| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
|
||
|
i |
||
|
154 TRAINING THE SINGING VOICE
names these two registers as follows: a) The normal range carried as high
as possible without force or strain; b) The falsetto range. [238, p. 51] The old masters taught the use of two registers, one for chest voice and one for head voice. This fact was first noted by Mancini in the 18th century. [Hopkins 283, p.-76; also Hagara 220, p. $6] Others in this group concur
hi the opinion that two registers exist in the singing voice. Manuel Garcia, world famous singing teacher of the 19th century and
inventor of the laryngoscope, is the strongest proponent of the three register concept. Garcia recognizes three mechanical variations in voice production which he calls registers. In the first, "the glottis is progressively narrowed to the point at which the vocal processes [cords] completely touch each other/* In the second* this movement "less energetically done, produces the falsetto," and the head notes of the third register "are produced by the vibration of the ligamentous parts of the glottis." [Mackenzie 364, p. 87] Samuels offers a somewhat simpler explanation: "In the chest register the vocal cords vibrate in their full length and breadth; in the medium [register] only the inner edges vibrate; in the head register only a portion of the inner edges vibrate." [487, p. 26] The others who name three registers (head, middle, and chest) are Henley [254], Miller [398, p. 108], Blatherwict [52], and Valeri [622]-
F&iseiio tones. Opinion is brief, but evenly divided on the legitimacy of falsetto tones for singing. Wagner and Stanley both hold that the artificial or effeminate quality of falsetto tones disappears with training and that when the so-called falsettos have been sufficiently developed their "quality becomes indistinguishable from that of the lower register." [629; also 578] On the other hand, Curry and Gescheidt consider the falsetto an "abnormal" and "unnatural** voice. The former claims that "it is produced above the normal vocal compass and requires an altered mode of larynx vibration" [124, p. 5]; the latter states that it is useless. "It should never be used at any age." [200, p. 20]
Methods of Cultivating Range psychological approach
Registration is influenced by menial causes. This, is the opinion of 6
authors. Aikin is convinced that the only reason the registers appear in a singer's voice is because the teacher continually calls his attention to them. [4] Wodell adds that it is "positively harmful to speak to students about registers or breaks" in the singing range. [679] Breaks in the voice inevitably occur when a singer becomes self-conscious about registers. If a slight break should be present, it will tend to become obtrusive when |
||