ion of mere volume of sound, it would be well for the best
musical art. Naturally, the higher the pitch of tones, within certain
limits, the greater their carrying power, and the reverse, of course,
with the lower tones; so that it is very important that the speaker
and singer use all reasonable means to produce these lower tones well,
else they are muffled, and the words associated with them are not
heard. This principle should be borne in mind especially by tenors and
light sopranos, in whom the lower tones are not usually the best, or
the easiest to produce; so that a good attack and careful and neat
syllable-formation, with all attention to both vowels and consonants,
should be especially studied, and, above all, in tones below about G
on the treble clef. The tendency to close the mouth, especially in a
descending scale, below this point, and to confound blurring with soft
(_piano_) singing, is common. A _piano_ tone should be formed with
especial care as to attack, open mouth, etc., and all words associated
with the duller, lower-pitched vowels be spoken with the greatest
distinctness, both in singing and speaking. At the same time, the
barytone and contralto should not boast themselves over the tenor or
soprano, if they are more successful with lower tones and the words
associated with them, for the latter class of singers can often revel
like birds in regions not approachable by the deeper-voiced singers.
Each in its own order!

It follows that if the organs of speech are used so as to produce
vowels, consonants, and their combinations, with unusual and, for
practical purposes, unnecessary distinctness, the actual performance,
as demanded by a critical ear, will be easier. One that can run two
hundred yards as readily as another can one hundred is in a better
position for the shorter sprint than the other man; hence the wisdom
of the singer and speaker practising first with unusual and indeed
unnecessary distinctness, so far as the listener is concerned, in
order that he may satisfy even the critical with _ease_--that
all-important principle in art.

All persons must, of necessity, speak in some register, and even an
ear but little cultivated can recognize that the pitch and quality of
the tones of adult males, adult females, and children differ greatly
from each other.

Madame Seiler has thus expressed herself on this subject:

"Women use mostly tones of the second chest and first falsetto
registers, someti