ngth of the tone,--all these things extinguish
quickly and for all time the wonder-singer's little light.

We Lehmann children in our youth could sing to the very highest pitch.
It was nothing for my sister Marie to strike the 4-line _e_ a hundred
times in succession, and trill on it for a long time. She could have
sung in public at the age of seven. But since our voices, through the
circumstances of our life and surroundings, were forced to early
exertions, they lost their remarkable high notes; yet enough was left
to sing the _Queen of Night_ (in Mozart's opera "Die Zauberfloete"),
with the high _f_.

After I had been compelled to use my lower and middle ranges much
more, in the study of dramatic parts, I omitted the highest notes from
my practice, but could not then always have relied on them. Now that I
know on what it all depends, it is very easy for me to strike high
_f_, not only in passing, but to combine it with any tone through
three octaves. But upon the least pressure by any organ, the head
resonance loses its brilliancy; that is, the breath no longer streams
into the places where it should, and can create no more whirling
currents of sound to fill the spaces.

But one should not suppose that the head tones have no power. When
they are properly used, their vibrancy is a substitute for any amount
of power.

As soon as the head tones come into consideration, one should _never_
attempt to sing an open _ah_, because on _ah_ the tongue lies
flattest. One should think of an _[=a]_, and in the highest range even
an _[=e]_; should mix the _[=a]_ and _[=e]_ with the _ah_, and thereby
produce a position of the tongue and soft palate that makes the path
clear for the introduction of the breath into the cavities of the
head.

[Illustration: Red lines denote vocal sensation in the highest head
tones without mixture.]

Singers who, on the other hand, pronounce _[=a]_ and _[=e]_ too
sharply, need only introduce an admixture of _oo_; they thereby lower
the position of the larynx, and thus give the vowel and tone a darker
color.

Since the stream of breath in the highest tones produces currents
whirling with great rapidity, the more rapidly the higher the tone is,
the slightest pressure that may injure the form in which they
circulate may ruin the evenness of the tone, its pitch, perhaps the
tone itself. Each high tone must _soar gently_, like the overtones.

The upper limits of a bass and baritone voice are

[M