Medical science in relation to the voice as a musical instrument / by Lennox Browne.

  • Browne, Lennox, 1841-1902.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical science in relation to the voice as a musical instrument / by Lennox Browne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    satisfactorily solved. Signor Garcia thinks that ‘the lips of the glottis (vocal cords) come in contact by their edges alone, and offer little resistance to the air; hence arises the great loss of this agent and the general weakness of the sonnds prodneed here.’ He places it as between the chest and head registers. I am not able to give much information as the result of my own observa- tion concerning the production of the falsetto for two reasons. One is that the epiglottis always rises as soon as formation of such notes is attempted, drawing np with it the larynx, so as to very frequently obscure the image in the laryngeal mirror. _ My observation on this point is exactly contrary to that of Signor Garcia, who says that “ every time the epiglottis lowers itself, and nearly closes the orifice of the larynx, the voice gains in brilliancy, and when, on the other hand, it is drawn np the voice becomes immediately veiled.” Another reason why ifis difficult to see in the mirror the exact appearance of the organs when falsetto notes are produced is the fact that the pressure of the mirror against the soft palate necessary to see the larynx appears to interfere with that perfect tension of this part inseparable from the pro- duction of these notes. I have not been able, by actual observa- tion, to confirm or, indeed, to contradict Signor Garcia’s theory. In those few cases in which I have well seen the larynx I have failed to discover any appreciable difference in the opposing edges of the vocal cords. [It may be interesting to quote some remarks on this subject of Mr. Sims Reeves, in a letter he did me the honour to write since this paper was read. He suggests ‘ that the falsetto is like a false note made by flute players; it is, as it were, outside the tone. The same with violinists when they make the harmonic sounds.’] I have been asked to say something on the relations of the throat and ear in music. This question is based on a wrong understanding of the connection of these parts. In cases of so- called throat deafness the passage leading from the back of the throat (posterior nostrils) to the ear may be obstructed and thickened, and so the intonation and articulation will be more or less impaired; but the fact of a person singing true or false de- pends on causes independent of any such connection. In those cases where it is not due to wrong voice production, it may be caused by what may be called sympathetic disturbances, as ner- vousness, indigestion, and general malaise. The singer almost always knows in such a case when he is out of tune. The instances in which the auditory nerve is impaired so that the subject of it is not aware of his faulty intonation are fortunately rare, and are, of course, hopeless. Song practice on a right method of voice production and learning to play a musical instrument are probably the best means for bringing the voice into accord with the ear. My object has been to draw attention to the fact that, valuable as has been the laryngoscope in a physiological, as it is undoubt- edly in a medical sense, it has been the means of making all theories of production of voice too dependent on the vocal cords, and that the importance of the other parts of the vocal apparatus in their actual influence on the pitch has been overlooked. It is therefore impo.ssible to say that the voice is this musical insfru-