“After some essays we perceive that this internal disposition
of the larynx is only visible when the epiglottis remains
raised. But neither all the registers of the voice, nor all the
degrees of intensity, are equally fitted for its taking this
position. We soon discover that the brilliant and powerful
sounds of the chest register contract the cavity of the larynx,
and close still more its orifice; and, on the contrary, that
veiled notes, and notes of moderate power, open both, so as to
render any observation easy. The falsetto register especially
possesses this prerogative, as well as the first notes of the
head voice. So as to render these facts more precise, we will
study in the voice of the tenor the ascending progression of
the chest register, and in the soprano that of the falsetto and
head registers.
EMISSION OF THE CHEST VOICE
“If we emit veiled and feeble sounds, the larynx opens at the
notes do re me (c d e), and we see the glottis agitated by
large and loose vibrations throughout its entire extent. Its
lips comprehend in their length the anterior apophyses of the
arytenoid cartilages and the vocal chords; but, I repeat it,
there remains no triangular space.
“As the sounds ascend, the apophyses, which are slightly
rounded on their internal side, by a gradual apposition
commencing at the back encroach on the length of the glottis,
and as soon as we reach the sounds si do (b c¹) they finish
by touching each other throughout their whole extent; but
their summits are only solidly fixed one against the other
at the notes do re (c♯¹ d¹). In some organs these summits are
a little vacillating when they form the posterior end of the
glottis, and two or three half-tones which are formed show
a certain want of purity and strength, which is very well
known to singers. From do re (c♯¹ d¹) the vibrations, having
become rounder and purer, are accomplished by _the vocal
ligaments alone_, up to the end of the register.
“The glottis at this moment presents the aspect of a line
slightly swelled towards its middle, the length of which
diminishes still more as the voice ascends. We also see that
the cavity of the larynx has become very small, and that the
superior ligaments have contracted the extent of the ellipse
to less than one-half.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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