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152 TRAINING THE SINGING VOICE
isterf whether male -or female." Negus, a recognized authority on vocal
physiology, explains falsetto as a particular form of sound production at the larynx which employs a different mechanism for notes above the ordinary range of the individual (male) voice. [418, p. 419 fL] In falsetto voice, "the vocal cords, when viewed through a stroboscope, are seen to be blown apart, whereby a permanent oval orifice is left between the edges. . . . The size of the aperture varies, and is found to increase as the pressure of air expelled from the lungs is raised. In ordinary phonation, the vocal cords vibrate as a whole. ... In falsetto, the extreme membranous edges of the vocal cords appear to be the only parts in vibration." [Grove's Dictionary of Music 708, vol. II, p. 193] MacKenzie, whose book on the hygiene of the vocal organs is in its ninth edition, also states that, in the falsetto, the vocal cords are comparatively (not entirely) relaxed since "only their margins vibrate." [564, p. 59] Hall empirically defines falsetto as "tone without speech reinforcement, tone without low resonance or speaking voice color." [224]
The action of registration. Stanley claims that "registration action is a
means whereby to control the intensity (of the voice), and has nothing to do with pitch range." He further declares that women with improperly trained voices use only the falsetto register adjustment over nearly the entire range. Men, on the other hand, usually employ lower register adjustments exclusively, ignoring the falsetto. [574] Sometimes, when the muscles of one register are weaker than surrounding muscles, a condition of "mixed registration" is produced. An overlapping of the registers then results and the stronger low register muscles of the male voice tend tc» dominate weaker falsetto-producing muscles. In the female voice this condition Is reversed and the falsetto action then predominates throughout the lower range. [Stanley 577, p. 308]
The exact causes of registration in the singing voice remain undecided. Bartholomew finds experimentally that the chest register tones are acoustically more complex than those of the head register. The former contain "more and stronger overtones," while the latter, contrary to common belief, "have very few or even no overtones." Obviously, then, the head register does not provide overtones for the voice. [39] Concepts of registration are closely interwoven with those of resonance, according to Henderson, and sensations accompanying the various registers are largely related to sympathetic vibrations of the chest and head cavities during certain ranges of the singing voice. [243, p. 71] (See also Chapter V.) Finally, Dr. Schatz, a physician and voice specialist, advances the interesting theory that, hi the lower register of the voice, vibrations are transmitted down- |
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