We Lehmann children in our youth could sing to the very highest pitch. It was nothing for my sister Marie to strike the 4-line _e_ a hundred times in succession, and trill on it for a long time. She could have sung in public at the age of seven. But since our voices, through the circumstances of our life and surroundings, were forced to early exertions, they lost their remarkable high notes; yet enough was left to sing the _Queen of Night_ (in Mozart's opera "Die Zauberflöte"), with the high _f_.
After I had been compelled to use my lower and middle ranges much more, in the study of dramatic parts, I omitted the highest notes from my practice, but could not then always have relied on them. Now that I know on what it all depends, it is very easy for me to strike high _f_, not only in passing, but to combine it with any tone through three octaves. But upon the least pressure by any organ, the head resonance loses its brilliancy; that is, the breath no longer streams into the places where it should, and can create no more whirling currents of sound to fill the spaces.
But one should not suppose that the head tones have no power. When they are properly used, their vibrancy is a substitute for any amount of power.
As soon as the head tones come into consideration, one should _never_ attempt to sing an open _ah_, because on _ah_ the tongue lies flattest. One should think of an _[=a]_, and in the highest range even an _[=e]_; should mix the _[=a]_ and _[=e]_ with the _ah_, and thereby produce a position of the tongue and soft palate that makes the path clear for the introduction of the breath into the cavities of the head.
[Illustration: Red lines denote vocal sensation in the highest head tones without mixture.]
Singers who, on the other hand, pronounce _[=a]_ and _[=e]_ too sharply, need only introduce an admixture of _oo_; they thereby lower the position of the larynx, and thus give the vowel and tone a darker color.
Since the stream of breath in the highest tones produces currents whirling with great rapidity, the more rapidly the higher the tone is, the slightest pressure that may injure the form in which they circulate may ruin the evenness of the tone, its pitch, perhaps the tone itself. Each high tone must _soar gently_, like the overtones.