inguish between it and true
nasal resonance has been the stumbling block. They are very
different,--one is to be shunned, the other to be cultivated. The
first is an obvious blemish, the second is an important essential of
good singing.

Nasal tones are caused by a raised or stiffened tongue, a sagging soft
palate, a stiffened jaw, or by other rigidities that prevent free tone
emission and which at the same time--note this--prevent true nasal
resonance.

As tone, or vocalized breath, issues from the larynx, it is divided
into two streams or currents by the pendent veil of the soft palate.
One stream flows directly into the mouth, where it produces oral
resonance; the other stream passes through the nasopharynx into the
hollow chambers of the face and head, inducing nasal and head
resonance.

It is commonly supposed that tone passing in whole or in part through
the nasal cavities must be nasal in quality; whereas a tone of
objectionable nasal quality can be sung equally well with the nostrils
either closed or open.

Browne and Behnke state the matter thus: "However tight the closure of
the soft palate may be, it is never sufficient to prevent the air in
the nasal cavities being thrown into co-vibrations with that in the
mouth. These co-vibrations are, in fact, necessary for a certain
amount of the brilliancy of the voice, and if they are prevented by a
stoppage of the posterior openings of the nasal passages, the voice
will sound dull and muffled. This is of course due, to an _absence of
nasal resonance_, and must on no account be described as nasal
_twang_. It is, indeed, the very opposite of it."

Nasal tone quality and nasal resonance must not be confounded. A nasal
tone is constricted, while a tone with nasal resonance is free. Again,
a tone may be unmarred by the nasal quality, yet if it lacks nasal
resonance it lacks vibrancy, carrying power.

Nasal tones are produced, not because the vibrations pass through the
nasal passage, but because they are obstructed in their passage
through them. A nasal tone is always a cramped tone, due to
impediment, tension, or muscular contraction, particularly in the
nasopharynx.

The congestion and consequent thickening of the mucous membrane lining
the cavities of the nose and head, resulting from a cold, make the
tone muffled and weak, owing to the inability of the parts to respond
to the vibrations and add to the tone normal nasal resonance.

The elder Booth (Junius B