The hygiene of the vocal organs : a practical handbook for singers and speakers / by Sir Morell Mackenzie.

  • Morell Mackenzie
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The hygiene of the vocal organs : a practical handbook for singers and speakers / by Sir Morell Mackenzie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    CHAPTER II THE VOICE Physiology of the Vocal Organs IT would savour of pedantry to give a formal definition of a thing so well known as the voice,1 but 1 Voice in its broad meaning is sound producedin the larynx. It may be well to state that in the following pages I use the word voice solely as signifying sound produced by the vibration of the vocal reeds when struck from below by a current of air from the lungs. Various noises can no doubt be made by sucking air into the larynx more or less violently from above, and possibly such unnatural phonation could be cultivated to some extent and would no doubt be admired by many who would applaud the performance of a musician who should play the flute with his nose, or of an artist who should paint with his feet. My definition of voice may seem to exclude ventriloquism. Whatever be the exact method of procedure in the details of that art, it is certain that the sound is always produced in the larynx, though it is no doubt modified in various ways by abnormal action of the throat, diaphragm, &c. The chief secret of the ventriloquist, however, is the manner in which he suggests the whereabouts of his dramatis persona:, and thus makes the imagination of his hearers help in their own deception. Many of my readers will recollect how Theodore Hook made a large
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