‘You may observe, that the different tones of the voice are produced by the different positions which the larynx assumes in its rising and falling...To produce an acute [high] and shrill voice, the larynx is drawn up more powerfully as the voice is required to be sharper, insomuch, that an inclination of the head forwards, is sometimes called in to assist, by which the powers of the muscles elevating the larynx are rendered more effectual, so that to raise the voice an octave, you may perceive it to rise nearly half an inch, and when we sing an octave below, the larynx will be depressed about half an inch.’
*Notes*
Domenico Corri, The Singer’s Preceptor, vol. I (London: Chappell and Co., 1810), 5.
The painting below is Thomas Rowlandson’s ‘Comforts of Bath: The Concert,’ completed in 1798.
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