Medical science in relation to the voice as a musical instrument / by Lennox Browne.
- Lennox Browne
- Date:
- 1876
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Medical science in relation to the voice as a musical instrument / by Lennox Browne. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
6/16 page 6
![The pitch oi a musical note clepcTids solely on the number of vibrations concerned in its production, the more rapid the vibra- tion the higher being the pitch. The amount of motion communicated by a vibrating strinfr to the air is too small to be perceived as sound, even at a small distfance from the string. Hence, when strings are employed as sources of musical sounds, they must be associated with surfaces of larger area, which take up their vibrations and transfer them to the surrounding air—in other words, by a sound-board or box. The timbre or quality of a sound depends almost wliolly on the quality and disposition of the sound-boards, as in the harp, the violin, the piano ; and it may be noted that these sound-boards are not of variable size, but of equal capacity, whether for high or low notes. The laws of vibrations of stringed instruments bearing on our subject are that the number of vibrations depends—first, on the power of lengthening or shortening of the string; secondly, on the tension or relaxation of the string; thirdly, on the varia- tions in the thickness of the string ; and lastly, on the density of the string—that is to say, the shorter, the tighter, the finer, and the lighter in weight is the string, the more rapid will be the vibrations in a given time ; in other words, the higher will be the pitch of the note produced. When we come to reed instruments or reed pipes, the reed or tongue takes the place of the string, so far as the generation of the sound is concerned; but the length and calibre of the ])ipe determine the pitch, and determine it in as definite-proportion as is the case with stringed instrument.<^. It is not necessary to trouble you with figures ; but the bearing of these laws on our subject will presently be made evident. ' I have only enumerated as axioms a few laws of sound neces- sary to be borne in mind in consideration of the present communi- ! cation. I need not, however, say that there are many other laws j of sound bearing on the question of the production of the human voice of equal importance, but to which it is unnecessary on the present occasion to allude, seeing that I do not intend to make reference to facts based on them in this paper. Before looking at the structures concerned in the production of the voice, let us define as clearly as we can what is this voice. Well, it is a sonorous vibration or series of vibrations produced by air driven from a bellows along an elastic pipe across two reeds or cords placed in that pipe; the consequent musical , sounds or voice issuing by certain canals and passages of varying j calibre and length. Speech or spoken voice is composed of the articulation or forma- ' tion into letters and words of these sonorous vibrations. This articulation is produced by parts in no way connected with the pi’oduction of sound, and by parts placed quite at the point of exit of that sound; in fact, by the lips, tongue, and solt palate, the soft palate being the backward boundary of articulation. Sovg or singing voice differs from speech only that it is a higlier development of the same [lowcr. It consists in the varia-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22356770_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
