Stephen F.

Austin
PROVENANCE
Flapping Jaws and Acoustic Laws
Stephen F. Austin
Journal of Singing, November/December 2006
Volume 63, No. 2, pp. 211-216
Copyright C 2006
National Association of Teachers of Singing
provenance (prv'-nns) n. Place of origin, source. [LAT. Provenire,
to originate.]
p
ROFESSIONAL JOURNALS OFTEN INCLUDE a letters to the editor sec-
tion in order to give readership a chance to reply, rebut, or perhaps
supplement what someone else has written. Occasionally a single
topic can occupy the attention of readers for several issues, giving
interested parties a chance to iron out their differences in a public forum. One
such exchange took place in the The Musical Times in 1937. Here is a part of
it that will introduce the topic at hand.
A pupil of Garcia's on his teaching
Sir.Twice a week for three years I sat in Manuel Garcia's drawing room at Cricklewood
from 10:30 a.m. till the time of my own lesson, 1:30, and listened to his teaching. May
I be considered qualified to reply to your correspondent 'J.M.L.' on one or two trifling
points?
He says 'the mouth was only opened sufficiently to admit to the tip of one finger be-
tween the teeth.' Seor Garcia insisted on the width of two fingers as the proper open-
ing for Ah (all our exercises were sung on
Ah). For words of course, one had to adjust
the aperture, but he never told us to make it as narrow as possible. One of his favourite
cures for a stiff jaw was to make the student hold a little piece of wood between the
teeth while singing exercises (on Ah). 'While you are biting upwards he would say,
'you cannot push the jaw downwards.' He would cut a little post for this purpose, with
an old knife from a stick of firewood, and it was always quite one and a half inches
high. The 'tip' of nobody's finger is that width.
To forestall misapprehension 1 add that he never intended this appliance to be used
much. It was merely to convince students that they could sing without a rigid Jaw. They
were then expected to reproduce the sensation in their own practice.'
The following response appeared in the next issue:
Opening the Mouth in Singing
Sir,Mrs. Rees-Pedlar's recollections of Manuel Garcia's teaching caused her to reply
in an interesting letter to some representations of mine as to the opening and shape of
the mouth according to the Porpora tradition received through Garcia. May I quote
Garcia's words from his 'Art of Singing'?
"It is generally believed that the more we open the mouth, the more easily and
powerfully can sounds be emitted; but this is quite a mistake. Too large a separa-
tion of the jaws tightens the pharynx and consequently stops all vibration of the voice,
depriving the pharynx of its vault-like, resonant form. Besides, if the teeth be too
nearly closed, the voice will assume a grating character, somewhat like the effect
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006
211
Stephen Austin
produced by singing through a comb. By projecting the
lips in a funnel shape, the notes become heavy. When the
mouth assumes an oval shape, like that of fish, the voice
is rendered dull and gloomy; the vowels are imperfectly
articulated, and all but indistinguishable; besides which,
the face has a hard, cold, and most unpleasing expression.
To open the mouth, the lower jaw should be allowed to fall
by its own weight, while the corners of the lips retire slightly.
This movement, which keeps the lips gently pressed against
the teeth, opens the mouth in just proportions and gives
it an agreeable form."
Sir Charles Santley, who was for two years a pupil of Nava in
Milan, and on his return to England had some lessons from
Garcia, writes in his 'Art of Singing' (Macmillan):
"The mouth ought not to open more than sufficient to in-
troduce the tip of a finger; if the under-jaw is lowered be-
yond what is necessary for this it is impossible to pronounce
the consonants promptly and firmly, as the tongue, teeth,
and lips will be too far apart to fulfil their office ... The
most advantageous, and at the same time the most pleas-
ing and elegant position of the mouth is the approach to a
smile:'
Tosi (b. 1683) says in his 'Observations on the Florid Song'
(1723): "The mouth ought to be composed in a manner (if the
sense of the words permit it) rather inclined to a smile, than
too much gravity:'
Isaac Nathan (for five years a pupil of Domenico Corn, who
was for seven years a pupil of Porpora) has, in his 'Musurgia
Vocalis' (1823), pages on the opening of the mouth. He begins:
"Opening the mouth to the fullest extent is by many persons
considered the very acme of perfection:" and later says: "Exclusive
of external appearances, it is extremely disadvantageous to the
voice to keep the mouth in so open a position; for the fleshy
substance of the cheek must thus necessarily press against the
teeth and deaden the sound . . . It is when the mouth is in a
smiling form, that the sweetest tones are produced . . It is ad-
visable to form the mouth in an easy manner, so as to give due
articulation to every word in singing as in speaking."
Gustavo Carulli (b. 1801) in a 'Mthode de chant' (1838),
dedicated to and approved by the celebrated and accomplished
French tenor Duprez, prints a charming illustration of a mouth
in the proper form for singing the first Italian vowel. The teeth
are moderately separated and the lips smiling: the author, in
the text gives the space of separation as some six or eight mu-
sic lines, a little less or more than half an inch, and draws at-
tention to the extension of the mouth at the sides and the rest-
ing of the lips on the teeth according to the conformation of
the mouth, so that the teeth can be seen
.2
Finally, this response from E. Herbert-Caesari finished
the exchange:
Opening the Mouth in Singing
Procedures (as quoted by
'J.
M. L.') such as employing
"wooden posts:' "showing six teeth:' "the lips smiling:' "a
smiling form of mouth:' mean absolutely nothing to the stu-
dent seeking the truth; indeed, they mislead because they
teach nothing. The fact of "smiling with the lips" is assuredly
not the keystone to vocal mechanics. It is worthy of note that
not one of the quotations given by 'J.
M. L.' from works of
the distinguished departed mentions the factor of pitch. Did
anybody ever see a great singer produce a high note forte
with a "smile" on his lips, or with his mouth open no more than
"sufficient to introduce the tip of a finger" as advocated by
Santley? Now Santley was a fine singer; but like so many great
artists (and teachers), he omitted to amplify or complete his
ideas, and just revealed one aspect of a many-sided procedure.'
To Drop or Not to Drop
This exchange provides some interesting historical per-
spective on a matter of important consideration: What
should we do concerning the position of the jaw for
singing? What are the implications of a wide or nar-
row space between the teeth? Is there any logic behind
the various positions that teachers and singers take on
the subject?
Unlike the writers quoted above, many of our mem-
bership are engaged in teaching different vocal styles.
One of the first things that deserves consideration on
this subject is the fact that different vocal styles may
have different requirements. Does an operatic soprano
follow the same practice as a pop singer? Acknowledging
that "a picture is worth a thousand words" may be help-
ful to conjure up a few mental images of well known in-
dividuals that most people would recognize as repre-
sentatives of a few of the vocal styles we may deal with.
First, consider the the great operatic soprano Leontyne
Price singing at the top of her range with the mouth gap-
ing wide, but who used much less space in the middle
and low range. There is Lyle Lovett, the country and
western singer with a guitar in hand who sings in a rel-
atively limited pitch range and hardly opens his mouth
at all. Luciano Pavarotti, the great operatic tenor who
sang throughout his range with minimal space between
the teeth (even at the top of his range), especially com-
pared to the prima donna standing next to him. Finally
there are iconic entertainers from the past such as Cab
Galloway from the big band era who sang with a huge
gaping maw throughout his limited range, or the inim-
212
JOURNAL OF SINGING
Provenance
itable Ethel Merman from the historical American Theater
tradition, belting throughout her range with mouth wide
open! Here we have several different vocal styles, each re-
quiring a different sound quality. The question is, does
the mouth opening have anything to do with acquiring
these unique vocal qualities? A brief tutorial in acoustics
and how the vocal instrument works may be of assistance.
Back to Basics
The vocal folds within the larynx are driven into vibra-
tion by an air stream produced by the respiratory sys-
tem. The phonatory cycle consists of the vocal folds
opening and then closing, interrupting and then emit-
ting airflow. The vocal folds are literally blown apart
due to air pressure coming up from the lungs, and they
close due to the elastic properties of the vocal folds
themselves (and some additional help from negative air
pressures in the glottis). It is the interruption of the air-
flow that produces the sound of the voice. The tone pro-
duced by the larynx is a mere buzz before it is shaped by
the vocal tract. A comparable tone can be produced by
vibrating the two lips as if you were blowing into a trum-
pet mouthpiece, but without the mouthpiece. The vo-
cal folds produce a complex tone, that is, it has acoustic
energy at the fundamental frequency or FO (usually the
"pitch" that we hear) and a series of partials or over-
tones above it. The partials above the FO are spaced reg-
ularly at frequencies that are integer multiples of the
FO. If the FO is 100 Hertz (Hz), partials occur at 200 Hz,
300 Hz, 400 Hz, and so on. A complex tone is the re-
sult of many simple tones (similar to the sound pro-
duced by a tuning fork) all added together. Light is a
good metaphor for understanding the nature of the
complex tone. We know that "white" light actually is
made up of many colors by observing what happens
when it is passed through a prism. A complex tone is
similar; when we pass it through an "acoustic prism" (a
Fourrier transform), we see that a complex tone is many
simple tones occurring at once. We do not usually per-
ceive the individual sounds or partials, but instead our
ears merge them together. We perceive this complex-
ity as timbre.
The manner in which the airflow comes to a halt has
important implications for the quality of sound. If the
vocal folds shut off the airflow suddenly and then re-
main closed for a significant portion of the whole cycle
(over fifty percent), there will be a lot of acoustic en-
ergy in the high partials. We would characterize this
sound as ringing and bright (characteristic of the belt
voice or the operatic sound). If, on the other hand, the
airflow is less suddenly interrupted, or some minimal
airflow remains throughout the whole cycle, then we
have a tone where the energy in the upper partials is
much weaker than the first case. The quality of this tone
is likely to be soft, muffled, and much less brilliant. It is
appropriate for many vocal styles (the breathy voice of
Nora Jones comes to mind), but not for the operatic
performer unless used for special effect.
The source is only the beginning. The sound pro-
duced at the vocal folds is a very unattractive buzz when
it leaves the larynx. The vocal tract (the pharynx, oral
cavity, and sometimes the nasal cavity) has a profound
effect upon the sound produced by the vocal folds. The
vocal tract has been described as a selective filter which
shapes the sound by favoring some frequencies more
than others.
To begin to understand the filtering process, we of-
ten model the air space of the vocal tract as a simple
tube of uniform diameter, open at one end and closed
at the other. I use a mailing tube from the post office as
a teaching tool for this purpose. To demonstrate the
selectivity of the filter, I put one end of the tube up to
my mouth and seal it as best I can. This is the closed
end of the tube. I then sing a long glissando from low
to high and ask the group to see if there is a particular
frequency that becomes louder as I go up and down
the pitch range. There are indeed several points along
the way where the sound emitted out of the open end
of the tube is suddenly much louder than the frequen-
cies above or below that particular pitch. The air space
in the tube is "tuned" to that particular frequency and
not to others. This is the selective effect of a resonator.
A complete explanation of this is beyond the scope of
this brief review, but suffice it to say that if there is
acoustic energy (a partial or harmonic) near the fre-
quency of the resonator, the air space will amplify it
and will make it louder.
The air space in the vocal tract is not exactly like a
mailing tube, but it does behave in a similar fashion.
The movement of the tongue, lips, jaw, larynx, and soft
palate all have an effect upon the shape of the air space
and, as a result, the tuning of the resonances (formants).
Nov1MBER/I)EcrMBIk 2006213
Stephen Austin
The shape of the vocal tract determines the specific fre-
quencies of the resonances. The frequencies of the first
two formants identify the vowels. For [] the first for-
mant (Fl) is about 500 Hz and the second formant(F2)
is about 1500. For I i] Fl is about 350 Hz and F2 is about
2100 Hz, and for [a] they are about 850 Hz and 1200 Hz.
The tongue moves and the resonance frequencies are
changed because the airspace has a different shape. I
teach this concept with the notion of making "vowel
cookies." The larynx produces the raw material, the
"vowel dough." Each vowel has a specific resonance shape
and it imposes its shape upon the raw material, and the
result is a unique and distinct acoustic form that we
identify as easily as we can perceive the difference be-
tween a star shaped cookie and a moon shaped one.
It is hoped that this brief review of old concepts will
reinforce some basic principles that have been studied
in more depth before. There is one more very impor-
tant new component to this before we can really answer
the question at hand: How wide do we need to drop the
jaw for singing?
Something Called Inertive Reactance
Ingo Titze enlightened those in attendance at the 2004
NATS conference in New Orleans about something
called inert ive reactance. He took over an hour to explain
this in some detail. For a more complete review and
some helpful graphs and visual aids, I refer you to his
Power Point presentation that can be viewed on the
website of The National Center for Voice and Speech
at NCVS.org.
According to Titze, the vocal tract actually can store
energy and help the vocal folds function under certain
conditions. When levels of inertive reactance are high,
the airflow cuts off more suddenly when the vocal folds
close. This produces greater energy in the upper par-
tials, a sound that we would describe as bright and rich
in timbre. Dr. Titze described two ways that singers can
take advantage of inertive reactance. The primary means
of increasing levels of inertive reactance are to elongate
and narrow the small air space directly above the vo-
cal folds, called the epilaryngeal tube. This is accom-
plished by lowering the larynx below its resting level or
speech level. (The gesture of lowering the larynx is re-
lated to the concepts of chiaroscuro and voce chiusa that
I have discussed in previous columns.) To narrow the en-
trance into the epilarynx we learn to "squeeze" the en-
trance into the epilaryngeal tube by contracting the
muscles of the aryepiglottic folds and lowering the
epiglottis. These gestures are commonly observed in
classically trained singers and have been described in
the literature since the time of Garcia's observations
with the laryngeal mirror.
The second means of utilizing inertive reactance in
the vocal tract is through formant tuning. Titze pro-
posed that the level of inertive reactance is highest just
below the frequency of a formant. Years ago we learned
from Johan Sundberg that a soprano can gain as much
as 30 decibels (dB) of intensity by tuning Ficlose to
(just above) the frequency of FO. A doubling of inten-
sity is a 3dB increase, so this is a huge advantage! This
is the influence of the resonator adding gain to the par-
tial. It is crucial to appreciate that the frequency of Fl
is influenced tremendously by the position of the jaw
(mouth opening). If you lower the jaw you raise the fre-
quency of Fl, and, conversely, it goes down when the
mouth opening is made smaller. This principle is prac-
tically applied when the pitch that a soprano is singing
is higher than the first vowel formant, which is a com-
mon experience for her. Recall that the range of Fl is
from about 300 Hz for [i] to 850 Hz for [a] with all the
other vowels falling in between. We can see that this is
within the common pitch range of the soprano voice,
so the option of formant tuning is almost always there
when she sings above E5. She drops her jaw to raise Fl
as the FO goes up. Formant tuning is an important prin-
ciple for two reasons: gain from the resonator and high
levels of inertive reactance.
Denouement
Titze went on to explain another very important prin-
ciple that applies to all styles of singing. It has to do
with maintaining certain relationships between the F!
and the lowest two partials of the source spectrum. The
quality that we recognize as an operatic soprano singing
above the staff is due to the fact that only the FO is be-
low the frequency of the first vowel formant, an event
that occurs only in the high part of her range. When
an operatic (or classically trained) soprano sings above
the staff and drops her jaw, she raises Fl slightly above
the pitch of the FO. She takes advantage of the boost
from the resonator and she takes advantage of the in-
214 JOURNAL OF SINGING
Provenance
ertive reactance that helps her vocal folds close firmly
and suddenly giving as much energy as possible into
the sound from the source. That is a specialized ges-
ture in her high voice for a particular vocal quality.
A totally different quality of tone results when there
is more than one partial below the level of Fl. When a
contemporary commercial music (CCM) singer carries
the belt voice (or belt mix) up toward the top of the
staff, he or she will drop the jaw while ascending as well.
But remember we are talking about maybe an octave
lower than the situation for the operatic soprano that
was just discussed. They also drop the jaw to raise the
Fl so that at least the first two partials remain below it
(FO and the second partial). If the second partial goes
above the first formant, the belt quality goes away and
there is a switch in register qualities. This is a partial
explanation for the limited range of this voice. It can
go no higher than the relationship between Fl and the
second partial can be maintained. Recall that the second
partial is twice the frequency of the FO. The Fl for [a]
has the highest frequency for all the vowels at about 850
Hz. For an FO that has a second partial no higher than
850 Hz we are talking about a sung pitch at about 425
Hzabout the frequency of A 4. This is a common limit
to the trained belt voice. Of course, some singers who
do this style learn to raise that by a considerable amount;
but the important message is that it is not just that they
train the chest register (the vocalis muscle) to be strong
enough to do this, they also learn to modify the vocal
tract so that they raise Fl far above its normal boundaries.
A totally different quality exists when the FO and all
the partials are above the frequency of Fl. Titze described
this as "mixed quality." Two examples of this are the
tenor who is singing what we might call the "head voice"
at or above his passaggio (about F4 ) and female "mid-
dle" voice. Many fine singers will use very little mouth
opening in this situation. If you watch Pavarotti sing
through this part of his voice and above, he uses sur-
prisingly little mouth opening. The [a] is more open
than the other vowels, which is the case even in the
speech literature for "normals" (singers are not "nor-
mals"), but he never utilizes the kind of space that the
soprano does at the top of her range. There would be no
advantage to do so. A tenor cannot achieve the tuning re-
lationship between FO and Fl that the soprano can be-
cause of the difference in the frequency range of men
and women. The closed vowels [I],
[e],
and [u] are so
good for training the male voice above the staff because
they have low Fl frequencies and it is relatively easy to
keep the FO and all the partials above Fl. By keeping the
mouth opening small a male voice can lower Fl and
keep this arrangement over his whole top and achieve
the head voice quality. The same gesture works for the
female voice in the middle and low part of her range.
This is what we often observe when we see a female
singing in her middle range. Keeping her mouth open-
ing relatively closed allows her to maintain the middle
voice or Titze's mixed register quality that helps her unify
the registration with the low mechanism and maintain
a real presence in the middle range.
To be sure, all singers do not do the same thing. An
obvious example in the operatic tenor voice was Giuseppe
Di Stefano who tended to use a wide mouth opening at
and above his passaggio. The sound was very exciting,
partly because it sounded so raw and even dangerous
it was rather "belty" in quality. As a young singer Pavarotti
became enamored of Di Stefano's sound. His father (also
a fine singer) cautioned him not to use this technique
because it would be dangerous for him to do so. The
danger was that the top was too open and would stress
the instrument too much. It has been said that Di Stefano
paid a price for his approach, but who can argue with his
success? We can see another example in old films of the
great heldentenor Lauritz Melchior. We see him open-
ing at the top much in the same fashion as Di Stefano.
The passaggio is open and the turn that we expect at
the passaggio is extended higher than normal or never
really happens. For Melchior we can say that his prac-
tice worked for the repertoire he sangand who did it
better? The vocal demands are simply different accord-
ing to the range, style, and timbral expectations.
CONCLUSION
One of the first things we can do to organize our think-
ing and observations on this matter is to realize that
singers who sing in styles that typically use amplifica-
tion systems are likely to use different strategies than
those who have to sing over large numbers of instru-
ments and other voices. These would include folk singers,
country and western, and other intimate vocal styles.
For them an exaggerated mouth opening serves no pur-
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006215
Stephen Austin
pose. They do not need to take advantage of the acoustic
principles discussed above. What they need most is to
sound natural, and that does not include the kind of ges-
tures that are necessary for the singer of classical music
and other highly energized vocal styles.
On the other hand, for the young operatic and clas-
sical voice in training there are certain articulatory
practices that allowthemto optimize the output of
both the source and the filter. One often observes young
women who have not learned to drop their jawas they
approach their top. The most common flawthat I ob-
serve is that they do exactly the opposite! They may
tip their head down, close the mouth and smile and
wonder why they have no high notes.
Consider the young men who have not learned to ac-
cess the high voice. As they approach the secondo pas-
saggio at about E4 or F., they may try to increase their
mouth opening to a point where it fails. The tone is
white and sounds too open to our ears. Singing the
closed vowels [i], [e], or [u] through the passaggio is
helpful because the first formant is low; we produce
those vowels with a relatively small mouth opening,
keeping the formant as lowas possible so that the FO
and all the partials are above it. If the young male singer
would learn to maintain his larynx in a comfortably low
posture and keep his mouth relatively closed at the top,
the head voice could be there waiting to be discovered.
The CCMsinger may need to learn to increase jaw
opening starting at a much lower pitch than the classi-
cally trained counterpart. These performers may not
always want the mixed quality in the middle voice, and
instead need to keep the belt quality as they ascend to
the top of their range. This information may be espe-
cially helpful to singers who are attempting to be
crossover artists; each style has a distinct timbre that is
the result of different articulatory gestures.
The fact that we are nowcoming to a scientific under-
standing of long-standing practice should help us define
techniques that are taught to everybody who is study-
ing a particular vocal style. There is plenty of roomfor
individuality after certain principles that are "tried and
true" are established in our student singers.
NOTES
1. Jean Hunter Rees-Pedlar, The Musical Times 78, no. 1130
(April 1937): 358.
2. J.
M. L., The Musical Times 78, no. 1131 (May 1937): 450-451.
3. E. lIerbert-Caesari, The Musical Times 78, no. 1132 (June
1937): 551.
Stephen F. Austin, MM, PhD, is a singer, voice teacher, and a trained
scientist. He received a masters degree in vocal performance with the
late Dr. John Large at the University of North Texas, and a PhD in Voice
Science at the University of Iowa with Dr. Ingo Titze. Dr. Austin's dis-
sertation was titled The Effect of Sub-glottal Resonance Upon Vibra-
tion of the Vocal Folds." This and other research is published in the
Journal of Voice.
Dr. Austin recently joined the faculty of the University of North Texas,
where he is associate professor of voice and voice pedagogy. He is asso-
ciated with the Texas Center for Music and Medicine. The center pro-
vides a unique opportunity for collaboration among musicians, physicians,
researchers, psychologists, educators, and biomedical engineers.
Dr. Austin has presented recitals, lectures, and workshops across this
country and in Australia and Europe. He is regularly featured on the
faculty of the Annual Symposium: Care of the Professional Voice spon-
sored by The Voice Foundation. He has made presentations to national
conventions of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS),
the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA), and the Music
Teachers National Association (MTNA). He has been a featured guest
lecturer at the summer and mid-winter workshops sponsored by
NATS. Dr. Austin has been a regular contributing author to Australian
Voice, the journal of the Australian National Association of Teachers
of Singing, and he serves NATSas the chair of the Voice Science
Advisory Committee and as a member of the editorial board for the
Journal of SinQing. He also is a member of the Scientific Advisory
Committee of The Voice Foundation.
Dr. Austin is a successful studio teacher with students singing in opera
houses of Germany and the United States. His students are regular mem-
bers of young artist apprenticeship programs around the country, includ-
ing the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Grass Roots Opera, Des Moines
Metro Opera, Seagle Colony, and many others.
216JOURNAL OF SINGING