Psycho Vox; or, The Emerson System of Voice CultureEmerson, Charles Wesley
Science
Psycho Vox; or, The Emerson System of Voice Culture
Emerson, Charles Wesley
Voice
It is a law of acoustics that a low pitch is resounded in a
comparatively large resonant chamber; a high pitch in a comparatively
small one. A simple and instructive experiment in illustration of this
principle is this: Take a large bottle, strike a C tuning fork, hold it
over the empty bottle, and no sound will be heard. The bottle does not
respond, because the cavity is too large for the pitch of the fork. If
water is poured into the bottle, the air column inside thereby being
shortened until the proper sized chamber is formed, by then holding the
high-pitched tuning fork over it, the sound of the fork will be
resounded by the resonant chamber and the tone will burst forth quite
loudly. Use any number of tuning forks, each on a different key, and a
resonant chamber can thus be made which will resound each fork.
I once tried an experiment with two tuning forks which were fastened to
sounding boxes and which had been tuned to exactly the same pitch. I
struck one fork and stopping its vibration, the sound of the other,
vibrating responsively, was distinctly heard. The same result was
achieved when one of the tuning forks was placed in a remote part of the
room. I also placed the fork upon the piano, struck it, and the string
of the same pitch, in connection with its overtones, responded. In order
that any resonant cavity may resound, the pitch that belongs to that
cavity must be struck. Every room in a house, in consequence of its
size, its form, and the material of which it is constructed, resounds to
a certain pitch. Sometimes in the course of conversation the globe of a
chandelier in the room resounds. This is because the pitch which is
agreeable to its size, form, and substance is struck.
OVERTONES.
Overtones are tones above in pitch, but harmonic with the fundamental
tone. They are caused by the vibration of the aliquot parts of a string
as distinct from that of its whole length. These parts being shorter
vibrate with greater rapidity, thereby giving a higher pitch than the
fundamental note, though in perfect harmony with it. An overtone can be
discovered by holding near one of the vibrating aliquot parts a chamber
of the right size, form, and substance to reinforce the tone of one of
these parts. This resonance would be loud enough to be distinguished
from the fundamental tone.
The vocal cords act in like manner with the string described, and
produce fundamental tones and overtones. In the vocal mechanism which
produces the human voice, the resonant chambers are so graded in size as
to correspond exactly with the fundamental note and all its overtones;
therefore, an overtone as distinct from the fundamental tone is never
heard, but reveals its presence only by enriching the voice.
=_METHODS FOR CULTIVATING THE VOICE._=
FREEDOM AND RIGHT DIRECTION.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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