tinction that explains itself. The
lyric tenor is light and flexible. The dramatic tenor is a ringing,
vibrant voice, especially on the high notes. Probably it is the splendor
of these high notes that is responsible for the theory that they are
produced by carrying the chest register upward. In point of fact, a
genuine chest register rarely is employed by tenors. Their easiest,
their natural singing range, is in the middle register, and the tones
which in the notation of the tenor compass are assigned to the chest
register, really are sung in what is more like a downward extension of
the middle register. Just as the larynx of the soprano is not as large
as that of the alto or contralto and is not capable of the open
adjustment required by the chest register, so the larynx of the tenor
is smaller than that of bass or baritone and, like the soprano, less
capable of the open adjustment for chest register. The result is the
same--a perceptible weakness on the lower notes, the great qualities
of the voice lying in the middle and head registers, especially in
the latter.

The lyric tenor is a lighter voice than the dramatic for the same reason
that florid soprano is lighter than dramatic soprano. The cup space
within the larynx is, comparatively speaking, small. Thus, while the
head tones of the dramatic tenor are powerful and vibrant, the lyric
tenor's head tones are lighter and more graceful, but are lacking in
brilliant, resonant dramatic quality. A tenor like Jean de Reszke, who
sang baritone for several years, must have a larynx somewhat larger than
that of a genuine dramatic tenor, and his production of robust tenor
notes in the head register must have required a most artistic series
of adjustments of his voice tract throughout this entire register. But
while it cannot be denied that Jean de Reszke was an artist in the
truest sense of the term, it also cannot be denied that his high voice
just lacked the true vibrant tenor quality and had a suspicion of
baritone in it.

Some tenors who cannot sing unusually high in head register are able to
acquire what is known as falsetto, and even tenors who are not obliged
to resort to falsetto sometimes employ it for special effects. Falsetto
is produced by carrying the adjustment for head register to its extreme
limit. Practically it is the artificial reproduction within the throat
of an adult of the small larynx before the period of mutation. In
singing falsetto the false vocal