Just as the voice is submitted to the distinctions of the registers, so it is also to the inevitable action of the timbres. We call timbre the peculiar and infinitely variable character which each register, each tone, can take, an abstraction made from the intensity. When the larynx produces a tone, the pharynx takes possession of it as soon as it is emitted and modifies it.
Two kinds of conditions control the formation of the timbre: first, the fixed conditions which characterize each individual, those of the form, the consistency, the state of health or illness of the vocal apparatus of each; second, the mobile conditions, such as the direction the sound takes in the vocal tube during its discharge (whether through the nose or through the mouth), the conformation and the degree of capacity of this same tube, the degree of tension of its walls, the action of the constrictors, that of'” the velum, the separation of the jaws and the teeth, the placement of the lips and the dimensions of the opening which they give the mouth, and, finally, the elevation or the depression of the tongue, etc.
In our considerations, we will not concern ourselves with the different timbres which characterize and differentiate the voices of individuals, but only with the diverse timbres which the voice of the same individual presents.
The modifications of timbre, all being produced by two opposite means, can, in the final analysis, be reduced to two principal ones, the clear timbre and the sombre timbre.
The vocal apparatus cannot produce a sound without dressing it in one or the other timbre, and each timbre imparts its character to the whole range of the voice.
A Complete Treatise on the Art of Singing Part 1 Pages l-li
The last paragraph in the above quote gives a good example of Garcia’s style of expressing himself about vocal matters, and the reason I was inspired to put the label “Garcia’s Tool Box” on the “Parent Page” of the page you are now reading.
If you haven’t clicked on the link within the quote, give it a try. You will find yourself looking at one of my first blogs.
Clear Timbre
Sombre Timbre
*It is necessary to consider these timbres as the two principal ones, independently of which there exists a great quantity of others, of which, in order to be produced, some borrow from the clear timbre, others from the sombre timbre, whatever these timbres have which is essential in their mechanism. In fact, one observes that the voice can assume some widely varied characters, whether one forms the various vowels and the modifications of which each is susceptible, or one produces the tones under the influence of the emotions.
A Complete Treatise on the Art of Singing Part 1 page lx
When Garcia made his presentation to the French Academy of Sciences, from which I pull the above quotes, he was not yet in possession of the visual confirmation of his theories concerning the vocal chords. He did not offer explanation of some of these theories in French until 1855 when his “Observations on the human voice” were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society and they were translated and published in French. In the APENDIX of Dr. Paschke’s translation we find the alterations that Garcia made in his 1872 edition. The Glottal Closure effect that he observed with his little mirror and presented to the Royal Society is taken into account and added to his text.
Round Timbre
