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CONCEPTS OF RANGE |
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how they disappear when singers are relieved of the necessity of thinking about them." Certain descriptions of the vocal membranes are frequently given to explain the changes in methods of vocal production during changes in registration, but according to present knowledge, "the membranes behave in the same way throughout the entire compass" of the voice- [4]
Waters claims that so-called chest and head voice registers are produced by the same pair of vocal muscles in "thick edge" and "thin edge" adjustments, respectively. [642] On the other hand, Wilcox declares that two different sets of muscles function in stretching the vocal cords. The first, or oico-thyroid group is predominantly for adjusting lower register pitches and loud intensities; the second, or arytenoid muscle group is for higher or falsetto register pitches and soft intensities. [669, p. 8] Stanley, who writes about mechanistic voice building, concurs in this explanation of registers and adds that the break between falsetto and lower registers is caused by a weakness of the arytenoid muscles which causes them to yield to the downward pull of the powerful lower register muscles under the tension of high tones. Therefore, he claims that the development and coordination of the registers demands special training which no singer can avoid. [577, p. 307 fL]
Head, chest and falsetto registers. There is an apparent confusion of terminology in this area that gives rise to conflicting opinions among authors. Clippinger, for instance, defines head voice as "that part of the compass lying above the speaking range." [106] Hipsher describes head register as the "upper division of the voice in which the tones receive the larger part of their reinforcement from tile resonance cavities in the frontal part of the head." [274] Lindsley finds experimentally that "the concept of head tones is not clearly justified according to the amount of vibration produced in the walls of the sinuses." [347] Gescheidt declares that the term chest tone is a misnomer since the chest is incapable of producing tones. [200, p. 24] According to Hagara, the transition from chest register to head register encompasses two or three tones where the registers appear to overlap. "The ancients called these transitional notes the falsetto" [220, p. 54] Stanley claims that the male voice goes into falsetto range on the same note as the female voice, "at about E flat on the top space" of the staff. [577, p. 323] Wharton claims that the registers of "men's voices run parallel to those of women at an interval of an octave below." [655, p. 48] Statements such as these are open to misinterpretation due to the absence of a standard terminology.
According to Webster, falsetto is "that voice of a man which lies above his natural voice." Also, it is "the human voice of the upper, or head reg- |
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