THE ART OF IMPROVING THE VOICE. A FINE-TONED Voice for speaking or singing is, ike poetical genius, the gift of Heaven; but the vorst voice may, by the directions which we shall ive, be astonishingly improved, and a fine voice may be preserved from being cracked and ruined,— n event by no means uncommon, as a consequence f ignorance or carelessness in the management f vocal efforts. We can promise much, though we cannot perform the miracle of making a bad oice equal, in delicacy and brilliant execution, to hat of Mrs. Salmon; in graceful polish, to that f Vaughan; in thrilling melody, to that of Maame de Begnis; in richness and fulness of tone, › that of Miss Stephens; in spirit, to that of Graham and Sapio; or, in unrivalled power and ajesty, to that of Catalani. Our remarks will B apply equally to public speakers, to whom the tones of the voice are no less important than to singers. But before coming to the practical part, we shall lay a secure foundation for our principles by dipping a little into the philosophy of the voice.Those, however, who do not relish this, may pass it over, and return to it perhaps at some moment of future leisure for the study. As very different views have been taken by philosophers of the mechanism of the voice, and as it has been usual to explain these by the analogy of musical instruments, we think we cannot better introduce our description of this mechanism, than by a sketch of the manner in which sound is produced, propagated, and modified, in wind instruments, especially in those which have the greatest similarity to the apparatus of the human voice. WIND INSTRUMENTS. In general, a wind instrument is formed by a straight or a curved tube or pipe into which the wind is thrown in a state of vibration, produced It is posby various ingenious contrivances. sible, however, to conceive a wind instrument, constructed rather of musical strings than tubes, and it may be useful to bear this in mind. In the mean time, we shall advert to two different orders of wind instruments; the one simple, and the other complicated by the addition of a vibrating plate, such as is usually formed of reeds. MOUTH INSTRUMENTS. Under this class we rank the horn, trumpet, flageolet, flute, and the flute tubes of the organ. In all these, the column of air is contained in the tube, which is the sounding body. In order that it may produce sound, it is necessary of course that vibrations should be excited; but the means employed for this purpose vary according to the kind of instrument. The length, size, form of the tube, the openings formed in its sides and its extremities, the force and manner in which the vibrations are excited, constitute the causes of the variety of sounds of different instruments. The nature of the substances of which they are formed, has only an influence over the distinctness of the notes produced. The theory of such instruments is precisely similar to that of the vibration of longitudinal musical strings. When we know the nature or physical condition of one of these instruments, we can determine with accuracy, by calculation, the sound which it will produce. There is nothing obscure in this theory, except some of the points relative to the mouth-piece, that is, the manner in which the vibrations are excited. It must be confessed, that between such instruments and the voice, there is no very evident resemblance; for though the sound of the voice is produced by the vibration of air in the tube of the wind-pipe, yet there is nothing analogous to the mouth-piece of the instrument, and the sound does not apparently depend much on the physical nature of the substance of the throat. The substances, indeed, composing the wind-pipe and the parts about the throat, are too soft and inelastic to rank as sonorous bodies. REEDED WIND INSTRUMENTS. In this class of instruments, we place the hautboy, bassoon, the clarionet, and the martial bagpipe. Such instruments may be divided into the reed, and the body, or tube; for the mechanical structure of the two parts are essentially different. The reed is formed sometimes of one and sometimes of two thin plates, which are susceptible of moving very rapidly, and the vibrations of which are destined alternately to intercept and transmit a current of air. This is the reason why the sounds thus produced are not governed by the same laws as those formed by elastic plates, free at one end and fixed at the other, which excite immediately |
