d. It is to be noted,
however, that it is easier to bring down a tone from a higher into a
lower register than to force up a register, the latter proceeding often
being ruinous to the voice.

Duprez, a phenomenal tenor, could, as I have stated, sing the whole
tenor range in the chest register. He could emit the _ut de poitrine_,
which means that he could sing even tenor high C in the chest register.
The result was that half the tenors of Europe ruined their voices trying
to imitate him. For they ignored the natural three-register divisions of
the voice, and thought they could accomplish with their average voices
what is reserved only for phenomenal ones.

There are three registers; and the interrelations between these and
the different voices within the male and female range must now be
considered.

CHAPTER VIII

SUBDIVISIONS OF THE VOICE

It should be remembered that in the old days, from which traditions of
phenomenally high voices have come down to us, musical pitch was lower
than it is now. In those days a tenor, for example, could carry up his
voice in the adjustment for the middle or in phenomenal cases even for
the chest register, instead of changing to the head register, more
easily than can be done now. In fact, nowadays, when a composer calls
for a very high note, it usually is transposed, so that actually the
supposedly high C of _Di quella pira_ nearly always is a B flat.
Probably there has been no general deterioration in voices, popular
opinion to the contrary notwithstanding. Phenomenal voices always have
been rare, and doubtless are no rarer now than at any other period. At
any time any opera house would have been proud of two such tenors as
Caruso and Bonci, or of two such sopranos as Melba and Tetrazzini, while
there is no period in which a Sembrich would not have been a _rara
avis_. The artist who, seemingly taught by nature, spontaneously
employs the correct registers and sings the most difficult music with
ease and accuracy, always has been an unusually gifted person--a vocal
phenomenon, in fact.

The preceding chapter gave only the main divisions for male and female
voices--alto and soprano for female and baritone and tenor for male.
There are subdivisions of these. Contralto is a subdivision of alto,
mezzo-soprano of soprano; and soprano itself may be dramatic or florid.
Baritone is a division of bass; and tenor is either dramatic or lyric.
Even when one of these subdivisions of vo