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Fascinating as it may seem to the singer to examine his own larynx while he is producing a vocal tone "during phonation," the physiologist would say the value of the deductions formed from such observation may be doubted, if for no other reason than that the introduction of the mirror into the back of the mouth makes the whole act of phonation strained and the effects observed unnatural.
The glottis, partially closed as it must be in phonation, presents considerable resistance to the outgoing stream of air, hence the upward movement of the larynx when it is left free, and not held down by muscular action. In singing and speaking the larynx should be steadied, otherwise the "attack," or application of the air-blast to the vocal bands, cannot be perfect.
These investigations served a good purpose, but they were manifestly inadequate, and this was felt by one thoughtful vocal teacher so keenly that he pondered much on the subject, in the hope of finding a method of observing the larynx during actual phonation. To this distinguished teacher, Manuel Garcia, belongs the honor of inventing the means of observing the vocal bands in action.
She sensibly rested the succeeding week and perfected a cure. Rest did far more than any amount of medicine, however it might have been administered. Paralysis of the vocal cords constitutes a second form of vocal catastrophe. It should need no definition. In reality, however, the paralysis does not lie in the cords themselves, but in the leading muscles that control in phonation.
This faulty action is due chiefly to faulty attack a faulty coup de glotte manifest mainly on initial vowels in an audible stroke, shock or check and in the emission of unvocalized breath. This latter is the so-called spiritus asper, because the emission of unvocalized breath which precedes phonation gives an aspirated or h sound, so that, instead of ah, we hear haa.
Nearly all the facts of importance in phonation, several of which have already been referred to, or will be mentioned in the "Summary and Review" below, could only have been discovered by the use of the laryngoscope.
The result of this action is the new position of the cartilages and vocal bands, which is shown by red outlines. The muscle is also depicted in red. The heavier outer rim is to indicate the thyroid cartilage. By comparing the upper and the lowest figure it will be seen that they are opposites. Of course, in phonation the vocal bands are never so much separated as shown in the illustrations.
The spiritus asper is caused by a too slow contraction of the vocal cords and their too gradual approach for phonation. Dr. Van Baggen says that the vowel which is thus formed might be called an articulated vowel, which accurately describes the effect, the vowel being enunciated with the circumstance of the articulated consonant instead of with the ease of the phonated vowel.
Instead of feeling that the breath passes out, the voice-producer should rather feel, when phonating, as if it passed in an illusion, it is true, but still a safe one. We would again urge that in every instance of phonation in either speaker or singer, the breath be taken through the open mouth. Only in this way can enough breath be inhaled in the mere moment available for this purpose.
Breathing has for its object so far as phonation is concerned no other purpose than to so affect the vocal bands, that the resonance chambers really do resound. The question is how is this breathing best accomplished so that the instrument shall be most efficiently played upon?
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