RESONANCE IN GENERAL The intimate relationship existing between voice culture and the science of acoustics was formerly slightly perceived.

The teaching of singing, as an art, then rested altogether on an empirical basis, and the acoustics of singing had not received the attention of scientists.
With the publication in 1863 of Helmholtz's great work[4] a new era began, although singer and scientist yet continue to look upon each other with suspicion.

Teachers of the voice, casting about for a scientific basis for their work, were greatly impressed with Helmholtz's revelations in regard to vocal resonance--the fact that tones are modified in quality as well as increased in power by the resonance of the air in the cavities of pharynx and head.
[Footnote 4: _Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen als physiologische Grundlage fuer die Theorie der Musik._ (The Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music.)] Writing in 1886, Edmund J.Meyer speaks of the importance of a "study of the influence of the different resonance cavities as the voice is colored by one or the other, and the tuning each to each and each to all"; yet, he adds, "the subject is seldom heard of outside of books." The basic importance of resonance in the use of the voice is still too little recognized, though obvious enough in the construction of musical instruments.

With the exception of a few instruments of percussion, all musical instruments possess three elements,--a _motor_, a _vibrator_, and a _resonator_.

The violin has the moving bow for a motor, the strings for a vibrator, and the hollow body for a resonator.