Aristotle · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| [section 1] All voices and noises come about either from bodies striking one another or from the air striking against bodies, not because the air is shaped, as some people suppose, but because it is moved in a similar way, being contracted and stretched and gripped, and further, colliding with itself because of the blows produced by the breath and by the strings. [section 2] For whenever the breath that falls upon it strikes the neighboring air, the air is at once carried forward by force, pushing on in the same way the air next to it, so that the voice stretches out in every direction the same, as far as the motion of the air also happens to reach. For the force of its motion spreads out over a greater distance as it occurs, just as the winds that blow off rivers and off the land also do. [section 3] Of voices, those are dim and clouded that happen to be choked off close by, while those are clear that stretch out far and fill the whole continuous space. We all breathe the same air, but we send out breath and voices that differ because of the differences in the vessels underlying them, through which in each case the breath makes its way out to [the] outer place.
2| [section 4] These are the windpipe, the lung, and the mouth. Now the greatest difference in the voice is produced by the blows of the air and by the shapings of the mouth. [section 5] This is clear: for all the differences among articulate sounds come about through this cause, and we see the same people imitating the voices of horses and frogs and nightingales and cranes and pretty much all the other animals, using the same breath and windpipe, merely by sending the air out of the mouth in different ways. [section 6] Many birds too, when they hear other voices, imitate them for the reason stated. Now when the lung is small and dense and hard, it can neither take in much air into itself nor send it out again, nor can it make the blow of the breath strong or vigorous. [section 7] For because it is hard and dense and bound together, it cannot undergo expansion over a large space, nor again, by contracting itself from a large interval, squeeze out the breath forcibly, just as we ourselves cannot with bellows, when they are hard and cannot easily be either expanded or compressed.
3| [section 8] For this is what makes the blow of the breath vigorous: when the lung, contracting itself from a large interval, squeezes out the air forcibly. This is evident: for none of the other parts either can deliver a strong blow from a small distance. [section 9] For it is not possible either with the leg or with the hand to strike violently or to throw the thing struck far, unless one takes, with each of the two, a large interval for the blow. Otherwise the blow becomes hard because of the tension, but the thing struck cannot be driven far, since catapults too cannot throw far, nor can a sling, nor a bow, if it is stiff and cannot be bent, and the bowstring cannot be drawn back over a large space. [section 10] But if the lung is large and soft and well-toned, it can take in much air, and send this out again, dispensing it as it wishes because of its softness and because it easily contracts. But when the windpipe is long and narrow, such creatures send the voice out with difficulty and with a great deal of force, because of the length of the breath's passage.
4| [section 11] This is clear: for all creatures that have long necks utter their sounds with force, for example geese and cranes and roosters. This is most evident in the case of these same creatures: for players fill the bombykes (the deep-toned pipes) with difficulty and with much strain, because of the length of the distance. [section 12] Further, when the breath, compressed inside because of the narrowness of the passage, falls out into the outer place, it is at once dispersed and scattered, just as currents carried through narrow straits also are, so that the voice cannot hold together or stretch out over a large space. At the same time the breath in all such creatures is necessarily hard to manage and does not serve them easily. [section 13] Those creatures in which the interval of the windpipe is large: in such creatures the breath does get out easily, but as it travels within it is dispersed because of the wide space, and the voice becomes empty and not compact; further, such creatures cannot articulate with the breath, because their windpipe does not press together. [section 14] Those whose windpipe is uneven and does not have the same width throughout are bound to share in all these difficulties at once. For their breath is necessarily forced to serve them unevenly, being compressed in one place and again dispersed in another.
5| [section 15] When the windpipe is short, the breath is necessarily sent out quickly and the blow of the air becomes stronger, and all such creatures speak in a higher pitch because of the speed of the breath's passage. But it is not only the differences of the vessels, but also all the affections that alter the voices. [section 16] For whenever the lung and the windpipe are full of a great deal of moisture, the breath is torn apart and cannot make its way out to the outer place continuously, because it keeps striking against obstruction and becomes thick and wet and hard to move, just as happens in catarrhs and in drunkenness. [section 17] But if the breath is entirely dry, the voice becomes harder and torn apart; for moisture, when it is thin, holds the air together, and produces a certain simplicity in the voice. So the differences of the vessels, and of the affections that occur about them, each produce voices of this sort. [section 18] Voices seem to be located in the places where each of them arises, but we hear all of them only when they fall upon our hearing. For the air pushed by the blow travels continuously up to a certain point, and then bit by bit is stirred more and more, and by this we recognize all sounds, both those that occur far off and those that occur near.
6| [section 19] This is clear: for whenever someone takes a piece of pottery, a pipe, or a trumpet, and, putting it to another person's ear, speaks through it, all the sounds seem to be entirely close to the hearing, because the air traveling through is not scattered but the voice is kept uniform by the instrument that contains it. [section 20] Just as in painting, when someone makes one part of the coloring resemble what is far off and another part what is near, one part seems to us to recede from the picture's surface and the other to stand out, though both are on the same surface, so too with sounds and voice: when one sound falls upon the hearing already broken up and another continuous, though both arrive at the same place, the one seems to be far off from the hearing and the other close by, because the one is like a thing heard from far off and the other like a thing heard from near. [section 21] Voices become clearest above all in proportion to the precision of the articulate sounds. For it is impossible, unless these are completely articulated, for the voices to be clear, just as with the seal-impressions of signet rings, when they are not stamped precisely. This is why children cannot speak clearly, nor drunkards, nor old men, nor those who happen by nature to be lispers, nor in general all those whose tongues and mouths are hard to move.
7| [section 22] For just as bronze vessels and horns, resonating together, make the sounds coming from instruments clearer, so too in the case of speech the breaths that fall out from the mouth produce a great deal of unclarity, whenever they are not shaped in a like manner. [section 23] They not only display some unclarity of their own, but also impede the sounds that are articulated, since the motion concerning hearing that they produce is unlike the others. This is why we understand better when listening to one person than to many speaking the same things at once, just as with strings; and much less well when someone plays the flute and the lyre together at the same time, because the sounds are confused by one another. [section 24] This is nowhere more evident than in the case of concords: for it happens that both sounds are hidden by each other. Voices become unclear, then, for the causes stated, but they become brilliant just as with colors: for there too, the colors that are most able to move sight turn out to be the most brilliant of colors. [section 25] In the same way one must suppose that the most brilliant of voices are those that, striking the hearing, are most able to move it. Such are the clear ones, and the dense, and the pure, and those able to carry far; for in fact among all the other objects of perception as well, the stronger, denser, and purer make the perceptions clearer.
8| [section 26] This is clear: for at the very end all voices become dull, as the air is by then dispersing. It is clear too in the case of flutes. For those of the second-register reeds that have the tongues set aslant give off a softer sound, but not equally brilliant; for the breath, being carried, at once falls into an open space, and is no longer carried taut and compact, but scattered. [section 27] But with harder reeds the sound becomes harder and more brilliant, if one presses them more with the lips, because the breath is carried more forcefully. The brilliant voices, then, come about for the causes stated; and this is why the so-called grey voices are thought to be no worse than the white ones. [section 28] For the rougher voices, and those somewhat blurred and not having their brilliance too plainly evident, are more fitting for the passions and for the older ages. At the same time, because of their tautness, they are not equally tractable: for what is carried by force is hard to manage. For it is not easy either to tighten it as one wishes, or to relax it. [section 29] In flutes, and in the other instruments too, the sounds become brilliant whenever the breath that falls out is dense and taut. For it is necessary that the strikings of the outer air too become of this kind, and that the voices, being of such a compact character, be transmitted to the hearing in just this way, as also smells and light and degrees of heat are.
9| [section 30] And indeed all these things, when they appear more rarefied to perception, become less distinct in meaning, just as flavors too when mixed with water and with other flavors. For that which each thing provides of its own to perception is what makes its powers unclear when mixed. [section 31] Among the other instruments, the sounds of horns, being dense and continuous as they fall upon the air, make the voices dim; this is why the horn must have a nature of growth that is even and smooth and has not run out too quickly. [section 32] For such horns must necessarily become softer and more porous, so that the sounds are torn apart and do not fall out through them continuously, nor carry equally well, because of the softness and rarity of their pores. [section 33] Nor again should its nature be one that grows with difficulty, nor should its structure be dense and hard and hard to traverse; for at whatever point the sound, as it travels, meets an obstruction, there it takes its stopping-point and no longer passes through to the outer place, so that dull and uneven sounds fall out from horns of this kind. [section 34] That the carrying happens along a straight path is evident in the case of masts, and generally in the case of large timbers, when people test them. For when they strike from one end, the sound is carried continuously to the other end, provided the timber has no break in it; but if it does, the sound, having advanced only that far, stops there, torn apart.
10| [section 35] It also bends around knots, and is not able to travel straight through them. This is plainly evident too in the case of bronze-work, when they file down the hanging folds of drapery on statues, or the wing-like projections, by making them meet flush: this is why they give off a hiss and a great deal of ringing and clatter. [section 36] But if one binds them round with a band, the sound stops; for the vibration, having advanced only that far, when it meets the soft material, makes its stopping-point there. The roasting of horns also contributes a great deal to good tone. [section 37] For horns that have been thoroughly roasted have a sound resembling that of pottery, because of the hardness and the burning; but if one roasts them less, they give off a softer sound because of the softness, but are not equally able to carry well. [section 38] This is why they select by age: the horns of old animals are dry and hardened and porous, while those of young animals are entirely soft and have a great deal of moisture in them. The horn must be, as has been said, dry and evenly dense and straight-running and smooth. [section 39] For that is the way it would most happen that the sounds too are carried through them dense and smooth and even, and that the strikings of the outer air become of this kind, since among strings too the smoothest are the best and the most even throughout, and have a working that is alike on every side, and their joins of sinew are undetectable; for it is in this way that these too come to produce strikings of the air that are most alike.
11| [section 40] The tongues of flutes too must be dense and smooth and even, so that the breath may pass through them smooth and even and not torn apart. This is why yoke-animals that have been soaked, and have drunk their fill of moisture, become more tuneful, while dry ones sound bad; for air is carried soft and even through what is moist and smooth. [section 41] This is clear: for the breath itself, when it has moisture in it, strikes far less against the reeds and is torn apart much less; whereas dry breath is caught up more, and its striking becomes harder because of the force. The differences among sounds, then, come about for the causes stated. [section 42] Harsh are those voices that strike upon the hearing with force; this is why they above all supply tension. Such are the ones that are harder to set in motion and are carried with the greatest force; for what yields quickly is not able to withstand the blow, but springs away first. [section 43] This is clear: for overly massive missiles are carried with the most violent motion, and so are currents carried through narrow channels; for these too become most violent right at the narrow places, being unable to yield quickly, but being pushed on by great force. The same thing happens as well in the case of voices and of noises.
12| [section 44] This is evident: for everything forced becomes hard, just as with chests and hinges, when they are opened by force, and with bronze and iron. For from the anvils too the iron comes out hard or soft, according as they hammer it while it is already cooled and hard. [section 45] Again, this is so with the file, when they file and score iron tools and saws, since among thunderclaps too the most violent ones are the hardest, and among rains those called torrential are hard in the same way, on account of their violence. For the speed of the breath makes the sound sharp, while the force makes it hard. [section 46] This is why it happens not only that the same people produce a sharper sound at one time and a duller one at another, but also a harder one and a softer one. And yet some suppose that voices become hard because of the hardness of the windpipe, and they are mistaken: for this contributes only a small amount, if anything at all, but the real cause is the blow given to the breath violently by the lung. [section 47] For just as bodies are, in some cases, moist and soft, and in others hard and taut, in the same way the lung too is so. This is why in some the breath comes out soft, and in others hard and forceful, since it is easy to see that the windpipe itself contributes only a small power in this regard.
13| [section 48] For no windpipe is hard in the same way that pipes are; but nonetheless, though the breath travels through it and through these instruments alike, some play the pipes softly and others harshly. This is clear too from perception itself: for if one strains the breath more violently, the sound at once becomes harder because of the force, even if it was softer before. [section 49] The same holds also for the trumpet: this is why everyone, when they are celebrating, relax the tension of the breath in the trumpet, so as to make the sound as soft as possible. This is evident also in the case of instruments. For strings that have been over-tightened, as has been said, make the sounds harder, and so do horns that have been over-baked. [section 50] And if one plucks the strings with the hands violently and not softly, the strings must necessarily give back their response in the same violent way. But strings that are less tightly stretched, and horns that are rawer, make the sounds softer, and so do longer instruments. [section 51] For the blows of the air become both slower and softer because of the length of the passage, while those from the lower-pitched strings are hardest because of the tension of the strings. This is clear: for even on the same instrument the sounds turn out harder when one does not pluck the strings at the middle, because the parts nearer the crossbar and the tuning-peg are more tightly stretched.
14| [section 52] It also happens that instruments made of reed have softer sounds; for the sounds, striking against something soft, do not rebound with force in the same way. Voices become rough, on the other hand, when the blow does not happen as a single stroke to all the air at once, but is scattered in many places in small portions. [section 53] For each of the parts of the air, striking the hearing on its own, as though coming from a separate blow, makes the perception disjointed, so that the sound is intermittent in one part and strikes more violently in another, and the contact with the hearing becomes uneven, just as when something rough strikes against our skin. [section 54] This is most evident in the case of the file: because the blow of the air happens at once in many small portions, the noises that strike the hearing from these are rough, and more so when they are rubbed against something hard, just as in the case of touch: for hard and rough things produce a more violent perception. [section 55] This is clear also in the case of liquids flowing: for the sound of oil is far less noticeable than that of all other liquids, because of the continuity of its parts. Voices are thin whenever the breath that comes out is small in quantity.
15| [section 56] This is why the voices of children are thin, and those of women and eunuchs, and likewise those of people weakened by illness or exertion or lack of nourishment: for they are unable, because of their weakness, to send out much breath. [section 57] This is clear also in the case of strings: for from thin strings the sounds too become thin and narrow and hairlike, because the blow of the air also occurs over a narrow space. For whatever kind of starting-points of motion the blows of the air have, sounds of that same kind result in striking the hearing — for instance sparse or dense, soft or hard, thin or thick. [section 58] For since one part of the air is always moving another in the same way, it makes the whole sound uniform, just as also holds in the case of high and low pitch: for the successive speeds of the blow, each following upon the other, preserve the sounds as similar to their starting-points. [section 59] The blows of the air produced by the strings are many and separate, but because the interval of time between them is so small that the hearing cannot perceive the gaps, the sound appears to us as one and continuous, just as also happens with colors: for things that are separated often seem to us to run together, when they move quickly.
16| [section 60] The same thing happens also in the case of harmonies. For because the one set of sounds is absorbed within the other, and their endings occur together, the sounds that come between them escape our notice. [section 61] For in all harmonies the blows of the air occur more often from the higher-pitched notes, because of the speed of their motion; but the last of these sounds happens to strike our hearing at the same time as the one arising from the slower note. [section 62] So that, since the hearing is unable to perceive, as has been said, the sounds in between, we seem to hear both notes together as one continuous sound. Voices are thick, on the contrary, when the breath that comes out is copious and comes out all at once; this is why men's voices are thicker, and those of full-grown pipes, and more so when someone fills them with breath. [section 63] This is evident: for if one presses the bridles together, the sound becomes higher and thinner. And if one draws down the pan-pipe reeds, or if instead one blocks them off, the bulk of the sound becomes much greater, because of the quantity of breath, just as also happens with thicker strings.
17| [section 64] Voices also become thick in those whose voices are breaking, and in those who are hoarse, and after vomiting, because of the roughness of the windpipe and because the sound, not passing straight through but catching and coiling upon itself there, takes on bulk, and most of all because of the moistness of the body. [section 65] Voices that are thin and dense are clear-ringing, as with cicadas and locusts, and the voices of nightingales, and in general all voices that, being thin, are accompanied by no foreign noise. For in general the clear-ringing quality lies neither in bulk of sound, nor in relaxed and low tones, nor in the contacts of the notes, but rather in sharpness and thinness and precision. [section 66] This is why, among instruments too, those that are thin and taut and have no horn have clearer-ringing sounds; for the noise coming from water, and in general whenever some accompanying noise arises from something, blurs the precision of the notes. Voices that are unsound and worn are those that, though carrying on continuously up to a point, then get torn apart. [section 67] This is most evident in the case of pottery: for every vessel cracked by a blow produces an unsound ring, since the motion is torn apart at the point of the blow, so that the resulting sounds no longer come out continuous. The same thing happens likewise with cracked horns and with strings that have been frayed.
18| [section 68] For in all such cases the sound travels continuous up to a certain point, and then it is torn apart, at whatever point the underlying thing is not continuous, so that a single blow is not produced but a divided one, and the sound appears cracked. [section 69] For these are pretty nearly similar to rough sounds; except that rough sounds are torn apart from one another into small parts, while most cracked sounds have continuous beginnings and then take on a division into several parts. [section 70] Aspirated are those voice-sounds in which we at once expel the breath from within together with the sound; smooth, on the contrary, are those which come about without the expulsion of breath. Voices come to be broken off when people are no longer able to send out the air with a blow, but the region around the lung gives way in them through its distension. [section 71] For just as with tools, and with shoulders too, it happens that at the last moment they give way after being held taut, so too with the region around the lung. For the breath is carried out light, because the blow it gives is not forceful. And at the same time, because their windpipe has been made severely rough, the breath cannot be carried out continuous, but torn apart, so that their voices come to be as if broken off.
19| [section 72] And some people suppose that it is on account of the stickiness of the lung that the breath cannot pass through to the outer region — mistakenly; for such people do speak, but they cannot make themselves heard, because the blow of the air does not occur with tautness, but they only produce voice, as if the breath were forcing its way from the throat itself. [section 73] The affection of stammerers concerns neither the veins nor the arteries, but the motion of the tongue. For they move it with difficulty whenever they need to utter a different sound. That is why they say the same word for a long time, unable to say what comes next, because the motion, and their lung, keep being carried continuously toward the same impulse on account of the quantity and the force of the breath. [section 74] For just as it is difficult to shift the whole body of runners who are running forcefully, out of their impulse into another motion, in the same way it is also difficult part by part. That is why they often cannot say what comes next, but say what comes after that easily, whenever they make a different beginning of the motion. And this is clear: for this happens often to people who are angry too, because the carrying of their breath becomes forceful.