The place at which the arytenoid cartilages, almost closed together, cease their action and leave the formation of the sound to the vocal ligaments alone, I found in the entire vibration of the glottis, or in the chest register of the female voice, at do do♯ (c¹ c♯¹), more rarely at si (b). In the chest register of the male voice this change occurs at la si♭ (a b♭). With some effort the above-mentioned action of the arytenoid cartilages may be continued several tones higher. But such tones, especially in the female voice, have that rough and common timbre which we are too often compelled to hear in our female singers. The glottis also, in this case, as well as the parts of the larynx near the glottis, betrays the effort very plainly; as the tones ascend, they grow more and more red. _Thus, as at this place in the chest register there occurs a visible and sensible straining of the organs, so also is it in all the remaining transitions, as soon as the attempt is made to extend the action by which the lower tones are formed beyond the given limits of the same._ These transitions, which cannot be extended without effort, coincide perfectly with the places where _J. Müller_ had to _stretch_ the ligaments of his exsected larynx so powerfully in order to reach the succeeding half-tone. Garcia likewise finds tones thus formed disagreeable and imperfect in sound (_klanglos_).
Usually, therefore, at the note do♯ (c♯¹) in the female voice, and la si♭ (a b♭) in the male voice, the vocal ligaments alone act in forming the sound, and throughout the register are moved by large, loose, full vibrations (_Totalschwingungen_). But the instant the vocal ligaments are deprived of the assistance of the arytenoid cartilages, they relax and appear longer than at the last tone produced by that aid. But with every higher tone they appear again to be stretched shorter and more powerfully up to fa fa♯ (f¹ f♯¹), the natural transition of both the chest and falsetto registers, as well in the _male_ as in the _female_. The larynx is perceptibly lower in all the tones of the chest register than in quiet breathing.
All the tones of the falsetto register are produced by vibrations only of the fine, inner, slender edges of the vocal ligaments. In this action the vocal ligaments are not so near together, but allow of a fine linear space between them, and the superior ligaments are pressed farther back than in the production of the tones of the chest register. The rest of the action of the glottis is, however, entirely the same. With the beginning of the falsetto register at fa♯ (f♯¹), the whole glottis appears again longer, and the vocal ligaments are much looser than in the highest tones of the chest register. The united action, already described, of the arytenoid cartilages and the ligaments in forming the deeper tones of the chest register, extends to do do♯ (c² c♯²) in the female voice, and in the male voice to mi♭ mi (e♭² e²) commonly written thus: mi♭ mi (e♭³ e³) but which only rarely occurs in composition, and then is sung by tenorists as I have given it; that is, one octave lower.