The Voice in Singing Part 6

FORMATION OF VOWELS AND CONSONANTS

The sound of the vowels depends, as we have seen, upon whether one or another of the over-tones takes precedence in sound.

But the conditions by which the formation of the vowels is determined lie in the form of the cavity of the mouth, and of the contraction of the same in some one place or another during expiration. These places are different in different languages and dialects. They are among the English, Germans and French farthest back in sounding _a_, as in _father_; farther forward in _a_, as in _may_, _o_, _e_, in the order in which they are here placed; and farther front in the German _u_ (_oo_).

The length of the cavity of the mouth is the greatest in sounding _oo_, the least in _e_, intermediate in _a_. In the pure, clear _a_, as in _may_, or _e_ of the Germans, the cavity is the narrowest. Hence, to form a tone on this vowel is very difficult, and it is the only vowel whose pure p.r.o.nunciation must be sacrificed to the tone. Good tones can be formed on this vowel when in both series of the chest register there is mingled with it the sound of the German _o_, p.r.o.nounced in English nearly like the vowel in _bird_, and in the higher registers the sound of the _e_--that is, of the German _i_.

The cavity of the mouth is thus somewhat broadened, and the tone gains more room for its development.

The Swiss form the _o_ and _u_ like the _a_ in _father_, broadest at the back of the mouth, and the _e_ broadest towards the front. But the Italians form no vowel as far front as their clear sounding beautiful _a_, as in _father_; and probably because the _a_ in the Italian language sounds broadest and most distinctly, Italian wagoners drive their beasts with the shout of _a! a!_ while the Germans use for the same purpose, _hu! huo!_ and the Swiss, _hipp!_ One can only approximate an imitation of the Italian _a_ by uttering it in connection with consonants coming rapidly, as in _pfa_, _bra_, and in as short and rapid a manner as possible.

The old Italian masters naturally found their beautiful _a_ most favorable to the formation of a good tone in singing; and thus it has been adopted by other nations. But here is the very reason why a tone free from badly sounding colorings is so rarely heard.

We have blindly imitated the Italians, without considering the different modes of forming the vowels in different languages and nations, and that the Italian _a_ is a vowel entirely different from the German and the similarly sounding English _a_. Its correct sound is learned by those to whom it is not vernacular only with difficulty.

As the vowels are differently formed in different languages, so is it also with the consonants. The North Germans form the letter _r_ with the soft palate, which is made to vibrate by the exhalation of the breath. The South Germans, Russians and Italians form the _r_ by the vibration of the tip of the tongue. It is only this mode of forming the _r_ which is to be used in singing, and must be learned by those who do not usually form it thus. This is sometimes rather difficult, but it can be done by repeating frequently and rapidly, one after the other, the syllables _hede_, _hedo_, or _ede_, _edo_. In this way the tongue gets accustomed to the right position and motion, which it by-and-by learns rapidly enough for the formation of the rolling _r_.

The Italians, likewise, form the _l_ with the tip of the tongue, the Germans and English mostly with the side edges of the tongue.

With some attention one can, by feeling, find out in his own organ the place for the formation of the different vowels and consonants, and an ear accustomed to delicate differences of tone will perceive the right place in others.

But in teaching, the example of the wagoners must be followed, and as these people have found out the most appropriate vowels and syllables whereby to make themselves understood by their animals, we must choose what is best fitting to the formation of tone in singing.

Long before I found the scientific reason of this mode of proceeding, my attention was called by Frederic Wiek, in Dresden, to the fact that a fine tone can be most quickly attained by practising in the beginning upon the syllables _su_, _soo_, or _du_, _doo_, and by not pa.s.sing to the other vowels until one is accustomed to produce tones in the front of the mouth. These syllables are naturally spoken by the Germans and the English in the front part of the mouth. The _s_ is formed with the lips apart, while the air is blown through the upper teeth; it thus a.s.sists one, united with _u_ (_oo_), to direct the tone forwards. But because in the _u_ the lips are almost closed, care must be taken that, within the lips, the teeth are far enough apart. The cavity of the mouth must be large enough to allow of the largest possible wave of sound, since upon the size of that, as we know, the strength of the tone depends. When the pupil, after some practice, has learned to give the right direction to the stream of sound, he must be required gradually to form the other vowels like the _soo_ in the front part of the mouth, pa.s.sing from this syllable immediately to the other vowels, as, for example, _soo-a_, _soo-o_, _soo-e_, _soo-o-e-ah_, &c.

Only care must be taken that the course of the air preserves its right direction.

Solmisation, also, i.e., naming the tones, _c_, _d_, _e_, _f_, _g_, _a_, _b_, by the syllables _do_, _re_, _mi_, _fa_, _sol_, _la_, _si_, a.s.sists a good touch when the pupil employs it in the more rapid exercises.

There is no fixed rule that can be laid down in regard to the necessary opening of the mouth and its position. The structure of the palate and the form of the jaw, and the position of the teeth, lips, &c., vary in different persons. The ear of the teacher must alone determine what position of those several parts will best secure a good timbre. But in every case, for the highest tones of the voice the widest possible opening of the mouth is necessary, and even when, in the formation of the vowels, the lips have to be brought nearer to each other, yet the teeth within must be kept apart, that the cavity of the mouth may remain large enough.

Wind instruments show the influence which the orifice and breadth of the bell has upon the strength of the tone. In the human voice the mouth occupies the place of the bell.

We have already made the remark, in speaking of the different registers, that in the chest tones the position of the larynx is lowered. The cavity of the mouth, then, is naturally lengthened, and hence a moderate opening of the mouth, so that, in singing the notes of the low chest register, the teeth are a thumb's breadth apart, suffices for a good tone. The second chest register requires the slightest opening of the mouth. It is enough if one can press a finger between the teeth. With the high falsetto and head tones the cavity of the mouth is always shorter and narrower towards the back, but as the tones ascend, it must be always broader in front.

In singing the first falsetto register, the teeth should be about the breadth of the thumb apart; in the second falsetto register, two fingers apart; and in the head register, the mouth must be open as far as possible. But precise rules cannot here be given. I have observed, however, that in thin voices a too broad opening of the mouth in the middle tones of the voice favors the high over-tones more than the fundamental tone, and the tones are thus flat and wanting in timbre.

Lips too thick and stiff sometimes injure the timbre of the tone; they are often the cause of a veiled, m.u.f.fled timbre, acting like dampers and rendering a part of the over-tones inaudible. In such cases, as soon as he has become accustomed to a correct direction of the column of tone, the pupil should keep the lips as close to the teeth as possible, and draw back somewhat the corners of the mouth.

The tongue also is not infrequently a hindrance to the formation of a good tone, especially when the pupils have not been taught early enough to open their mouths sufficiently wide. When the high tones are to be produced, which require much room in the forward part of the mouth, the tongue is usually drawn back and raised, in order to make the necessary room within the lower front teeth.

This, again, is a habit difficult to be broken, and care must be taken that the lower front teeth are lightly touched by the tip of the tongue in singing, in order that the tongue may be accustomed to a natural position. But this is most easily attained when the tongue is at the first kept occupied as much as possible by quick exercises with the syllables of solmisation, or by practising tones in slow time upon syllables beginning with consonants formed by the tip of the tongue. As in p.r.o.nouncing the German _Sch_ the tongue presses the teeth all around with its outer edge, syllables formed with these consonants serve excellently well to accustom the tongue to a quiet, correct position.

FLEXIBILITY OF VOICE

We hear it continually said that it requires a special natural gift to acquire a certain ease and flexibility of voice, and that this natural gift is peculiar to the Italians. But the flexibility of the voice depends upon a physiologico-physical process of the organ of tone, which, among the Italians, goes on in their common speech, and hence is more easily transferred by them to their singing. In trills, roulades, turns, and all tones quickly succeeding one another, the breath must set the vocal chords vibrating in quick, short pulses. The little time used by the breath between these rapidly succeeding pulses to retreat, in order to give another pulse, suffices perfectly to produce easily and quickly the position of the glottis requisite for a higher or lower tone. In order, between the pulses, to give room to the retreating breath, the windpipe expands laterally, whereby the larynx is always somewhat drawn down, in order, with the next pulse of the breath, to take again its former place.

This rising and lowering of the larynx can be seen plainly outside the throat, and it can be seen also whether the movement goes on rightly. Upon the degree of rapidity with which this movement goes on depends the greater or less flexibility of the voice.

But when the breath in exhaling presses in regularly increasing strength against the vocal chords, and one wishes to pa.s.s quickly to a higher tone and back again, as is required in trills, while the aerial stream continues to flow on with unintermitted force, it is evident that the changed movement of the glottis, even within the limits of a register, demands more time and muscular force than a beautiful trill or run admits of. But at the same time the limits of the tones become, by the uninterrupted stream of air, obliterated, and embellishments sung in this way, with unmoved larynx, indistinct. But ornamentation is now practised only in this latter way, and if pupils do not naturally move their throats correctly, the gift of flexibility is denied them.

A quite prevalent and likewise incorrect way of using the throat is moving the epiglottis with the larynx, which renders the formation of a clear, pure tone impossible, and _fiorituri_ sung in this way are limp and indistinct. The only correct movement shows itself very plainly externally, so that with the tolerably strong movement of the larynx up and down, there can be seen also a slighter movement of the windpipe far below in the neck, about the breadth of two fingers above the breast-bone. The mouth and tongue, however, must be perfectly quiet.

But the cultivation of vocal flexibility in singing is the easiest and most grateful part of the education of the voice, for with ordinary industry on the part of the pupil results are here obtained most speedily. In the very first lessons I teach my pupils the motions of the vocal organ in trills, and if they do not learn them by imitation, I give them simple exercises on the syllable _koo_ to practice for a while. The _k_ is produced by a pulse of the breath, and the _oo_ is, as we have seen, the best vowel sound with which to direct the breath as it is expired.

Thus, by singing _staccato_ the syllable _koo_, slowly at first and gradually quicker, with a movement of the larynx and windpipe that is both seen and felt; and with the tongue and lips at rest and motionless, the right movement is given to the organ in trills and all other embellishments, and by continued practice the movement becomes more rapid. Those who need to be taught this movement must never practice continuously for any length of time, for we must avoid fatiguing the organs. When pupils have become accustomed, by rapidly singing the syllable _koo_ on each tone of the trill, to the movement of the larynx, then they can practice upon another syllable, and in the following way: Let the trill be at first always sung _piano_, with an accenting of the higher tone every time and a gradual increasing of the rapidity thus: a accented-b a accented-b, and repeat this figure, halving the note lengths every four beats; also in half and whole tones, and then in minor thirds. But the most beautiful trill will be formed by practising triplets in the compa.s.s of a whole tone, then of a minor third, major third, fourth, etc., by which first the upper, then the lower tone is accented: accented-a g a accented-g a g. The mouth, however, in this exercise must continue immovably open, and the tongue also must lie perfectly still, touching the lower front teeth, for only in this way can one be sure of not moving the epiglottis. Although this is difficult at first, yet the syllable _ku_ (koo) may be sung in this way. Thus, with sufficient practice, any one may acquire a perfect flexibility of voice. When the pupils can make the trill easily upon the middle tones, in which in the beginning exercises must be practised, let them practice also upon the higher and lower tones of the voice. If the trill takes place at the transition of two registers, then both the tones must be formed upon the higher of the two, as in an exchange of registers the glottis requires more time than a good trill admits of.

Rapid runs downwards are easily executed correctly when care is taken that with every tone the same movement is made as in the case of trills, and the breath is kept back as much as possible.

Voices wanting in flexibility may soon acquire the desired quality by singing every tone _piano_ upon the syllable _koo_.

Ascending runs can properly be taught only when the descending have been correctly sung, for, in opposition to the former, every tone of the latter must be formed by a light impulse with increased breath. The softer the piano in which the pupil practises, and the more loose the consequent movement of the larynx, the more distinctly and the more purely will the pupil gradually execute these embellishments.

Intelligible as these movements are in practice, it is difficult to describe them. To be able to make all ornaments in singing beautifully and easily requires long practice, for in a thoroughly artistic piece of vocal music it is essential, as the great artist _Schroder-Devrient_ said, that all the notes of ornamentation (_Coloratur_) should be like a string of pearls on black velvet, each distinct in itself, round and beautiful, and yet so connected with the rest in one whole that no gap is discernible. Carefully and correctly directed exercises in ornamentation are in the highest degree necessary to the formation of tone; they tire the voice far less than sustained notes, and accustom it to an exact enunciation of the tones. But because persevering practice is necessary to the cultivation of vocal flexibility, the teaching of this is to be begun at the very first; and not until later, when the voice is habituated to a right touch and to a perfectly clear tone, is the pupil to be given those favorite exercises with long-sustained notes, which are sung with one continuous breath.

That we so rarely meet with clear vocal fluency is again owing to our mode of teaching. We do not seek to cultivate formation of tone and fluency at the same time. Oftentimes it is only after years spent in singing sustained tones that ornaments are allowed to be practised, and then, instead of using as little breath as possible, the flexibility of the larynx is hindered by singing too powerfully with full chest and unintermitted crowding of the breath. Without denying that in regard to vocal flexibility different individuals and nations may be variously gifted, it is nevertheless certain that _with due practice every one may acquire more or less of vocal fluency_.

_Frederick Wiek_ has composed for his pupils a large number of simple exercises, in which all kinds of ornaments are introduced, and which at the same time are so melodious that they easily catch the ear. They mostly comprise only a few tones, at the most an octave, and are sung in half tones, ascending in different keys.

Next to these exercises come, as highly adapted to the culture of vocal flexibility, the solfeggi of _Mieksch_, _Mazzoni_, _Rossini_, _Crescentini_, &c. There is, indeed, no want of excellent exercises and solfeggi. Their use, however, depends upon the way in which the teacher requires them to be practised. Notwithstanding the abundance of these exercises, I have always found it necessary to prepare special ones for my pupils, as every voice requires peculiar treatment and guidance.[15] In every pupil peculiar faults are to be overcome and peculiar qualities come into play, and the vocal organ shows as many differences as the human face. But the right way is sure to be found when the irreversible laws of nature, which lie at the foundation of our art, are once recognized. The practical advantages of this knowledge the singer, like every other artist, must endeavor to secure orally, that is, by sound instruction.

Ornamentation, however, can become distinct and clear only by uniting these with a distinct, pure touch, as we have already endeavored to describe, when, with the beginning of the tone, the pitch is struck lightly, quickly, distinctly, elastically, with certainty and perfect correctness. But as it is by no means easy to introduce a tone quickly and correctly, so that it will sound equally pure from the first, this flexibility is extremely rare among our singers. Instead of it, the most hateful mannerisms have stolen into practice; the tone is struck too low, and forced up by an increase of breath, or the tones are so drawled one into another that one cannot tell where they begin or where they cease. Impure intonation is much more disagreeable in the high tones than in the low. This is quite natural; for when, for example, the low _c_ is sung one-tenth too low or too high, then it will cause an octave higher twice as many vibrations, and two octaves higher four times as many, and these in proportion to their number produce a more intense effect. In the higher registers of the tones little discords (_Verstimmungen_) call forth a much larger number of beats (which are not to be confounded with vibrations) than in the lower, and thus the impurity of the musical intervals is felt much more strongly. Purity in the art of singing is, however, such a primal condition of its beauty, that a piece of music purely executed, even by a weak and slightly-cultivated voice, always sounds agreeably, while the most sonorous and practised voice offends the hearer when it is out of tune or forced upwards. The training of our singers by pianos, as they are now tuned, by equal temperament, is altogether unsatisfactory. The singer who practises with the piano has no safe principle by which he can measure the height of his tones with any exactness. But persons of good musical talent, made aware of this disadvantage by a competent teacher, and practising accordingly, can nevertheless overcome this difficulty caused by our present method of tuning, and learn to sing correctly and purely.

Until the seventeenth century, singers were drilled by the monochord, for which _Zarlino_, in the middle of the sixteenth century, re-introduced the correct, natural tuning. The drilling of singers was conducted at that time with a care of which we have now no idea. The church music of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is arranged upon the purest consonant chords, depending upon this for its whole effect, which would naturally be injured if not executed with perfect purity. Our opera singers now-a-days are seldom able to sing without accompaniment a composition for several voices so purely that its whole beauty is felt; the accord almost always sounds sharp and somewhat uncertain, and therefore cannot satisfy a really musical ear.

SPEECH

The vowels and consonants are, in speaking, produced by certain noises (_Gerausche_), which in singing sound together with the tone. These sounds are produced by local diminutions of the cavity of the mouth, or by the opening or closing of the lips and teeth, as well as by movements of the tip of the tongue, &c., while a single pulse of the air pa.s.ses through the tolerably wide open glottis and through the cavity of the mouth without regular vibrations. For the air rushes more directly out of the mouth in speaking than in singing. Of this we may be easily convinced by holding a feather before the mouth; it will show far more motion in speaking than in correct singing. If, in speaking, people would take pains to form the vowels in the front of the mouth--a habit so necessary in singing, and which is easily acquired by practice--our common speech would be much more melodious, far-sounding, and less strained. We see the truth of this when we hear words called out from a height and from a distance; the different consonants then mostly disappear, excepting the _m_ and _n_, which are formed mostly in the front of the mouth. The vowels, on the other hand, are more or less plainly heard, according to the places in the mouth where they are formed. Certain it is that for the beauty of our common speech, the resonance of the cavity of the mouth peculiar to each vowel may be rendered available. A singing tone in speaking is very disagreeable. Every one who is not used to it, finds the singing dialect of Saxony in the highest degree offensive and unpleasant. Nevertheless, a more attentive observation soon teaches us that behind the noise which characterizes the several sounds in language, a timbre is heard similar to the tone in singing, and in various instances there occur regular musical intervals, as at the end of a sentence or in the special accentuation of single words. Thus, at the conclusion of an affirmative sentence the voice usually falls about a fourth from the medium pitch, and at the end of an interrogatory sentence rises about a fifth above the usual speaking tone. Words specially accented are usually a tone higher than the rest, &c. In public speaking and in dramatic representations these variations of sound are more numerous and complicated, and the inventor of the modern Recitative, _Jacob Perri_, even declares that he formed it by imitating in singing these variations of sound, in order to restore again the declamation of the ancient tragedians.[16]

Tedious and intolerable as it is to hear so much sing-song in common speech, it is equally wearisome when people drone on always in a dry speaking tone at the same pitch, without ever letting the voice rise or fall. The most interesting matter thus delivered will lull the hearer to sleep. It cannot be denied that a rich field is here offered for farther scientific observation, and those natural laws which lie at the foundation of the art of singing may certainly be applied with advantage to the perfecting of the mode of speaking, especially in those who have to speak in public.[17]

To extend these remarks any farther does not come within our present purpose, which is concerned exclusively with the voice in singing and its cultivation. For this reason I leave unnoticed many most interesting phenomena relating to music in general, but not particularly to the culture of the voice, although they are of the deepest interest to the educated musician.

[7] Tyndall.

[8] The concert pitch in different places and at different periods has undergone great changes. The Grand Opera in Paris in the year 1700 established 404 vibrations to a second as the concert pitch of a, which gradually rose higher, as the wind instruments became more perfect and had a more important part a.s.signed them in concerted music, until 1858 it had attained the height of 448 vibrations in a second. In this same year (1858) at Berlin and St. Petersburg it reached its greatest height--451 vibrations in the second. In Mozart's time, in Vienna, it had only 422 and 428 vibrations.

[9] As long as melody alone was aimed at in music, and was accompanied only by octaves, the tones preserved their natural purity. But with the rise of harmony (the accord of different tones) there was rendered necessary a more regular system, to which the purity of the tones was sacrificed.

[10] "It is not possible to sound a stretched string as a whole without at the same time causing to a greater or less extent its subdivision; that is to say, superposed upon the vibrations of the string we have always, in a greater or less degree, the vibrations of its aliquot parts. The higher notes produced by these latter vibrations are called the _harmonics_ of the string. And so it is with other sounding bodies; we have, in all cases, a co-existence of vibrations. Higher tones mingle with the fundamental tone, and it is their intermixture which determines what, for want of a better term, we call the _quality_ of the sound. The French call it _timbre_, and the Germans call it _Klangfarbe_. It is this union of high and low tones that enables us to distinguish one musical instrument from another. A clarionet and a violin, for example, though tuned to the same fundamental note, are not confounded....

"All bodies and instruments, then, employed for producing musical sounds, emit, besides their fundamental tones, tones due to higher order of vibrations. The Germans embrace all such sounds under the general term _Obertone_.

I think it will be an advantage if we, in England, adopt the term _over-tones_, as the equivalent of the term employed in Germany. One has occasion to envy the power of the German language to adapt itself to requirements of this nature. The term _Klangfarbe_, for example, employed by Helmholtz, is exceedingly expressive, and we need its equivalent also. You know that color depends upon rapidity of vibrations--that blue light bears to red the same relation that a high tone does to a low one. A simple color has but one rate of vibration, and it may be regarded as the a.n.a.logue of a simple tone in music. A _tone_, then, may be defined as the product of a vibration which cannot be decomposed into more simple ones. A compound color, on the contrary, is produced by the admixture of two or more simple ones; and an a.s.semblage of tones, such, as we obtain when the fundamental tone and the harmonics of a string sound together, is called by the Germans a _Klang_. May we not employ the English word _clang_ to denote the same thing, and thus give the term a precise scientific meaning akin to its popular one? And may we not, like Helmholtz, add the word _color_ or _tint_ to denote the character of the clang, using the term _clang-tint_ as the equivalent of _Klangfarbe_?" (Sound: A course of Lectures delivered at the Royal Inst.i.tution of Great Britain by John Tyndall, LL.D., F.R.S., Professor of Nat. Phil. in the Royal Inst.i.tution and in the Royal School of Mines. English edition, pp. 116-118.)--Tr.

[11] As to the characteristic sounds of the different keys, the views of musicians are to the present day divided. Many even of our most eminent theorists, as Hauptmann, for example, in Leipsig, have maintained that all keys (_Tonarten_) are only transpositions of one major and minor key, and that like musical effects may be produced with one as well as with the other. The majority of musicians are, however, of the opinion that each key has its peculiar character, and that by transposition into another key the musical effect is changed. My son, Carl Seiler, has discovered that each key has its own peculiar, prominent over-tones, which determine its distinctive character. A table of all the keys (_Tonarten_), in which the prominent over-tones of each are given, shows also that the mutual relation of the keys (_Tonarten_) is elucidated by these over-tones. And thus again scientific investigation confirms what the founders of the theory of music, with their sound sense for the beautiful, recognized as correct.

[12] The position of the body in singing must be such as in no way to interfere with the easy drawing of the breath. One sings most easily standing as erect as possible, quiet and unconstrained, the chest somewhat projected, the body slightly drawn in, and the hands folded.

[13] It was instruments of this cla.s.s--trumpets, horns, bugles, etc.--in whose timbre the highest inharmonic over-tones overpower all the rest, that were painfully offensive to the exquisite musical organization of Mozart from his earliest childhood.

[14] It is all but impossible to give an idea of what is meant by _Tonansatz_, without a practical ill.u.s.tration. It is that striking of the note or the air corresponding to the touch in piano-playing.

[15] A selection of such exercises, prepared by the present writer, has recently been published by Mr. O. Ditson in Boston, and also two books of old Italian solfeggi from Mieksch and Mazzoni, arranged to the present pitch.

[16] According to _Boethius_, the _lyra_, which was used by the Greeks to accompany declamation, embraced, in the tuning of its strings, the princ.i.p.al intervals used in speaking.

[17] Since the appearance of this book I have often been consulted by persons whose calling required them to speak in public, and whose vocal organs were no longer competent thereto. Here also I have found in most cases that there was an incorrect use of the registers, and that men especially form the lowest sounds with that forced enlarging of the windpipe already mentioned (that is, with the so-called _Strohba.s.sregister_).

Many have probably fallen into this unnatural and exhausting manner by attempting to speak or to sing loudly. Together with the incorrect use of the registers, there is also an incorrect management (_Leitung_) of the vibrating air, which so often renders speaking so difficult to public speakers.