Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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SINGING SINGING 465
By various degrees of this action, but keeping
the jaw still open to the extent of an inch
between the front teeth, the positions are
obtained for :
A 03 02 01 U
English Equivalent all not or oh oo.
By every successive degree of closing, the pitch
of the resonant note is lowered, and thus are
indicated the several positions which produce
the notes of a scale as a simple way of fixing
them.
By rounding the lips enough to lower the
pitch of A a whole fifth, a good resonant position
is found for U (oo), and the deep, middle, and
shallow forma of find their proper places
upon the three notes intervening.
Whispered Besonances.
Areragi
The second group of vowel sounds owe their
character to the position of the tongue. The
jaw remains open about an inch as before, then
the tongue, with its tip against the back of
the front teeth, advances and rises. The lips
remain still, the larynx- is drawn upwards by
the movement of the tongue, but this is restrained
to some extent by maintaining the
expansion of the neck as in the position of A.
This action raises the resonant pitch of the
mouth because it becomes gradually encroached
upon by the body of the tongue, but while it
makes the mouth cavity smaller, it makes the
neck cavity larger. When the tongue is so
far forward as to touch with its margin the
upper molar teeth, the pitch of the mouth
resonance may be raised a sixth and the neck
resonance lowered a third.
This is the position allotted to the vowel E
(eh). A still further advance of the tongue to
its extreme position, when it has raised the
mouth resonance an octave, and lowered the
Resonator Scale of
Average Man
Whispered JUsonances .
Average Woman
J. ^
neck resonance a fifth, will give a suitable
resonance to the vowel I (ee).
The perfect concords of an octave (1 to 2)
and a twelfth (1 to 3) established for the relation
of the chambers in these two vowel sounds is
not a mere accident. It is more probable that
the selection of these sounds as pure vowel
sounds in all languages, has been due to
their particular resonant advantages, for the
resonance of a, double resonator can only go
on perfectly when the component chambers
are either in unison or simply related. A
further point in the formation of the vowel
It win be noticed in practice, as well as in
physiological works, that with the closure of
the lips there is at the same time a lowering of
the larynx and a slight raising of the base of
the tongue. Both these actions tend to enlarge
and close in the chamber in the neck, and by sounds E and I, is that the orifice between the
thus lowering its pitch, they maintain the
unison of the two chambers, as may be further
shown by tapping the cheek and the neck, when
both are found to possess the same note.
two chambers is made smdUer by the approach
of the tongue to the hard palate. This lowers
the pitch of both, so that the division of the
chambers does not take place in linear measurement
as upon a mouochord.
Intermediate between A and E there are
several positions which belong to some of the
English vowel sounds in common use. The first
movement of the tongue is principally forward,
and enlarges the opening of the throat, raising
the resonant pitch of both chambers while they
remain in unison. This position belongs to
the sounds of the unaccented a in ' alone, ' the
u in 'up,' and the o in 'love.' But after this
the unison can no longer be maintained owing
to the disparity of the chambers, and we find
their pitches a third apart, which is not very
good for the resonation of the soimd er as in
'
earth.' The shallow a as in ' hat ' has resonance
chambers a fifth apart, and in the short S
as in 'get' they differ by a sixth. Hence all
these indefinitely resonated sounds are those
which are more frequently varied in pronunciation
than any others, and are the most difiicult
to fix in singing. Between E and I is the
short i as in ' hit,' in which the chambers are
a tenth apart.
The full Resonator Scale is therefore constructed
as follows. The several positions are
marked by Roman numbers to indicate them
for all voices in relation to the pitch of A,
which governs that of the others in each individual
case. To these must be added in English
Vowel Sounds.
A
Average Man