But the _æsthetics_ of vocal art, and the spiritual inspiration
of the form (of the sound), comprise the whole domain of music
and poetic beauty.
[1] Those who are interested in the history of music are
referred to the historical works already mentioned for
a fuller account of what is only alluded to above.
II
PHYSIOLOGICAL VIEW
FORMATION OF SOUND BY THE ORGAN OF THE HUMAN VOICE
The great physiologist, Johannes Müller, fastened a larynx, which he
had cut out with the whole trachea belonging to it, to a board, and,
stretching the vocal chords by a weight that could be increased or
diminished at pleasure, caused vibrations in it by blowing through
the trachea with a pair of bellows, or through a tube with his own
breath. In this way he succeeded in producing almost all the tones
of the human voice, and even some which are beyond the compass of
this organ.
He distinguished two different kinds of tones, to which he gave
the names of the chest register and the falsetto register. The
chest tones were produced when the vocal ligaments, slackly
stretched, were made to vibrate easily in their whole breadth;
the falsetto tones came merely through the vibration of the fine
inner edges of the vocal chords when they were more tightly
stretched. At a moderate stretching of the vocal chords, it
depended upon the manner of blowing whether a sound corresponding
to the chest voice or to the falsetto were produced, or whether
it were higher or lower for several tones, often for a whole
octave. A series of tones of more than two octaves could thus be
produced in the same larynx, with, however, gaps and places at
which the vocal chords, instead of being stretched gradually,
have to be _stretched at once very strongly, in order that the
succeeding higher half tone may be reached_. Such a place Müller
indicates from c² to c♯², or d² to d♯², with the remark that it
differs in different larynxes, being in some higher and in some
lower. But in order to render practicable the proper stretching
of the exsected larynx, muscles and membranes have to be cut,
which sufficiently proves that the functions of the organ of
singing in the living must be differently carried on.
_Dr. Merkel_, in Leipzig, has continued these experiments, and
by means of a peculiar contrivance has succeeded in producing
all the tones in the exsected larynx, without mutilating it.
But these investigations, interesting as they are, throw no
certain light upon the formation of sound by the vocal organ
in the living.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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