Expressive Voice Culture, Including the Emerson System by Jessie Eldridge Southwick
page 7 of 35 (20%)
page 7 of 35 (20%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
not reached by the effort it will be known by the sense of incompleteness.
Why is the _nares anteri_ the ruling center of tone direction? The dominant or ruling center of any organism is that point which, if controlled, will involve the regulation of all that is subordinate to it. For example, the heart is the dominant center of the circulatory system; the brain is the dominant center of the nervous system; the sun is the dominant center of the planetary system. In all these systems, if the center be affected, the system is proportionately influenced. If any other part than the dominant center be affected, it is true that all other parts may also be affected, but the desired unity in result will not be secured. The voice will follow the thought as surely as the hand will reach the object aimed at. The extreme anterior part of the nares, or head cavity, is the chamber of resonance farthest from the vocal cords. Therefore, if the voice be directed through that chamber of resonance all the others must be passed in reaching it, and hence all must be accessible to the vibrating column of air. It is a law of acoustics that any given cavity of resonance will resound to that pitch to which its size corresponds, and to no other. This law of sound secures the appropriate resonance for every pitch much more accurately than it could be secured by an effort to develop chest, middle, and head registers through calculating the differences. Again, we need the higher chambers of resonance to reinforce even the low pitch, because every note has its overtones that enrich it, and if these cannot find their proper resonance the tone is impoverished. It may be well to explain our use of the term "overtone." This word "overtone" is used unscientifically by many. The significance of its use is somewhat varied among teachers, but it generally means head resonance, or a tone "sent over" through the head cavities. The term is |
|