Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

—
'
464 SINGING SINGING
2. Consonants, due to more or lesa closed
positions, and movements of the Resonator
which give certain characters to the approach
to and departm-e from the vowel positions.
The position of the Resonator in forming the
vowel sounds is a most important question in
the art of singing.
So much latitude is permitted in ordinary
speaking that pronunciation in singing has
been looked upon as something quite different
from it. But when the sound of the voice is
at its best, the Resonator is in the position
most favourable to sound. This principle
applies as strongly to speaking as it does to
singing, and when singers do not sing as they
would speak, it is either because they do not
speak properly, or they do not use the Resonator
naturally.
It cannot be too strongly insisted upon that
if the principles of good resonation are carefully
adhered to from the first, speech, being solely
a matter of education, can always be made
beautiful.
This is generally neglected in our schools,
where children learn their habits of speech, but
it is absolutely essential to singing, and not infrequently
it happens that a great part of vocal
training is spent upon teaching a singer to use
the Resonator properly, for the first time.
Vowel Sounds.—In studying the sounds belonging
to the five signs U, 0, A, E, I, the
Italian pronunciation is here adopted
U O A E I
English Equivalent (oo) (oi) (ah) (eh) (ee)
The position A is that in which the whole
passage is open and expanded to the fullest
extent convenient (natural habits never go
to extremes), and from it the others are differentiated
by two principal actions.
1. Closure of the opening by the lips, and
2. Raising and advancing the body of the
tongue.
Since A is taken as the basis of our Resonation,
its position must be closely defined.
The jaw is open at least an inch between the
front teeth.
The lips are at rest upon the teeth, and not
retracted at the sides.
The tongue lies flat upon the floor of the
mouth with its tip and margins touching the
backs of the lower teeth.
The base of the tongue is flat enough to
make the back of the throat visible from the
front.
The palate is held up just enough to prevent
breath passing into the nose, but without any
conscious effort.
The neck is fully expanded by the combined
actions of holding the head erect, the ribs
raised, and drawing down the larynx, more
by the action of the sterno- thyroid muscles
which act upon the larynx from below, than by
the sterno-hyoid muscles which bring down the
base of the tongue. This position has the form
of a double Resonator, with two principal
resonance chambers uniting in the middle at
right angles, where they are joined by a third
accessory chamber, the nose.
The back chamber in the neck is shaped like
a bag, wide below, where the vocal reed is placed,
and narrow above, where it opens into the back
of the mouth by an oval opening. The front
chamber, in the mouth, is shaped like an irregular
hemisphere, with a flat floor and an arched roof
and a large round opening in front.
Although the whole Resonator acts as one,
the back chamber may be said to have most to
do with the full resonation of vocal sound ;
while to the more variable cavity of the mouth
is given the office of forming all the characteristics
of language. The accessory cavity of the
nose adds to the sound the nasal resonance
when required, through the opening controlled
by the soft palate. The resonant properties of
cavities are demonstrated by blowing a stream
of air through or across them, so that their
resonant notes can be heard by themselves. This
occurs in the whispering voice. The partly
closed glottis allows the breath to rush through
it without producing any vocal note, and the
rushing sound awakens the resonant notes of
the air-chambers so distinctly that not only are
all the qualities of language distinguishable, but
with a little practice the pitch of the resonant
notes of the various yowel sounds can bedetected.
These notes are mostdistinct, and deeplypitched
in the whispering here employed, which requires
a fully expanded and open Resonator and a reef
out-breath with no constriction of the throat
whatever.
Following these rules the pitch of the vowel
A is commonly found to be c" or c"l( among
men—and about a minor third higher c"b or e"
among women.
The double nature of the Resonator can be
shown by introducing a tuning-fork of the
right pitch, into the throat. A strong reinforcement
occurs in that position indicating a node
'
at the junction of the two chambers, ^as would
be expected. The resonant note may, therefore,
be said to belong to both the mouth and the
neck cavity acting in unison. This is an important
acoustical point, which receives further
confirmation in the formation of the other
vowels.
The first group of vowels derived from A, by
closing the opening with the lips, are three
varieties of 0, and U which is the most closed.