ABSTRACT
To speak of the voice as a complex instrument is an understatement. Cornelius L. Reid (1965) makes the interesting point that the best school of voice occurred at a time before the physiological aspects became visible scientifically and began to be explored. It was in 1855 when Manuel Garcia II, a famous singer turned voice teacher, rigged a set of mirrors and a light source into something he called a "laryngoscope." It allowed the observation, for the first time in history, of the functioning of the vocal cords in a living subject and marked the beginning of vocal science. The scientific approach to vocal production has provoked much debate among singers and teachers, because, while later scientific developments have provided valuable insight into how the sound is produced, the information is ofless practical use for a singer, because the mechanism of the larynx is not under volitional control.
