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WESLEY MILLS, M.A., M.D., F.R.S.C.
WESLEY MILLS, M.A., M.D., F.R.S.C.
EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY IN McGILL UNIVERSITY, AND LECTURER ON VOCAL PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE IN THE McGILL UNIVERSITY CONSERVATORIUM OF MUSIC, MONTREAL, CANADA logo PHILADELPHIA & LONDON J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY Copyright , 1906, By J.B. Lippincott Company The Rights of Translation and all other Rights Reserved Copyright , 1913, By J.B. Lippincott Company Electrotyped and Printed by J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, U.S.A. larynx larynx Illustrations of the appearance of the l
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PREFACE TO THE FOURTH REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION.
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION.
In addition to certain emendations, etc., introduced throughout the work, I have thought it well to add a chapter in which the whole subject is treated in a broad and comprehensive way in the light of the latest scientific knowledge. In this review the psychological aspects of the subject have not been neglected, and the whole has been related to practice to as great an extent as the character of the book permits. It is significant that on both sides of the Atlantic there is a growing conviction
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PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
No preface to the Second Edition was written, so few were the changes that were made in the work, and the same might apply to this Third Edition. However, the fact that within a period of less than two years, a Second English and a Third American Edition have been called for, seems to the Author to be so conclusive an endorsement of the application of science to vocal art, that he may be entitled at least to express his gratification at the progress the cause, to which he has devoted his pen, is
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
The present work is based on a life study of the voice, and has grown out of the conviction that all teaching and learning in voice-culture, whether for the purposes of singing or speaking, should as far as possible rest on a scientific foundation. The author, believing that practice and principles have been too much separated, has endeavored to combine them in this book. His purpose has not been to write an exhaustive work on vocal physiology, with references at every step to the views of vario
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
To know consciously and to do with special reference to guiding principles are to be distinguished from carrying out some process without bearing in mind the why or wherefore. Science is exact and related knowledge, facts bound together by principles. Art is execution, doing, and has not necessarily any conscious reference to principles. While every art has its corresponding science, their relation is in some cases of much greater practical importance than in others. While a painter may be the b
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
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. Fig. 1 Fig . 1. Muscle-fibres from the heart, much magnified, showing cross-stripings, nuclei, or the darkly stained central bodies very important to the life of the cell, also the divisions and points of union. (Schäfer's Histology .) Fig. 2 Fig . 2. Appearance of a small portion of muscle under a moderate magnification. Between the
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
If the old orator was right in considering delivery as the essence of public speaking as an art, it may with equal truth be said of singing, the term being always so extended in signification as to imply what Rossini named as the essential for the singer— voice . Looking at it from the physiological point of view, we may say that the one absolutely essential thing for singers and speakers is breathing. Without methods of breathing that are correct and adequate there may be a perfect larynx and a
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
When one takes into account the large number of muscles employed in respiration, and remembers that these muscles must act in perfect harmony with each other if the great end is to be attained, he naturally inquires how this complex series of muscular contractions has been brought into concerted action so as to result in that physiological unity known as breathing. It is impossible to conceive of such results being effected except through the influence of the nervous system, which acts as a sort
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
The first great requisite for a voice-user is a well-developed chest; the next, complete control of it, or, to put it otherwise, the art of breathing, as briefly explained above. The chest may be large enough, yet not be, in the physiological sense, developed. The voice-user is a sort of athlete, a specialist whose chest muscles must be strong and not covered up by very much superfluous tissue in the form of fat, etc. Whatever the public may think of the goodly form, the singer must remember tha
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
The larynx, or voice-box, is not the sole voice-producing apparatus, as is often supposed, but it is of great, possibly the greatest, importance. In describing the parts of this portion of the vocal mechanism the author deems it wiser to use the terms commonly employed by anatomists and physiologists, as others are awkward and inadequate. Moreover, there is this great advantage in learning the technical names of structures, that should the reader desire to consult a special work on anatomy in re
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
Before discussing our subject further it is desirable that some attention be given to a few of the fundamental principles of that department of physics termed acoustics , and which deals with the subject of sound. If the student has the opportunity to study this subject theoretically and practically, as it is set forth in some good work on physics, he will have no reason to regret the time spent. A deep knowledge of the laws of sound is not absolutely essential, or even highly necessary, for a s
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CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
Experience proves that breathing, for the speaker and singer, is one of those subjects that may be very inadequately comprehended by the student, and, the author regrets to say, may be positively misrepresented by teachers and writers. Some—indeed, a great many—teachers direct their students to employ "abdominal" or "diaphragmatic" breathing, others "clavicular" respiration. A little consideration must convince those who have read the chapters on breathing that such distinctions, in which one pa
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CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
When it is borne in mind that the vocal bands have little or nothing to do with the quality of tones, the importance of those parts of the vocal apparatus which determine quality, and the error of speaking of the larynx as if it alone were the sole vocal organ, become apparent. It may be strictly said that the vocal bands serve the purpose of making the resonance mechanism available. What one hears may be said to be vibrations of this resonance apparatus, and not, strictly, those of the vocal ba
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CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
About no subject in the whole range of voice-production has there been so much confusion, difference of opinion, and controversy as that of registers; so that it is important at the very outset to define register, and throughout to aim at the utmost precision and clearness. "A register is a series of consecutive and homogeneous sounds rising from the grave to the acute, produced by the development of the same mechanical principle, the nature of which essentially differs from any other series of
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CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
It will, it is hoped, be apparent to the reader that the subject now under treatment may be considered either theoretically or practically. If science be exact, systematized, and, when complete, unified knowledge, then every source of information must be employed in the investigation of so difficult a subject as the registers. There may be differences of opinion as to the relative importance of some of these means of investigation— e.g. , auto-laryngoscopy, but that it should be utilized, there
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CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
It is highly important for the speaker or singer to realize early in his career that all forms of artistic expression can be carried out only through movements—muscular movements; in other words, technique or execution implies the use of neuro-muscular mechanisms. However beautiful the conception in the mind of the painter, it can only become an artistic thing when it assumes material form—when it is put on canvas. The most beautiful melody is no possession of the world while it is in the mind o
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CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
Certain sounds may be made without the use of words or syllables, even without the employment of vowels or consonants, but intonation proper cannot be carried out without vowels, at least. The exact nature of vowels and consonants will be considered in the next chapter, but in the meantime it may be pointed out that a vowel is a free and open sound requiring for its production a certain form of the resonance-chambers. Neither vowels nor consonants are absolutely pure—that is, entirely free from
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CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
It is no doubt valuable, indeed for most singers essential, to employ a series of elaborate exercises, or vocalises , which in some cases differ from each other only by slight gradations; but it is to be borne in mind that all the actual principles involved can be expressed practically in a very few exercises. These are: (1) The single sustained tone; (2) the tones of a scale sung so as to be smoothly linked together; (3) the same, sung somewhat more independently of each other; (4) the same, bu
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CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
The subject treated in this chapter may be made dry enough; but if the student will, while reading the descriptions given, endeavor to form the sounds described, observing at the same time his own resonance-chambers (mouth parts) carefully in a hand-glass, and then follow up the applications made, the reader's experience will be, in all probability, like the author's: the more the subject is studied the more interesting does it become, especially if one experiments with his own resonance apparat
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CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVI.
The reader will now be prepared to consider the answer to be given to the question as to the vowels most suitable for practice in intonation. Plainly, a ( ah ) puts the resonance-chambers into the easiest and best position to form a good pure tone. The pitch of the vowel is intermediate—not very low and not high in the scale. For the higher tones, evidently, ā , e , and i are better than a ( ah ), much less o and u , which are quite out of the question, comparatively speaking. However, as music
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CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVII.
So important are the ingoing sensory messages (impulses) that originate in the ear, as a guide not only in the appreciation of musical sounds but in those movements on which all musical execution, all vocal effects, whether of song or speech, depend, that we think the reader will welcome a chapter on the ear, even though it be no part of the vocal apparatus proper. The essential mechanism used by Nature to give us the sensation of sound consists of (1) a complicated form of nerve-ending; (2) an
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CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Hygiene deals with the laws by the observance of which health is to be maintained and disease prevented; but as such laws must be based on physiological principles, hygiene follows from physiology. Accordingly, throughout this work our method has been to point out the correct way as soon as the physiological principle has been laid down, so that the reason for the recommendation made would be obvious. However, it may be well if now some of the more important tendencies, errors, bad habits, and d
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CHAPTER XIX.
CHAPTER XIX.
Stammering and stuttering are allied but not identical defects. They require special treatment, the earlier the better. Much can be done by the exercise of a little patience and kind consideration, to make the subject of these infirmities feel at ease, and so manifest the defects as little as possible. It is, of course, as a general rule, very unwise to take any notice whatever of such imperfections, as they are thereby made worse. As a rule, they are best treated practically by those who have m
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CHAPTER XX.
CHAPTER XX.
All the most important truths of any subject may be stated in a brief space. The Author proposes to make this final chapter one of a restatement of the essentials of the subject in the light of our present-day knowledge, and with a distinct relation to practice. The object of the speaker or singer is to produce certain sounds which shall as easily as possible convey to the listener his own state of mind. It follows that he must have a clear idea of these sounds, that he must hear them mentally p
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