earth we
shall see how unerring is the touch of genius, and some day we shall
awaken to see that these kings and prophets are our friends, and that
they possess the supreme virtue of constancy.

IX

SCIENTIFIC VOICE PRODUCTION

The immediate effect of the laryngoscope was to throw the whole
subject into almost hopeless confusion by the introduction of
all sorts of errors of observation, each claiming to be founded
on ocular proof, and believed in with corresponding obstinacy.

Sir Morell Mackenzie. _Hygiene of the Vocal Organs_.

He who studies the voice in a physics laboratory naturally considers
himself a scientific man, and those teachers who make his discoveries
the basis of their teaching believe they are teaching the science of
voice production. The scientist says: "Have I not studied the voice in
action? I have seen, therefore I know." But the element of uncertainty
in what he has seen makes his knowledge little more than speculative.
But suppose he is sure of what he has seen. Of what importance is it? He
has seen a vocal organ in the act of producing tone under trying
conditions, for one under the conditions necessary to the use of the
laryngoscope is not at all likely to reach his own standard of tone
production.

Scientists would have us believe that the action of the vocal mechanism
is the same in all voices. This claim must necessarily be made or there
would be no such thing as scientific production. But of all the vocal
vagaries advanced this has the least foundation in fact.

Scientifically and artistically speaking there is no such thing at
present as perfect voice, and there will be no such thing until man
manifests a perfect mind. The best examples of voice production are not
altogether perfect, and most of them are still a considerable distance
from perfection. It is with these imperfect models that the scientific
man in dealing and on which he bases his deductions.

Be it right or wrong singers do not all use the vocal mechanism in the
same way. I have in mind two well known contraltos one of whom carried
her chest register up to A, and even to B flat occasionally. The other
carried her middle register down to the bottom of the voice. Can the
tenor who carries his chest voice up to [Illustration: Figure P] be said
to use his voice in the same way as one who begins his head voice at
[Illustration: Figure Q]?

In the examination of a hundred voices se