isters--_i.e._, use
to some extent the mechanism of both neighboring registers.

The reader who has perused the previous chapter thoughtfully may
naturally ask: "With such difference of opinion among eminent authors
like those quoted, how am I to know which one to follow, and what to
believe on this subject?"

The answer to that question we propose now to give. It will be wise to
endeavor to show just wherein the writers quoted differ and on what
they agree. A careful examination will show that there is substantial
agreement on the most important points:

1. All agree that there are registers, or natural changes of quality
of tone, corresponding to changes of mechanism or method.

2. All, with the exception of Madame Seiler, agree that the most
important changes take place at or near [Illustration: a'] in female
voices, and the majority consider that this applies to both sexes
equally.

3. Often in males there is some laryngeal change lower than this.

4. All agree that the high falsetto of tenors is of a special quality,
and produced by a mechanism of its own--_i.e._, all consider it a
separate register--and often, at least, it begins naturally about
[Illustration: f-sharp'], which is usually, however, written an octave
higher, though really sung as given above.

[Illustration: FIG. 51. A photographic representation of the
appearances of the vocal bands when the subject is sounding first E
and then F sharp, in which latter case "the vibratory portions of the
vocal bands are shortened about one-sixteenth inch," according to Dr.
French, who has been eminently successful in photographing the larynx.
It will be noted that this is the point in the scale at which the
change of register usually takes place--_i.e._, there is a change of
mechanism corresponding to the change in quality. (French-Raymond.)]

The point of greatest strain is generally, for both sexes, about this
point, and many persons cannot sing higher than this--_i.e._, about
[Illustration: f-sharp'] for males, and its octave for females.

It is to be remembered, as Madame Seiler has pointed out, that at the
period of greatest perfection in vocal training, some hundred and
fifty years or more ago, concert pitch was very much lower than it is
to-day; so that to teach tenors to sing in one register up to
[Illustration: a''] then, was quite a different matter from what that
would be to-day. The old Italian masters were accustomed to train
singers to the