Inertive Reactance

A few months ago, seeking to understand what was meant by such terms as "placing the voice," or "placing the voice in the mask," terms that are often used to describe singers' techniques, I came across an online discussion group in which a fierce debate on this very topic was raging.

One passionate poster, a singer and teacher, claimed that "placing the voice," in the mask, eyes, forehead, or any other so-called "resonating cavity," is a bunch of baloney. That intrigued me.

The January issue of Scientific American has an article on the human voice by Ingo Titze, physicist, singer, singing teacher, professor at the University of Iowa and director of the National Center for Voice and Speech. (Reading the article online requires payment. It's worth buying the magazine. Much of what it summarizes can be found throughout the excellent NCVS site.)

If I understand the article correctly, the human singing voice--whether operatic or otherwise--is produced when air from the lungs stimulates our inner sound source (in our case, the vocal cords, or vocal folds of the larynx); this sound goes through a resonator, the airway right above the larynx, and is emitted through the radiator of our mouth.

And that's it.

In other words, all we have to work with is the air from our lungs, our vocal tracts, and our mouths. No resonating cavities can create greater or lesser resonance. It may seem as though they do, but physically speaking, and physiologically speaking, they have nothing to do with the process. So this talk of "singing in the mask" or any other part of the face is, indeed, hooey.

How do we create resonance? It's a complex process that involves a kind of feedback exchange between the air flowing from our lungs and the vocal tract's various maneuverings. The term that gets used is "inertive reactance," which signifies a kind of push-pull action. Initially the vocal folds open and air from the lungs rushes through them; but then they snap back, creating a kind of vacuum right above the larynx--a vacuum that has the effect of shooting whatever air remains through the vocal tract.

On the NCVS site I learned some more interesting things. One is that lowering the larynx's position--as happens when you try to yawn, for instance--darkens the sound. (This may be the reason why speakers do a kind of yawn excercise before a speech, to keep their sound from edging up in brightness as it does when a person sounds nervous.) In this instance, science and vocal pedagogy are as one. Franco Corelli is no doubt the most famous exponent of the "lowered-larynx" style of singing, and here is the scientific explanation for the ravishing darkness of his sound. As for his peerless squillo, it has nothing to do with anything in his face: it's all in how he managed that mobile column of air going through his vocal tract.

So the next time you feel intimidated by an opera "expert" who tells you this or that singer is placing his or her voice "in the mask" or anywhere else, don't pay any attention!