to size and position, and the
perfect adaptation of each part. A split sounding-board spoils the
pianoforte, the indented bell destroys the sweet tone of the French
horn, and a cracked fiddle is the synonym for pandemonium itself.

The quality and power of resonance is well illustrated by a
tuning-fork, which, if set in vibration, can, unaided, scarcely be
heard by the person holding it. But if rested on a table, or a plate
of glass, or, better still, on the bridge of a violin, its tones may
be distinctly heard throughout a large hall.

The vibrating violin string when detached from the body of this
instrument, although attuned to pitch, gives absolutely no musical
sound; the lips of the player placed on the mouthpiece detached from
the tube and bell of the brass instrument produce only a splutter; and
a pianoforte without a sounding-board is nil. The air column in the
tube of the French horn, and the sounding-board of the pianoforte
develop the vibrations caused by the lips and strings into musical
tones pleasing to the ear. The tuning-fork alone can scarcely be
heard, while the induced vibrations it sets up through properly
adjusted resonance may be audible far away.

The vocal cords alone cannot make music any more than can the lips of
the cornet player apart from his instrument. _The tone produced by the
vibrations alone of the two very small vocal bands must, in the nature
of things, be very feeble._

Ninety-and-nine persons if asked the question, what produces tone in
the human-voice, would reply, "the vibrations of the vocal cords,"
and stop there, as if that were all; whereas the answer is very
incomplete--not even half an answer.

A great deal of the irrational and injurious "teaching" of singing
that prevails everywhere, and of the controversy that befogs the
subject, is due to the widely prevalent notion that the little vocal
cords are the principal cause of tone, whereas they are in themselves
insignificant as sound producers.

=It is the vibrations of the air in the resonance chambers of the human
instrument, together with the induced vibrations of the instrument
itself, which give tone its sonority, its reach, its color, and
emotional power.=

That this is not an empirical statement but a scientific fact, a few
simple experiments will demonstrate.

Tone, in the musical sense, is the result of rapid periodic vibration.
The pitch of tone depends upon the _number_ of vibrations in a given
period;