The art of music, Vol. 05 (of 14) — Reading Notes

VOCAL ORGANS, THEIR OPERATION AND HYGIENE 1

The vocal instrument; anatomy of the vocal organs; the healthy mechanism--The larynx; the laryngoscope; operations of the laryngeal muscles--Tone production; the resonating cavities; vowel formation; articulation--Vocal hygiene; incorrect tone production; throat stiffness and its cure.

II. VOCAL CULTIVATION AND THE OLD ITALIAN METHOD 24

Historical aspect of vocal cultivation--The modern conception of voice culture; the mechanical and psychological methods--Ancient systems--Mediæval Europe--The revival of solo singing; the rise of coloratura--The old Italian method--The _bel canto_ teachers: Caccini; Tosi and Mancini; the _Conservatoire_ method; the Italian course of instruction; theoretical basis of the Italian method.

III. MODERN SCIENTIFIC METHODS OF VOICE CULTURE 55

The transition from the old to the modern system; historical review of scientific investigation; Manuel García; progress of the scientific idea; Helmholtz, Mandl, and Merkel--Diversity of practices in modern methods; the scientific system; breathing; laryngeal action; registers; resonance; emission of tone; the singer’s sensations; correction of faults; articulation--General view of modern voice culture.

PART II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ART SONG

IV. THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF SONG 70

The origin of song--The practical value of primitive song--The cultural value of primitive song--Biography of primitive song--The lyric impulse--Folk-song and art-song--Characteristics of the art-song; style, the singer and the song.

The nature and value of folk-songs--Folk-songs of the British Isles--Folk-song in the Latin lands--German and Scandinavian folk-song--Hungarian folk-song--Folk-songs of the Slavic countries; folk-song in America.

VI. THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF SONG 130

Song in early Christian times--The age of chivalry--The troubadours and trouvères--The minnesingers--The mastersingers; the Lutheran revival--Polyphonic eclipse of song.

VII. THE CLASSIC SONG AND THE ARIA 151

Italy and the monodic style--Song in the seventeenth century; Germany; France--Song in England--The aria--German song in the eighteenth century; French song in the eighteenth century; forerunners of Schubert.

PART III. THE ROMANTIC SONG

VIII. FRANZ SCHUBERT 186

Art-song and the romantic spirit--Precursors of Schubert--Schubert’s contribution to song; Schubert’s poets--Classification of Schubert’s songs--Faults and virtues--The songs in detail; the cycles--Schubert’s contemporaries.

IX. ROBERT SCHUMANN 231

Romantic music and romantic poetry--Schumann as a song-writer--The earlier songs--The ‘Woman’s Life’ cycle; the ‘Poet’s Love’ cycle; the later songs--Schumann’s contemporaries.

X. THE CONTEMPORARIES OF SCHUBERT AND SCHUMANN 258

The spirit of the ‘thirties’ in France; the lyric poets of the French romantic period--Monpou and Berlioz--Song-writers of Italy; English song-writers--Robert Franz--Löwe and the art-ballad.

XI. BRAHMS, WAGNER AND LISZT 276

Brahms as a song-writer--Classification of Brahms’ songs; the ‘folk-songs’; analysis of Brahms’ songs--Wagner’s songs; Liszt as a song-writer.

XII. LATE ROMANTICS IN GERMANY AND ELSEWHERE 296

The dilution of the romantic spirit--Grieg and his songs--Minor romantic lyricists: Peter Cornelius, Adolph Jensen, Eduard Lassen, George Henschel, and Halfdan Kjerulf; Dvořák’s songs--French song-writers: Gounod and others; Saint-Saëns and Massenet; minor French lyricists--Edward MacDowell as song-writer; Nevin and others--Rubinstein and Tschaikowsky--English song.

PART IV. MODERN SONG LITERATURE

XIII. HUGO WOLF AND AFTER 330

Wolf and the poets of his time; Hugo Wolfs songs; Gustav Mahler; Richard Strauss as song-writer; Max Reger’s songs--Schönberg and the modern radicals.

XIV. MODERN FRENCH LYRICISM 346

Fauré and the beginning of the new--Chabrier, César Franck, and others--Bruneau, Vidal, and Charpentier--Debussy and Ravel.

XV. MODERN LYRICISTS OUTSIDE OF GERMANY AND FRANCE 364

The new Russian school: Balakireff, etc.; Moussorgsky and others--The Scandinavians and Finns--Recent English song-writers.

APPENDIX. THE FRENCH-CANADIAN FOLK-SONG 375

ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME FIVE

‘Saint Cecilia’; painting by Rubens _Frontispiece_

The Larynx (Line-cuts in text) 6-13

Apotheosis to Farinelli 44

Illustration for the ‘Roman de Fauvel’; fifteenth century print 74

Famous Singers of the Past (Malibran, Rubini, Lablache) 98

Famous Singers of the Past (Jenny Lind, Patti, Schroeder-Devrient, Viardot-García) 152

‘Das Veilchen’; Fac-simile of Mozart’s manuscript 178

Precursors of Schubert (Hiller, Reichardt, Zelter, Zumsteeg) 192

Poets of the Romantic Period (Hugo, Goethe, Schiller, Heine) 200

Robert and Clara Schumann 238

Famous Singers (Lilli Lehmann, Marcella Sembrich, Melba, Schumann-Heink) 286

Minor Romanticists (Löwe, Jensen, Lassen) 306

French and Scandinavian Song-Writers (Fauré, Pierné, Sjögren, Sinding) 346

Lieder Singers of Today (Julia Culp, Ludwig Wüllner, David Bispham, Elena Gerhardt) 364

THE VOICE AND VOCAL MUSIC

CHAPTER I THE VOCAL ORGANS, THEIR OPERATION AND HYGIENE

The vocal instrument; anatomy of the vocal organs; the healthy mechanism--The larynx; the laryngoscope; operations of the laryngeal muscles--Tone production; the resonating cavities; vowel formation; articulation--Vocal hygiene; incorrect tone production; throat stiffness and its cure.

An acquaintance with the anatomical structure of the vocal organs, together with an understanding of the acoustic laws bearing on their operations, is usually held necessary to a competent knowledge of the principles of voice culture. A rather tedious course of study is indeed demanded for this purpose. But it will be our aim to present this portion of our subject briefly, touching only on those points which are essential to a practical grasp of vocal methods. For a more extended treatment of the anatomy of the organs of voice and breathing any standard text-book of anatomy may be consulted. It is, however, hoped that our outline of the subject will suffice for the purposes of the general reader.

As the subject of acoustics is dealt with in Vol. XII, the present chapter does not cover this topic. A sufficient understanding of the laws of vibration and resonance is also assumed on the part of the reader.

No man-made musical instrument can compare with the human voice in complexity and delicacy of structure. Yet, so far as the general principles of its construction are concerned, it does not differ materially from the voices of air-breathing mammals and birds in general. In each case the vocal organs form a complex wind instrument, consisting of an air chamber (the lungs), a vibrating mechanism (the vocal cords), and a set of reinforcing resonance cavities. The human voice differs from the voices of other air-breathing animals only in its vastly higher development and complexity.

The vocal organs of all the various species of animal life we are now considering were developed as a part of the respiratory system. In the early stages of the evolution of air-breathing animal forms the lungs had only one function, that of supplying air for the oxidizing of the red corpuscles of the blood. No other use was made of the respiratory organs; the breath served no purpose beyond that of furnishing oxygen for the needs of the circulatory system. This was the condition of those forms which were the forerunners of present mammal and bird life. In the course of evolution a gradual change took place in a part of the respiratory tract. This modification was an example of what is called in evolutionary science ‘adaptive change.’ The organs of respiration were modified and developed in such a way that the pressure of the expired air could be utilized in the production of sound.

As evolution progressed the organs of voice which thus had their origin took on an ever-increasing complexity of structure. This process of evolution has reached its highest development in man. As a musical instrument the human vocal organs may fairly be said to have reached the point of perfection.

From the anatomist’s standpoint the vocal organs consist of four parts:

1. The lungs, together with the bones by which they are inclosed and the muscles which fill and empty them.

2. The larynx and its appendages.

3. The resonating cavities--trachea, pharynx, mouth, and the cavities of the nose and head.

4. The organs of articulation--the tongue, lips, teeth, etc.

Each of these organs performs a different function in the production of useful and beautiful sounds. It is the generally accepted view among vocal scientists that each portion of the vocal mechanism has one and only one correct mode of operation. Many forms of incorrect action are also possible; indeed, the untrained voice is believed to be liable in almost every case to faulty operation in some respect. Scientific investigation of the voice has for its purpose the determining of the correct muscular actions of the various parts of the vocal mechanism, and the formulation of exercises whereby the student is enabled to acquire command of these actions.

Modern methods of voice culture embody the results of scientific study of the vocal mechanism. It must be observed that not all investigators are agreed upon what constitutes the correct vocal action. Several conflicting theories have been urged concerning the proper movements of the breathing and laryngeal muscles and the operations of the resonating cavities. An exhaustive treatment of these various theories is, however, not called for here. Some of them have been discarded, others have but few followers. The majority of authorities are in fair agreement concerning the theoretical basis of voice culture. In the present chapter only the theoretical aspect of the subject will be considered; the third chapter will be devoted to the practical methods which embody the doctrines of vocal science.

Two opposed sets of muscles are concerned in the operations of breathing, those which, respectively, fill and empty the lungs. The action of inspiration consists of an expansion of the chest cavity, which by increasing its cubical capacity draws in air from the outside to fill what would otherwise be a vacuum. The chest cavity is conical in shape, its base being formed by the diaphragm, and its sides and apex by the ribs, the breast-bone, and the intercostal muscles.

Broadly speaking, there are two distinct forms of muscular action by which the chest cavity can be expanded in inspiration: one is the sinking of the base of the chest cavity, the other the broadening of the chest by raising the ribs. Either of these can with some little practice be performed independently of the other.

The sinking of the base of the cavity is accomplished by the contraction of the diaphragm. This muscle is roughly circular in outline. In its relaxed state it rises to a dome in the middle and might be compared in shape to an inverted bowl. As it contracts the diaphragm flattens out and increases the length of the vertical axis of the chest cavity. In its descent it pushes the viscera downward and forces the abdomen to protrude slightly. This manner of breathing is commonly called abdominal, although the muscles of the abdomen are not directly concerned in the filling of the lungs.

The expansion of the chest cavity may be accomplished by the raising of the ribs. Owing to their curved shape and sloping position, a slight elevation of the ribs causes them to rotate outward from the central axis of the chest cavity. This increases the horizontal diameter of the cavity in every direction--forward, backward, and sidewise.

In the judgment of the most competent investigators the best form of breathing combines the two muscular actions just described. At the start of the inspiration the diaphragm descends, but the protruding of the abdomen is checked almost instantly by a contraction of the abdominal muscles. The inspiration is then completed by the lateral expansion of the chest. In this manner the lungs are filled to their greatest capacity in the least possible time. Another great advantage of this type of breathing is that it imparts a peculiarly erect and graceful carriage, a matter of much importance to the singer and public speaker.

In the action of expiration following the taking of a full breath in the manner just described two sets of muscles are involved. These are: first, the abdominal muscles, which push the diaphragm back to its original position; second, the muscles which lower the ribs (the internal intercostals and some of the external abdominal muscles). The actions of both these sets of muscles can easily be observed. When correctly performed the two actions are simultaneous, the whole chest cavity being gradually and uniformly contracted.

A highly important feature of correct breathing, in the opinion of most authorities, is the control of the expiration. In the first place, all the expired air must be converted into tone and none of it allowed to escape unused. Further, the vocal cords must not be exposed to the full force of a powerful expiratory blast, as they are too small and weak to withstand this pressure without strain and injury. The air must be fed to the vocal cords in just sufficient quantity to serve the purposes of tone production.

It is generally held that this economy of breath can be secured, without strain on the vocal cords, only by opposing the action of the inspiratory muscles to the action of the muscles of expiration. Instead of allowing the inspiratory muscles to relax completely at the beginning of the expiration these muscles are to be held on tension throughout the expiration. By this means both the force and the speed of the expiration can be regulated at will; no undue pressure is exerted on the vocal cords, and the tone is prolonged steadily and evenly so long as the expiration lasts.

The main passage from the lungs to the outer air is the trachea or windpipe, a tube formed of from sixteen to twenty rings of cartilage, united by tendons and muscular fibres, and lined with mucous membrane. At the top of the trachea is situated the larynx, the organ of phonation, strictly speaking. The larynx is built up of two cartilages, the thyroid and cricoid, which represent developments of what once were the uppermost two rings of the trachea. The cricoid cartilage, forming the base of the larynx, is shaped like a seal ring, with the bezel to the back. The thyroid cartilage, just above the cricoid, has the form of an open book, V-shaped in horizontal section. In the interior of the larynx are two tiny cartilages, the right and left arytenoids. These rest on top of the rear portion of the cricoid, on which they rotate freely.

Figure I shows two views, front and rear, of the cartilages of the trachea and larynx. Immediately above and connected with the thyroid cartilage is the hyoid bone, which serves as the attachment of the base of the tongue. It is shaped like a horseshoe, the ends pointing to the rear.

Figure II presents a section of the interior of the larynx, all the muscular tissues having been removed. In this cut the position of the arytenoid cartilages is plainly shown.

By feeling the outside of the throat with the thumb on one side and the forefinger on the other, the hyoid bone and the thyroid and cricoid cartilages can easily be located. The space between the two cartilages in front is covered by the crico-thyroid membrane.

The muscles of the larynx are considered in two groups, the extrinsic, those which connect the larynx with the other parts of the body, and the intrinsic, those which belong to the larynx strictly speaking. By the extrinsic muscles the larynx is held in its place in the throat. These muscles are usually held to have no direct office in phonation.

The intrinsic muscles of the larynx are nine in number, as follows:

2 Thyro-arytenoids, right and left.

2 Crico-thyroids, right and left.

2 Lateral crico-arytenoids, right and left.

2 Posterior crico-arytenoids, right and left.

In Figure III these muscles are plainly shown. This cut presents a view of the interior of the left half of the larynx; the right half of the thyroid cartilage has been removed, together with the muscles which lie to the right of the middle line of the larynx. We see the muscles of the left side of the interior of the larynx and also the right posterior crico-arytenoideus and the right crico-thyroid.

The thyro-arytenoideus muscles are attached in front to the interior angle of the thyroid cartilage, and at the back to the arytenoid cartilages. To their outer edges the vocal cords are attached and the space between them is called the glottis. The crico-thyroids are attached to the outer surfaces of the cartilages. The lateral and posterior crico-arytenoids have very complex attachments, which can be seen in Figure III. The arytenoideus connects the rear surfaces of the two arytenoid cartilages. In Figure IV a drawing of the larynx is presented, looked at from above, the surrounding parts having been dissected away to allow a clear view of the muscles just considered.

It is impossible to state with absolute certainty just what office the various intrinsic laryngeal muscles have in the production of tones of different pitches and qualities. Most of our information regarding this subject has been obtained by means of the laryngoscope. People interested in singing are now very generally acquainted with this little instrument, although it was invented by Manuel García so recently as 1855. While it is generally used only by physicians, anyone who wishes to can easily procure one and by its means observe the actions of his own vocal cords. The laryngoscope consists of a little mirror fitted to a handle at an angle of about 100 degrees. When used by a physician, it is held in the back of the subject’s throat, the tongue being pulled forward and to one side. A ray of strong light is reflected into it from another mirror, which the observer straps to his forehead. This ray of light is again reflected by the laryngeal mirror so as to illuminate the vocal cords. At the same time the observer sees in the laryngeal mirror the image of the vocal cords and so studies their movements.

While laryngoscopic observation has thrown much valuable light on the operations of the laryngeal muscles, it has not by any means cleared up all the mysteries pertaining to this peculiarly intricate subject. All the muscles concerned are very small. Each one contains a vast and intricate number of tiny fibres, extending in widely varying directions. As each one of these sets of fibres can be contracted with a greater or less degree of strength than those most intimately connected with it, the possibility of variety in the combined actions of the laryngeal musculature is seen to be almost unlimited. Many conflicting theories have been offered to explain the details of the laryngeal action, but a comprehensive review of the subject is not called for here. Our purpose will be served by stating the most generally accepted theory, without committing ourselves as to its accuracy or sufficiency. This theory is as follows:

In quiet breathing all the laryngeal muscles are in a state of relaxation, with the possible exception of the posterior crico-arytenoids. These muscles draw the arytenoid cartilages apart, and so open the glottis. For the production of a tone the glottis is closed by the contraction of the arytenoideus, which pulls the arytenoid cartilages together. The tension of the vocal cords is regulated by two sets of muscles: first, the thyro-arytenoids, to which the cords are directly attached; second, the lateral crico-arytenoids, which rotate the arytenoid cartilages, bringing their forward spurs together.

The pitch of the tone is determined in two ways: first, by the tension of the vocal cords; second, by their effective length. In different parts of the vocal range the manner of adjustment for pitch varies. For the lowest notes of the voice, the chest register, the cords vibrate in their full length. As the pitch rises in singing an ascending scale passage in this part of the voice, the tension of the vocal cords is gradually increased by a corresponding increase in the strength of the contraction of the thyro-arytenoids. When the limit of the chest register has been reached, a further ascent in pitch is brought about by the gradual shortening of the vocal cords. This is effected by the contraction of the lateral crico-arytenoids, which rotate the arytenoid cartilages inward, as has just been described. The forward spurs of these cartilages are slightly curved in shape, so that, as they continue to rotate, their point of contact is gradually brought further and further forward. As the vocal cords are held tightly together behind this point, the portion of the cords left free to vibrate is shortened with each material increase in the tension of the lateral crico-arytenoids.

With each shortening of the vibrating parts of the cords the pitch is correspondingly raised. The portion of the vocal range thus produced is called the medium register. The highest note of the medium register is reached when the forward spurs of the arytenoid cartilages are in contact at their tips. Beyond this point there can be no further shortening of the vocal cords in this way. The remaining notes of the compass, known as the head register, are secured through a shortening of the effective length of the vocal cords at their forward ends, as well as by a further increase in their tension. Both these actions are accomplished by the contraction of the thyro-arytenoids.

Figure V shows a laryngoscopic view of the larynx, as it appears in quiet breathing. It will be observed that the vocal cords are widely separated, and the glottis is opened to its full extent. A similar view of the larynx during the production of tone is given in Figure VI. The vocal cords are closely approximated and the glottis is narrowed to a tiny slit-like opening.