VOICE CULTURE AND⋅ Reading is the act of the mind in getting thought from the printed page. The all important habit for the pupil to form is that of never supposing that a sentence has been read before the thought it suggests is clear in his mind. Elocution is the art of expressing thought and feeling by speech. Elocution is intelligence; expression is power. The primary object of elocutionary training is to develop the power of interpreting language in the simplest manner, with the least effort and with the greatest effect. PRINCIPLE I. The primary essentials of good reading and speaking are 1. A clear understanding, and a keen appreciation of the thought or sentiment to be expressed. One can never make a truth apply with force to others unless he feels its application to himself; he must be able to enter into the joy, the grief, the enthusiasm, the indignation of others as if it were his own. Right thinking and feeling is the surest road to right speaking and acting. 2. Control of the breath. Proper breathing is the foundation of all voice work. Control of the breath is essential to easy, comfortable speaking. One who speaks with great effort soon wearies his audience as well as himself. A true artist never shows effort. 3. A correct voice, which is distinguished by its purity, power, flexibility. The voice is pure when all the breath exhaled in producing the vowels is vocalized and when all. Bardness and harshness is removed from it. The voice is flexible when it has acquired the power to bend without breaking;-can sweep from pitch to pitch; from quality to quality without the chopping process. The vocal chords must acquire a certain mechanical dexterity before the beautiful conceptions we possess can be communicated to others. Mechanism is an essential part of all the fine arts. Above everything, cultivate the voice. It is God's best gift to man. The cultured voice is sure to be reflex in its action; for culture permeates the entire man. See to it that your voice attracts rather than repels. Far before the eyes, or the mouth or the habitual gesture as a revelation of character is the quality of the voice and the manner of using it. It is the first thing that strikes us in a new acquaintance, and it is one of the most unerring tests of good breeding and education. The voice is much more indicative of the state of the mind than many people know or allow. One of the first symptoms of failing brain power is indistinct or confused utterance. No idiot has a clear or melodious voice. The harsh scream of mania is proverbial, and no person of prompt or decided thought hesitates or stutters. 4. Distinct articulation and enunciation in order to be heard. 5. Right emphasis in order to understood. 6. Right expression-appropriate tone color and inflection in order to be felt. PRINCIPLE II. All expression in nature and art depends upon some kind of light and shade, as of form-(architecture), color (painting), or sound-(music and elocution). For the lights and shades of elocution we Psyfuc. 3 Emotival Forn. AND READING. xiii have these elements: force, emphasis, pitch, volume, PRINCIPLE III. Force is the degree of intensity with which sound is uttered and may be thus classified: Different thoughts, feelings and emotions demand different degrees of force. It is plain, therefore, that a perfect command of every degree of force is necessary to excellence in expression. Force is partly a physical product and partly mental. It is the life of oratory which gives it breath and fire and power. It is the electrical current which smites, penetrates and thrills. Mere noise or physical exertion should not be mistaken for force. True force includes the idea of moral power and is often more manifest in a certain stateliness of tone than in great exhibitions of voice and manner. Example of Subdued Force. His few surviving comrades saw His smile, when rang their proud hurrah, And the red field was won; Then saw in death his eyelids close, Example of Moderate Force. Give, oh give us the man who sings at his work. He will do more in the same time: he will do it better; he will persevere longer. One is scarcely sensible of fatigue whilst one marches to music. The very stars are said to make harmony as they revolve in their spheres. Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness; altogether past calculation its powers of endurance. Effort, to be permanently useful, must be uniformly joyous. A spirit all sunshine-graceful from very gladness-beautiful because bright! Example of Impassioned Force. And if thou saidst I am not peer PRINCIPLE IV. Every sentence has its emphatic word or words, which are distinctively the thought words. Right emphasis is good expression. It is the soul of elocution, the vital breath of artistic rendition. It is the crucial test of good reading. Emphasis or the want of it may alter completely the meaning of words. If a man say softly to himself as he goes down the strect "fire, fire, fire," even those who hear him will not heed him. But if he lift up his voice and shout-fire! FIRE! FIRE!--that means something to the point. Men who have stirred their generation have been men of emphasis. And for him who sat by the chimney lug. And joy was duty, and love was law. song nole AND READING. PRINCIPLE V. XV A perfect command of pitch is essential to good reading and speaking, because different tones express and awaken different thoughts and emotions. God has so attuned our natures that a low, deep tone suggests reverence and devotion. The lowest tones, awe and dread. High pitch, excited, enthusiastic, or joyous feeling. The middle key, unimpassioned thought. To properly express these emotions, the reader or speaker must be able to vary his pitch at pleasure. More public speakers fail from an incorrect use of pitch than from any other cause. Example of High Pitch. "Come back, come back, Horatius!" Example Low Pitch. There's a burden of grief on the breezes of spring, There's a pall on the sunshine and over the flowers, And a shadow of grief on these spirits of ours. t PRINCIPLE VI. The voice rises by grades when the succession of clauses or phrases implies an increasing interest of any sort. The voice falls by grades after an ascending series or when anything in the sentiment implies. or requires a falling climax. Example 1. Retreating and beating and meeting and sheeting, |