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CONCEPTS OF PHONATION 103
in all directions from their source, which is much faster than air (breath) currents could possibly traveL [139, p. 33]
Third, Marafioti, who was Caruso's physician for many years, and who claims to have examined and studied the vocal organs of almost all the greatest singers at the Metropolitan Opera House "of the present day/* declares that the vocal cords of most of the greatest modem operatic singers show no marked structural or physiological differences when compared with the vocal cords of ordinary non-singers. It is to be presumed, therefore, that great talent in singing is not exclusively an inherent functional characteristic of the organs of phonation. [368, p. 74] Negus also reports that, "of two human beings one will possess a far better voice than the other, although both are apparently equally well equipped anatomically/' [418, p. 437]
These basic concepts of the phonatory process provide a general orientation for the teacher of singing, relevant to the pedagogical discussions that follow. Detailed anatomical descriptions of the vocal organs are available in such favorite texts as Curry [124] and Negus [418], or in any standard physiology book. Excellent nbn-technical descriptions of the vocal organs also appear in the introductory portion of Webster's New International Dictionary (second edition). Further discussions of the larynx and its adjacent structures, pertaining to this study, are also found in Chapters III, V and VI.
PHYSIOLOGICAL FACTORS
The tonal generator. With the exception of White [657; 658; 659], whose trilogy on sinus tone production favors a resonance theory of phonation (see Chapter V), all of the statements gathered on this subject seem to agree with the fundamental premise that the vibratory activity of voice originates in the glottis. Henderson's simple summary of the act of tone production is a typical one: "the cords [vocal lips] rush out of their hiding places and, bringing their edges close together, form a narrow slit through which the air rushes, setting the membranes [cords] into vibration and producing sound . . . and that is the act of phonation/* [243, p. 36] A typical more technical description of the same subject is presented for comparison: "During extreme adduction of the vocal folds [cords], as in the emission of a high note, the intermembranous part is reduced to a linear slit by the apposition of the vocal folds . . . which are approximated by medial rotation of the cartilages/' [Gray*s Anatomy 707, p. 1101] The approximation of the vocal cords is accomplished by the action of "antagonistic muscle groups" whose perfect coordination during pho- |
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