Recently, an original long lost manuscript resurfaced having been discovered in an ancient bookshop in the back waters of the southern states.
Ventriloquist Voice Production
THE word ” ventriloquism ” is made up from two Latin terms, ” venter,” the belly, and “loquor,” to speak—literally speaking from the belly; but in a sense the word is not well chosen. The sounds evoked by the ventriloquist have their origin in the back part of the throat, and of course cannot by any manner be forced below the vocal cords which create them. By compressing these cords, however, and by shutting off the sound by means of different positions of the tongue and jaws, or by forcing it explosively against the hard palate, the voice is given the peculiar characteristics necessary for all distant effects. But the work of those who use mechan¬ical figures is done almost entirely in the forward part of the mouth, just behind the teeth, and in the nasal passages. The ventriloquial voice has its own modifications, such as ” near distant,” “farther distant,” u above to level,” “level to below,” etc., all of which have their distinctive qualities of pitch and character. In the second part of this work the method of forming the ventriloquial voice and of lending to it these modifications will be fully explained.
Before proceeding further, however, it is well for the student to have some knowledge of the structure of the vocal organs as directly related to voice production and preservation.
Passing from the known to the less known we will first consider the mouth which, aided by the lips, shapes the sounds originating in the throat into words.