Session III

Voice Building: The Onset

Stephen F. Austin, M.M., Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Voice
University of North Texas

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

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 The coup de la glotte

• No one prior to Garcia described the onset

• His description included:
– Posture
– Relaxation
– ‘soften the throat’
– ‘Inhale slowly and for a long time’

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

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 The coup de la glotte

His description included:

– “When lungs are full of air, without stiffening
either the phonator or any part of the body,
but calmly and easily, attack the tones very
distinctly with a light stroke of the glottis on a
very clear [a] vowel.”
– “In these conditions the tone should come out
with ring and with roundness.”

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

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 The coup de la glotte

– Resulted in immediate controversy

– Defended his position for the next 60 years
– “One must guard against confusing the stroke
of the glottis with the stroke of the chest,
which resembles a cough.”

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

2007 4
 The coup de la glotte
– By end of 19th C critics were vehemently
opposed to the concept
– It was understood to be something that it was
not: a violent eruption of breath from tightly
adducted vocal folds
– If misapplied, could lead to vocal problems

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

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 The coup de la glotte
– “Hints on Singing” - almost 60 years later:

Q. What do you mean by the stroke of

the glottis?
A. The neat articulation of the glottis
that gives a precise and clean start to the
sound.

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

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 The coup de la glotte
– Herman Klein:
“It is of the utmost importance that these
observations should be studied and correctly
understood. The meaning of the term
“stroke of the glottis,” which was invented by
the author, has been seriously
misrepresented, and its misuse has done a
great deal of harm”
Hints on Singing,
1894
The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
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 The coup de la glotte
– This battle was fought in the public arena
– Critic/writer George Bernard Shaw was a
dedicated anti-coupe de la glotte
– Jean de Reszke:
“The shock, or coup de la glotte, is death
to the voice; it is born of ignorance, and
to teach or allow its continuance is a
crime.”

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

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 The coup de la glotte
– Blanche Marchesi - a former student:
“They could not distinguish between the
hitting and closing of the glottis, and at
once decided to condemn every method
that allowed singers to make their vocal
cords meet when emitting sounds”
Singers’
Pilgrimage, 1923

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

2007 9
 The coup de la glotte
– Garcia wrote to Charles Lunn:
“I do insist on the attack; but it
must be the delicate, precise action of the
glottis, not the brutal pushing of the breath
that goes by that name, fit only to tear the
glottis, not to rectify and regulate its
movements. . . (My merit or demerit
consists in having noticed it and given it a
name). The Voice: Its Downfall, Its Training, and Its Use,
1904

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

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 The coup de la glotte
– Lunn was in agreement:
“Now this, small though it be, is the one
important principle of training that has
been successful in results; by it great
singers have been made; without it, many
possessing all other requirements have
failed, and it served its purpose before the
introduction of the laryngoscope.”
The Philosophy of Voice,
1886
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– Why did Garcia persist?
“Various simultaneous causes
can modify the timbres of the voice . . .
According as the glottis narrows or partially
opens, it produces ringing or lustreless
tones.”

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

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 The coup de la glotte
– Breathy voices are dull:
“Consequently it is necessary
to conclude that the brilliance of the voice
results from the firm closure of the glottis
after each pulsation.”

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

2007 13
 The coup de la glotte
– Lamperti in
“Agility should be studied slowly.
The example should be executed so that
the intervals are clearly distinguishable. The
breath should be held steady in the passage
from one note to the other, and the notes
should be produced clearly with a shock of
the glottis.” Art of Singing, 1916

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

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 The coup de la glotte
– Misunderstood AND ill defined:
“When correctly done, this attack
is crisp, clear and without tension. The
exact terminology relating to the attack is
confusing. Garcia called it the coup de la
glotte, Vennard has called it the ‘imaginary
aspirate” Meribeth Bunch Dynamics of the Singing Voice,
1995

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

2007 15
 The coup de la glotte
– Reiteration of error put forth by Browne and
Behnke in 1904:
“The vocal ligaments meet just
at the very moment when the air strikes
against them; they are, moreover, not
pressed together more tightly than is
necessary. No preliminary escape takes
place. . . And no obstacle has to be
overcome. . .
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“. . . but the attack is clear and
decisive, and the tone consequently gets a
proper start. The mechanism by which this
is done is the “coup de glotte” or “shock of
the glottis” Voice, Speech and Song, 1904

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

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Vennard:
“I am convinced that Garcia did
not mean the glottal plosive when he coined
the expression coup de la glotte. The term
has since been corrupted, and would best
not be used. It is probably impossible to
restore the original meaning.

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Vennard:
. . . “The best we can do is to
absolve Garcia from the responsibility for its
present usage. The expression “imaginary
h” or “imaginary aspirate” is recommended
as pedagogically useful and accurately
descriptive of the desirable attack.”
Singing: The Mechanism and the
Technique, 1967

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

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 The coup de la glotte
Barbara Doscher:
“The glottal plosive is
destructive, however, and may lead to vocal
nodules.”
Functional Unity of the
Singing Voice

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Garcia:
– “As a matter of fact, the two
little lips which, in the larynx, form between
them a passage for the breath (the glottis),
adhere to each other and cause a certain
accumulation of air. That air by virtue of
the elasticity which it acquires due to the
pressure exerted upon it, separates the lips
of the glottis, and, expanding, exits with a
burst.”

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

2007 21
 The coup de la glotte
Garcia:
– “But, at the same instant, relieved of the
pressure from below and pulled by their own
elasticity, the lips meet again to give rise to
a new explosion. From this series of
successive and regular contractions and
expansions or explosions is born the
emission of the voice.”
–

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 The coup de la glotte
“In general physiologists are
against the coup de la glotte . . . Yet great
singers and teachers often hold the opposite
view: Garcia, Carulli, Duprez, Viardot-Garcia,
Faure, Lablache . . .”
Frederick Hustler and Yvonne
Rodd-Marling, Singing: The Physical Nature of the Organ

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

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 The coup de la glotte
– No research can be found that shows that
the coup de la glotte results in vocal nodules
– Most voice professionals decry it
– Many 19th C teachers supported its use
– Few 20th C teachers do

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

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 The coup de la glotte
– Franklyn Kelsey (1950)
“The establishment and maintenance of a
perfect approximation of the vocal cords
is the key problem in singing . . . he who
cannot teach it cannot teach true singing,
for it is the sole means which the singer
has at his disposal for launching a tone
which has not an undesirable content of
unphonated air.”
Foundations of
Singing, 1950
The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop
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 The coup de la glotte
– There is an acoustic advantage to firm
closure
– The ‘firm’, ‘clean’ onset is not the same as
the ‘well-coordinated’ onset
– Must be used within a context of freedom
– Vennard ‘singing can be dangerous’

The Vocal Pedagogy Workshop

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