(1) The Brain and the Voice in Speech and Song (2) The Abuse of the Singing and Speaking Voice: Causes, Effects, and Treatment (3) The Voice An Introduction to Practical Phonology

Abstract

THERE are now many manuals dealing with the voice and with the management of the voice and singing. These are unequal in value, more especially as regards the description of the anatomy and physiology of the organs of voice and speech, and not unfrequently the writer strongly advocates a view peculiarly his own, and on which he founds his method of training. It is therefore of importance to have a description of the organs concerned in voice and speech from the hand of an experienced physiologist, who is at the same time sympathetic with music and with the arts of speaking and singing. This we have in Dr. Mott's admirable little book (1). Nothing could be better than the description he gives of the whole mechanism, and in language that any intelligent person can understand. In particular, and as one would expect from a distinguished neurologist, Dr. Mott shows the intimate relations of the organs of voice and speech to the brain centres of hearing and of motion, both as regards the delicate movements of the mechanism of voice and of articulation, and as regards posture and other bodily movements. Teachers of the art of voice production, as in singing or in the articulation of words and sentences in public speaking, know little of this side of their subject, and we feel sure that much of Dr. Mott's information will be to them a revelation. A study of his book will in some respects modify their mode of teaching.

(1) The Brain and the Voice in Speech and Song.

By Prof. F. W. Mott Pp. xi + 112. (London and New York: Harper and Brothers, 1910.) Price 2s. 6d. net.

(2) The Abuse of the Singing and Speaking Voice: Causes, Effects, and Treatment.

By Prof. E. J. Moure A. Bowyer, Fils. Translated by Macleod Yearsley. Pp. xi + 130. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 2s. 6d. net.

(3) The Voice. An Introduction to Practical Phonology.

By Dr. W. A. Aikin. Pp. ix + 159. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1910.) Price 7s. 6d. net.