) the air-current is brought into strong, sounding vibrations, and we receive the most beautiful sounds that can arise only from a union of the vibrations of the vocal cords and those of the air-current.

This approach of the vocal cords occurs in different ways. There are, accordingly, various modes of beginning the tone ("attack"): the "direct attack" and the "indirect attack."

1. The Direct Attack.

In the "direct attack the vocal cords come into contact throughout their entire length, from the front backward, so that the lower part of the larynx is completely separated from the upper, and the approach of the vocal cords is rapid and decided; at the same time the vocal cords become shortened, and must, therefore, with the immediately following intonation, alter their degree of tension, their shape, length and thickness, according to the sound which is to be produced, and must separate somewhat. A tone thus produced will be marked and separated from other tones.

2. The Indirect Attack.

In the "indirect attack," on the contrary, the glottis is not completely closed by the approach of the vocal cords. Here their length, tension, shape, etc., are at once such as are required for the production of the desired tone, and, consequently, the vibrations begin immediately after the approach of the vocal cords without any change in the length or tension, as is necessary in the "direct attack."

3. The Spiritus Lenis and the Spiritus Asper. Philologists have long ago subdivided this "indirect attack," and distinguish the soft-the so-called