Book: Voice Production in Singing and Speaking

W >> Wesley Mills >> Voice Production in Singing and Speaking




Simple as these exercises seem from mere description, or as carried
out with a certain degree of success, perfection in them is not to be
attained short of years of the most diligent study. How many singers
living can sing an ascending and a descending scale, in succession,
with a perfect staccato, to mention no other effect? Yet among all the
resources of dramatic singing and speaking none is more important than
this one. What so eloquent as the silence after a perfect stop--a
complete and satisfactory arrest of the tone? How many modern actors
are capable of it? How many singers? Instead of the perfect arrest,
the listener is conscious, not of the rounded and complete tone, but
of an edge more or less ragged. There is some noise with the actual
tone.

The above exercises, when carried out to a perfect result, give us
_bel canto_ singing, for which the old Italian school was so noted,
and which is now largely a lost art, not so much because the methods
are not known to teachers, as because students will not do the work
necessary to attain to this _bel canto_. We seek for short cuts, and
we get corresponding results.

The _bel canto_ is, simply, beautiful singing, the result of perfect
technique, and is opposed to effects which are not truly artistic,
though no doubt often highly expressive to the unmusical and the
inartistic. They may appeal to us as feats, but they are not artistic
results, and, as we have before insisted, they are injurious in many
cases to the vocal organs, while good voice-production strengthens
them.

5. The swell is simply a modification of the sustained tone. When a
tone is perfectly sustained, without any change in volume, etc., we
have a most valuable effect, and one very difficult to achieve,
because it implies such a steady application of the breath power and
such nice adjustments of all the parts concerned. To produce a tone
with variations in it is easy enough, and that is what is usually
given us instead of the perfectly even tone, reminding us of a
straight line.

In the swell, as the name suggests, the tone should rise gradually in
volume or loudness, and as gradually decline. If this can be done
readily, and continued for several seconds, it will be easy to produce
other effects, as the sudden swell, but such effects should come
after, not before, the slower ones. A critical observer soon realizes
the defects of modern technique when he listens to a singer's tones
when attempting slow effects, as in a softly sustained melody. Only
the well-trained vocalist can hope to sing such a melody, especially
if long sustained, in a way to meet the demands of an exacting ear and
advanced musical taste. It will be apparent that the swell is the
basis of shading, a quality that is so highly appreciated in this
refined age. He who can manage the swell perfectly has the secret of
this effect in his possession as have none others.

Although we have referred more to the singer than to the speaker, in
this chapter, it is to be understood that these and all other
exercises suggested are of great value in forming the voice for public
speaking. It is not so important, it must be admitted, for the speaker
as for the singer that his tones be musically perfect, as he relies
more on ideas than on tones, still, with every idea employed by the
public speaker there is the inseparable feeling, or "feeling-tone;" so
that the speaker, as well as the singer, is to some extent dependent
on tone painting--indeed, must be, if he will be no mere man of wood,
a "dry stick," to some extent, in spite of the use of appropriate
language, gestures, etc. There are many avenues to the heart, and that
by tones cannot with impunity be neglected by the speaker, though for
his purpose the singing of tones need occupy only weeks or months,
while for singers, in the case of all who would attain to a high
degree of excellence, it must extend over years.


"FORWARD," "BACKWARD," ETC., PRODUCTION.

Certain expressions are in common use by teachers and singers, such as
"to direct the breath forward," "forward production," "backward
production," etc. No doubt such terms may serve a practical purpose,
though they are often used with lamentable vagueness, but it must be
understood that they do not answer to any clearly demonstrated
physiological principles. There is, for example, no clear evidence
that the breath can be directed toward the hard palate in the
neighborhood of the teeth, as the drawings sometimes published would
indicate.

It has already been many times urged that when breathing is
satisfactory, breath does not escape to any considerable extent into
the mouth cavity, but that the expiratory blast is used to set the air
of the resonance-chambers into vibration. The changes that must be
made in these cavities, to lead to certain effects, are accompanied by
characteristic sensations, and these, and not the direction of the
breath, are largely responsible for the ideas on which the above
expressions rest.

As before shown, the soft palate is constantly being used more or
less, and when it and the tongue unite in action so as to cut off the
mouth cavity, or, more strictly, the anterior portion of it, from the
nasal chambers, a very pronounced modification in the tone results,
and, of necessity, such actual escape of breath as occurs takes place
through the nose. In reality, there is a special modification of the
shape of the resonance-chambers for every tone produced, and
especially when the color or quality is changed, as well as the pitch.
There is, therefore, not only "forward" and "backward" but also middle
production, though, in reality, these terms at best but imperfectly
describe, even for practical purposes, what happens.

It is to be feared that with some teachers of both singing and
speaking "forward production" has become a sort of panacea for all
vocal ills; but it is not, and just the reverse teaching is required
in certain cases. If a voice be brilliant, yet hard, it will be
improved by a more backward production, judiciously employed, and in
this way the French language is often to be recommended to such
singers, as it favors this backward production, with such use of the
nasal resonance as mellows the tones. The tenor who has not learned
the use of the nasal resonance, to give richness to the tones of his
middle and upper range, has missed a valuable principle. On the other
hand, for voices that are too soft, lack brightness, and fail in
carrying-power, a more forward production will often improve the
quality of the voice greatly. But a little consideration must convince
the student that if he is to be master of his voice-production
throughout, if he is to produce tones of every shade of quality, he
must be able to shift that voice about in every quarter as occasion
demands; in other words, _all the changes possible in the
resonance-chambers must be at his command_. Such is the case in the
very greatest singers of both sexes; and, of course, this applies
equally, if not still more, to speakers.

When the voice-producer has learned to intonate surely, when the voice
is "placed," and the secrets of the registers are known to him, he
will do well to experiment a little, cautiously, with his own
resonance-chambers, so as to widen his practical knowledge of the
principles underlying the modification of tones. Why should the
student of the voice remain a mere imitator, when the one who works in
any other direction is, or should be, encouraged to be an original
investigator? The inability of students to judge of either the grounds
for or the value of the exercises and methods recommended to them by
their teachers seems to the author to indicate a regrettable state of
things, which teachers of every form of vocal culture should endeavor
to remedy. Some teachers do not use the terms "backward" and
"forward," but "darkening" and "brightening" the voice; and, of
course, the result of a certain use of the tongue and soft palate is
to darken or veil the quality of the voice. But the attentive reader
will scarcely mistake the author's meaning in the above and other
references to this subject.

It is scarcely necessary to point out that in what has been said no
encouragement is intended to be given to the nasal twang, or any thing
resembling it--and it is easy to so use the nasal resonance that it
becomes a defect; but the value of a judicious use of the nose in
singing and speaking is, we are convinced, not as well known in vocal
teaching as it deserves to be.


SUMMARY.

The relation of vowels and consonants to singing and speaking.
Intonation should be by vowels only, at first. Consonants are a
necessary evil in singing, but all-important in the formation of
words--_i.e._, in imparting ideas.

Every language has its own special merits and defects for the purposes
of song and speech. That language which abounds in vowels is the best
adapted for vocal exercises, etc.

It is a cardinal error to begin a course in speaking and especially
singing with exercises based on words. Vowel sounds should be
exclusively employed at first. In the formation of vowels and
consonants the resonance-chambers are especially involved.

The tongue, soft palate, and lips are the most movable parts, and so
have the largest share in giving color and meaning to sounds--_i.e._,
they are the organs most important in the formation of the elements of
words.

The "open mouth" should mean open mouth cavity and duly separated
lips.

It is important that there be control of all parts of the
resonance-chambers, and always in relation to other parts of the vocal
apparatus.




CHAPTER XV.

THE ELEMENTS OF SPEECH AND SONG.


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 apparatus.

Vowels and consonants are the elements of syllables, and words are
composed of the latter. However pure a vowel is, it is accompanied in
its utterance by some noise; a consonant, by relatively a great deal
of noise.

A _noise_, in distinction to a musical tone, is characterized by
irregularity as regards the vibrations that reach the ear, while in
the case of a tone a definite number of vibrations strikes against the
drum-head of the ear within a given time; so that so far as syllables
and words, even vowels, are concerned, we are not dealing with pure
tones.

For the formation of each vowel a definite form of the
resonance-chambers is essential. In uttering, either for the purposes
of speech or song, the vowel _u_ (_oo_), the mouth cavity has the form
of a large flask such as chemists use for their manipulations, but the
neck in this case is short. The whole resonance cavity is elongated,
and the lips are protruded; the larynx is depressed, and the root of
the tongue and the fauces (folds from the soft palate, usually spoken
of as the "pillars of the fauces") approach. The pitch of this vowel
is very low.

[Illustration: FIG. 56 (Beaunis). Shows the position of parts in
sounding the vowel _a_. By comparing this illustration with those
following, the relatively greater size of the cavity of the mouth in
this case will be evident. The reader is recommended to at once test
the correctness of these representations by sounding the vowels, and
observing the parts of his own vocal mechanism with a hand-mirror.]

In _[=o]_ the lips are nearer to the teeth, and the neck of the flask
is shorter and wider; the larynx is somewhat more elevated than in the
last case, and the pitch of the sound is higher.

When sounding _a_ (as in _father_) the mouth cavity has the shape of
a funnel, wide in front; the tongue lies rather flat on the floor of
the mouth, the lips are wide apart, and the soft palate is somewhat
raised.

In _[=a]_ (as in _fate_) there is some modification of the last, the
tongue and larynx being more raised. The pitch of this vowel is higher
than is that of the more open _a_.

In the case of _[=e]_ (as in _me_) the flask is relatively small, and
the neck is long and narrow, the larynx much raised, the lips drawn
back against the teeth, and the tongue greatly elevated, so as to form
the narrow neck of the flask. The pitch of this vowel is high.

[Illustration: FIG. 57 (Beaunis). Shows the relative position of parts
in sounding _I_. In sounding _E_ the position is a good deal like that
for _I_.]

When sounding _[=i]_ (as in _mine_) the cavity of the mouth behind
resembles a small-bellied flask with a long, narrow neck, the larynx
is at its highest, and the lips assume a position much as in the case
of _[=e]_; between the hard palate and the back of the tongue there is
only a narrow passage--a mere furrow. The pitch of this vowel is also
high.

It is thus seen that every vowel has its characteristic quality and
pitch, the order as regards the latter being from below upward, _u_,
_o_, _a_, _[=a]_, _e_, _i_.

That the mouth cavity really can act as a resonance-chamber can be
easily demonstrated by holding a small vibrating tuning-fork before
the open mouth, and varying the shape and size of the cavity till the
sound of the fork is observed to be suddenly increased in volume. The
cavity then is a resonance-chamber for the fork, and thus intensifies
its sound; in other words, the air in the mouth cavity vibrates in
harmony with the tuning-fork.

To demonstrate in a simple manner that each vowel has its own pitch,
the mouth cavity is put into the form usual in sounding the vowel, and
the finger is filliped against the cheek, when a tone answering in
pitch to that of the vowel in question results. The demonstration is
easier with the lower-pitched, broader vowels, but the correctness of
the order of the pitch mentioned above can thus be shown to be
established.

Some very important principles for the speaker and singer hinge upon
the above-mentioned facts. It follows, for example, that it is
impossible to give a vowel its _perfect_ sound in any but one
position of the mouth parts, so that for a singer to utter a word
containing the vowel _[=u]_ (_oo_) at a high pitch is a practical
impossibility. The listener may know what syllable is meant, and
overlook the defect either from habit or from an uncritical attitude,
but composers of vocal music should bear such facts in mind and not
impose impossibilities on singers. At the same time, the vocalist, in
order to satisfy a modern audience, is obliged to sound every word and
every syllable as correctly as possible, even if the tone suffer
somewhat thereby. It is wonderful how fully the best poets have, with
the insight of genius, adapted their words (vowels) to the ideas they
wish to convey, and had all composers of vocal music done the same,
the path of the singer would not have been strewn with so many
thorns. The difficulties in the case of the speaker are similar, but
less marked, as his range is so much more limited as regards pitch.

[Illustration: FIG. 58 (Beaunis). Shows the relative position of the
parts in sounding _OU_.]

This subject has also most important bearings on the learning of
languages. One is born with tendencies toward certain mouth positions,
etc., and from infancy he is constantly using the resonance-chambers
in certain characteristic ways. In the course of years these
positions, etc., become such fixed habits that it is difficult to
change them, so that for this as well as many other reasons the
learning of languages by persons beyond a certain age is a difficult
matter. But to all students of a foreign tongue it is really essential
to explain the physical mechanism by which the various sounds are
made. The author has known an adult to struggle for months with French
and German pronunciation, and get into a state of discouragement,
fearing that he never would be able to learn the languages in which he
wished to speak and sing, when a few moments spent in explaining just
what we have written above for vowels, and what we have earlier and
shall now more fully set forth in this chapter as regards consonants,
have been followed by the lifting of the cloud from the mind and of a
load of heaviness from the heart.

The learner should (1) hear the sound (elemental--a vowel, say) from
the lips of the teacher, and actually perceive just what that sound
is--_i.e._, he must really hear it; (2) observe the shape of the
resonance-chambers; (3) try to produce the same shape of his own, and
under the guidance of his ear and his eye (watching the mouth of the
teacher) so utter the sound correctly. This sound should be fixed in
the mind, and the ear trained by comparing it with other sounds, as
the wise teacher will do, and require imitations. Any language can be
pronounced correctly in a short time, if this method be followed. It
is, indeed, the only one that rests on science and common sense. The
student when away from the teacher, after he has once learned to form
the vowels correctly, should practise with a hand-glass before him for
some time, at least.

The learning of a new language is the acquiring of a new mouth, or, at
all events, entirely new methods of using the old one. In reality,
however, this is not so fully the case as it at first seems. In all
the languages one wishes to acquire, the same vowels occur, and for
the learner it is often a question of lower or higher pitch, or
greater or less breadth, though all this involves the formation of new
habits and the fighting of old ones, and often in the case of the
adult the struggle is a long-continued and severe one. Some nations
speak at a lower pitch than others, and if a foreigner enunciate ever
so well, yet at the pitch of his own and not that of the new language,
his utterance may seem foreign. The Germans speak at a much lower
pitch than Americans, and their tongue, even when grammatically spoken
by the latter, is apt to have a sort of foreign flavor. It slightly
disturbs the listener, who is not accustomed to hear his mother-tongue
transposed into another key, so to speak.

We have known a learner to derive great benefit from having it pointed
out to him that certain of his vowel sounds would at once cease to be
incorrect if their pitch were altered. Of course, in doing this, there
were at once many changes made in the resonance-chambers, in order to
get the changed pitch. Pitch, accent, and duration of the sound throw
much light on the subject of dialect, as a little analysis of Irish or
Scotch will show.

Consonants are, as we have already said, noisy nuisances for the
singer, but indispensable for word-formation, and so for human
intercourse. Each has also its own pitch, and investigators have come
to a measurable degree of agreement on this subject.

To illustrate: Madame Seiler found that _r_ and _s_ are separated from
each other by an interval of many octaves: [Illustration: C], _r_;
[Illustration: b-flat'''], _s_. The latter, _s_, cannot be sounded
without more or less of a hissing sound, suggesting escape of air,
which is very unpleasant to the ear, and, unfortunately, these hissing
sounds are very common in English, so that the speaker or singer is
called upon to use all his art to overcome this disagreeable effect.
This is also prominent in _whispering_--_i.e._, the escape of breath,
with its corresponding effect on the ear. Whispering is effected
chiefly, if not solely, by the resonance-chambers, the vocal bands
taking only the slightest part, if any at all.

The physiologist Bruecke, treating of the utterance of consonants,
considered that they were formed by the more or less complete closure
of certain doors in the course of the outgoing blast of air, and we
have already referred to a consonant as an unpleasant interrupter,
musically considered. Perhaps we should be disposed to compare them to
the people that talk during the performance at a concert, did we not
wish to avoid bringing such useful members of the speech community
into undeserved disrepute.

Consonants, like vowels, have their own mouth positions. This follows
from their having pitch, but, in addition, they require the use of the
tongue, lips, etc., in a special way. The principal articulation
positions are the following: (1) Between the lips; (2) between the
tongue and the hard palate; (3) between the tongue and the soft
palate; (4) between the vocal bands.

To indicate this, certain terms have been employed, and as they are in
common use by those who treat of this subject, it will be well to
explain them.

_Explosives_ are consonants in uttering which there is complete
closure with a sudden opening of the resonance-chambers in front, as
in _b_ and _p_.

[Illustration: FIG. 59 (Beaunis). Representation of the relative
position of the parts and the resulting shape of the sounding chamber
when the consonants indicated are formed vocally. Verification of the
truthfulness of the illustrations will prove profitable.]

_Vibratives_ call for an almost complete closure of the door and a
vibration of its margin, as in _r_.

_Aspirates_ partly close the opening, which is at once suddenly opened
again, as in _f_, _v_, etc.

_Resonants_ close the mouth, so the sound must find its way out
through the nose, as in _m_, _n_, _ng_.

The above may be put in tabular form as follows:

Articulation
Positions. Explosives. Aspirates. Vibrates. Resonants.

1 _b, p_ _f, v, w_ _m_
2 _t, d_ _s, z, l, sch, th_ _n_
3 _k, g_ _j, ch_ Palatal _r_ _ng_
4 _h_

Of course the above is only one of many possible classifications, and
expresses only a part of the whole truth, for the formation of a
single consonant is a very complicated process, the exact nature of
which can only be very imperfectly analyzed and expressed in words.

In complexity of action the resonance-chambers are wonderful beyond
any instrument devised by man, and the more one studies the subject,
the greater the wonder becomes at the amount and complexity of the
work done in a single day's speaking. It is also easy to understand
how difficult it is to attain to absolutely perfect results. To enable
one's fellow-creatures to understand him in even his mother-tongue
involves an amount of effort and energy, a complexity and facility in
function, that can only be reached after months of practice in
infancy; but to attain to that degree of perfection that makes an
artist in speaking, how much greater is the expenditure in vital
capital! Is not the result when attained worth the best efforts of the
most talented individual?




CHAPTER XVI.

FURTHER THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL CONSIDERATION OF VOWELS AND
CONSONANTS.


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, _[=a]_, _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 must be sung with vowels in every position, it is
plainly necessary to learn to sound all the vowels well throughout the
scale. In fact, one might wisely, after preliminary practice on _a_,
begin a scale below with _u_, then go on to _o_, _a_, _[=a]_, _e_, and
_i_.

Some have recommended that the vocalist begin his scale practices with
_a_, and when the higher middle tones are reached, that he use _[=a]_,
and for head tones _[=a]_ and _e_, an advice which is obviously sound,
as it is based on scientific principles.

Sounds that are very expressive in public utterance, whether in speech
or song, are _l_ and especially _r_. In ordinary speech most persons
use only the guttural _r_, in the formation of which the soft palate
takes a prominent part; but for the speaker and the singer the lingual
_r_ is often much more effective. It is produced by the vibration of
the tip of the tongue, and can only be formed well, in most cases,
after long-continued and persevering practice.

Certain consonants tend to nasality. These are _m_, _n_, _ng_, and of
these all persons who are disposed to this production to the point of
excess must especially beware. These letters, with such people, should
be given a rapid and forward production, while singers with hard and
metallic voices will do well to sing syllables beginning with these
consonants, such as _maw_, _naw_, _ang_, _eng_, etc.

According to the teachings of physics, the quality of a tone is
determined largely by the number and variety of the _overtones_
accompanying the fundamental tone. Practically all musical tones,
whether vocal or instrumental, are made up of the ground tone and
certain others less loud and prominent, and the latter are the
overtones. These may be very numerous, and some are favorable and
others unfavorable to excellence in quality. It has been thought, as
the result of scientific investigation, that when the first octave of
the fundamental tone and its fifth interval are prominent, the voice
is soft, and with the fifth and seventh well in evidence, the voice is
bright and clear.

Copyright (c) 2007. knowncrafts.net. All rights reserved.