Practical Conclusions.

1.  It is highly important to know how to assume either of these voices at will.  The chest-voice is the expression of the sensitive or vital life, and is the interpreter of all physical emotions.  The medium voice expresses sentiment and the moral emotions.  The head-voice interprets everything pertaining to scientific or mental phenomena.  By observing the laugh in the vital, moral and intellectual states, we shall see that the voice takes the sound of the vowel corresponding to each state.

We understand the laugh of an individual; if upon the i (e long), he has made a sorry jest; if upon e (a in fate), he has nothing in his heart and most likely nothing in his head; if upon a (a short), the laugh is forced. O, a, (a long) and ou are the only normal expressions.  Thus every one is measured, numbered, weighed.  There is reason in everything, even when unknown to man.  In physical pain or joy, the laugh or groan employs the vowels e, e, i.[3]

2.  The chest-voice should be little used, as it is a bestial and very fatiguing voice.

3.  The head-voice or the medium voice is preferable, it being more noble and more ample, and not fatiguing.  In these voices there is far less danger of hoarseness.  The head and medium voices proceed more from the mouth, while the chest-voice has its vibrating point in the larynx.

4.  The articulation of the three syllables, la, mo and po, is a very useful exercise in habituating one to the medium voice.  Besides reproducing the tone of this voice, these are the musical consonants par excellence.  They give charm and development to the voice.  We can repeat these tones without fatiguing the vocal chords, since they are produced by the articulative apparatus.

5.  It is well to remark that the chest, medium and head voices are synonymous with the eccentric, normal or concentric voice.

6.  It is only a hap-hazard sort of orator who does not know how to attain, at the outset, what is called the white voice, to be colored afterward at will.  The voice should resemble the painter’s pallet, where all the colors are arranged in an orderly manner, according to the affinities of each.  A colorless tint may be attained in the same way as a pure tint.  It may be well to remark here, although by anticipation, that the expressions of the hand and brow belong to the voice.  The coloring of the larynx corresponds to the movements of the hand or brows.

Sound is painting, or it is nothing.  It should be in affinity with the subject.

Chapter III.

The Voice in Relation to Intensity of Sound.

What is Understood by Intensity of Sound.

The voice has three dimensions—­height, depth and breadth; in other terms, diapason, intensity and duration; or in yet other words, tonality, timbre and succession.