Recoiling, turmoiling and toiling and boiling, And thumping and flumping and bumping and jumping, And dashing and flashing and splashing and clashing, Sounds and motions for ever and ever are blending, The deed was done in broad day. None now was left to tell the mournful tale. Take care that you be not deceived, dear friends. Lie lightly on her, earth! her step was light on thee. Thou wast struck dumb with amazement. Can no one be found faithful enough to warn him of his danger? No one dared do it. A good deal of disturbance ensued. He gave him good advice which he did not take. A dark cloud spread over the heavens. Had he but heeded the counsel of his friend, he might have been saved. He came at last too late to be of any service. The magistrates stood on an elevated platform.' It is a fact familiar in the experience of most teachers, that, after the utmost care in the systematic cultivation of the utterance of young readers, by regular analytic exercises, such as the preceding, the influence of colloquial negligence in habit, is so powerful, that the same individual who has just articulated, with perfect exactness, the elements on a column, while he is kept mechanically on his guard against error, by express attention to details, will, immediately on beginning to read a page of continuous expression of thought, relapse into his wonted errors of enunciation. To correct this tendency, no resort is so effectual as that of studying analytically a few lines, previous to commencing the usual practice of a reading lesson. The attention must first be turned to the words as such, as forms of articulation, then to their sounds in connection with their sense. The following will be found useful modes of practising such exer 1 These and similar examples, as they occur in reading lessons, should be repeated till they can be executed with perfect distinctness, and with an easy exertion of the organs. But a hard and labored style should be carefully avoided as a very bad fault. cises as are now suggested. Begin at the end of a line, sentence, or paragraph, so as to prevent the possibility of reading negligently: then, 1st, articulate every element in every word, separately and very distinctly, throughout the line or sentence; 2d, enunciate every syllable of each word, throughout the line or sentence, clearly and exactly; 3d, pronounce every word, in the same style; 4th, read the line or sentence, from the beginning, forward, with strict attention to the manner of pronouncing every word; 5th, read the whole line or sentence with an easy fluent enunciation, paying strict attention to the expression of the meaning, but without losing correctness in the style of pronunciation. This is, apparently, a merely mechanical drill; but its effects are strikingly beneficial, in a very short time. The habits of classes of young readers have thus been, in some instances, effectually changed, within a very few weeks, from slovenliness and indistinctness to perfect precision and propriety, united to fluency and freedom of style. To adults, also, the practice of such exercises as have been mentioned, proves, in the highest degree, useful, as an effectual means of correcting erroneous habit, and of acquiring that distinctness of utterance which is so important in the exercise of public speaking, or in that of private reading, for social and literary purposes. An exercise of great practical value, as regards the formation of habit in enunciation, is, to select from every reading lesson, before and after the regular consecutive reading of a piece, all words and phrases which contain difficult combinations, and repeat them often. PRONUNCIATION. A full statement of the rules of usage in pronunciation, as regards the accent of polysyllables, does not properly fall within the scope of this work, which is designed rather for the cultivation of the voice, and the discipline of the organs, than as a manual of orthoëpy. The most important classes of errors in pronunciation, have been already indicated. But this branch of the subject is discussed, at greater length, in the "American Elocutionist," to which the present volume is introductory. It occurs in a form adapted to the instruction of young readers, in the "Introduction to the American Common-School Reader and Speaker," and is presented for the use of professional speakers, in the volume entitled "Pulpit Elocution." 1 For the present purpose it may suffice to suggest the benefit arising from the daily systematic study of a good standard dictionary of orthoëpy; such as Walker's, which, with due allowance for a very few points in which custom has slightly changed since that work was written,- remains the most accurate report of authorized custom, in the vast majority of places where the English language is spoken. If Dr. Webster's dictionary be preferred, the 8vo edition of it, prepared by Mr. J. E. Worcester, will be found the most useful; as it contains, in the introduction, a full list of all words in 1 The works mentioned in the text, are prepared by the compiler of this manual. which Dr. Webster's style is peculiar to himself, or merely to the local custom of New England, which, as regards the standard of the genuine pronunciation of the English language, is justly considered, elsewhere, as liable to the same objections with the local peculiarities of Scotland or of Ireland, - current, as sanctioned by respectable authority, in their several regions, but, when referred to the standard of general English usage, to be condemned as faults. CHAPTER III. "QUALITY" OF VOICE. THE learner, having acquired, by the exercises prescribed in the preceding chapters, a free and forcible use of the breathing apparatus, and of the organs of speech which are employed in articulation, has thus laid the requisite foundation for the course of vocal training in "expression," or the various qualities of utterance, which are the appropriate language of emotion. The word utterance, as a term in elocution, is used to designate the mere act of forming and emitting voice: it does not necessarily imply any of those functions of the organs by which articulate sound is produced; thus we speak of a person uttering a cry, a groan, a sigh, a moan, a sob, or a laugh. In a correspondent use of language, we read that "the seven thunders uttered their voices." The function of utterance is necessarily attended, however, with a given degree of force in sound, from that of whispering, or of any of the intermediate stages, to that of shouting and calling. It implies, also, a certain note of the scale, high, low, or intermediate in pitch. 'he utterance of successive sounds is, farther, slow, rapid, or moderate, as regards the rate of movement. These properties, force, pitch, and rate, or movement, coexist in one strain of utterance, and are, to the ear, independent of the process of articulation or the function of speech. An example of mere utterance is furnished in the successive notes of a song hummed or sung without words, or sung at such a distance from us, that we cannot distinguish the words. The case is similar, when we overhear a person reading, or talking, in an adjoining room, but when we do not hear so distinctly as to recognize the enunciation of letters or syllables. We perceive, in such instances, that the voice of the reader or speaker, is soft or loud, high or low, and that it moves fast or slow; but we cannot tell what is said: we hear the utterance, but not the articulation, of vocal sound. The formation of even a single sound of the human voice, is necessarily attended by yet another property, its predominating quality as "tone," – in the popular sense of that word. When we overhear, as already supposed, a person reading or talking, but at such a distance from us, or with such objects intervening, that we cannot make out the articulate character of the sounds which are uttered, we may still be able to say, with confidence, that the voice of the reader or speaker has a cheerful or a mournful tone, a lively or a solemn sound. Farther, we say, perhaps with equal certainty, that the person has a hollow, a guttural, a nasal, a sharp, a thin, a rough, a round, a full, or a smooth voice. The utterance of even a single exclamation of emotion, may, in this way, enable us to define the feeling of a reader or speaker, and, at the same time, to recognize the “quality,”. as it is termed, of his voice. WHISPERING. The progressive discipline of the organs, for the purposes of utterance, comprises the practice of every stage of audible voice, from whispering to shouting and calling. We proceed, now, to the first stage of utterance, that of whispering, which is the nearest, in style and effect, to breathing, and forms the extreme of "aspirated," or breathing quality.” 66 The function of whispering lies, as it were, half way between breathing and "vocality," or the actual production of vocal sound, in the form termed by musicians "pure tone." Whispering differs from even the "explosive," or strongest form of the breathing exercises, in being articulated as a mode of speech, and in taking on, to a certain extent, the qualities of "expression;" thus we not only use the whisper for secret communication, but for the utterance of excessive fear, or of deep awe, suppressed anger, or any other naturally violent emotion, when it is kept down by some overawing restraint. Whispering, therefore, as a discipline of the organs of voice, carries on, to a greater extent, and with more special effect, all the beneficial results of the exercises in full, deep, and forcible breathing. The whisper, even in its gentlest or "effusive" form, should, as a vocal exercise, be practised on the scale of public speaking, — that is to say, with a force sufficient to create full and distinct articulation, and intelligible utterance, in a large hall, or any similar apartment. The function of whispering, on this scale, it will be easily perceived, demands the full expansion of the chest, a deep inspiration, a powerful expulsion of the breath, the practice of frequent pausing and renewing the supply of breath, without which a forcible whisper cannot be sustained. This species of exercise combines, therefore, the discipline of full and energetic respiration, with that of forcible utterance. It demands a large and a frequent supply of breath, and trains the student to close attention to his habit of breathing, and to the position of the body and the action of the organs. It thus facilitates the acquisition of a perfect control over the organs of speech, the prime requisite to easy and effective utterance. A subsidiary advantage attending this process of powerful whisper ing, consists in the greatly increased intensity which it produces in the organic function of articulation. The whisper being performed as if addressed to a person at the distance of a hundred feet from the speaker, compels a force of percussion in the tongue and the other minor organs of speech, sufficient to compensate for the absence of the common round tone of the voice. The style of enunciation, accordingly, becomes that of the most intense earnestness. The exercise now prescribed, therefore, is of immense advantage, as a preparatory discipline to the organs of speech, as well as a process of training for full-toned and energetic use of the voice. Whispering,-like breathing, and like resonant vocal utterance, - has the three forms described under the head of Exercises in Breathing,- "effusive," or tranquil; "expulsive," or forcible; and "explosive," or abrupt and violent. 1. "Effusive" Whispering. This mode of utterance belongs to tranquil emotion, when expressed in the language of deep-felt awe or profound repose, which represses, by an approach to fear, at the same time that it excites the voice by its intensity. The exercise in "effusive" whispering, should be practised with strict attention to full, deliberate breathing, and the exact articulation of every element, - 1st, on all the "tonic" elements of the language; 2d, on the "subtonics;" 3d, on the "atonics;" 4th, on syllables; 5th, on words, as arranged in the columns of Exercises in Articulation; 6th, on the following stanza,2 which should be often repeated. Exercise. STILLNESS OF NIGHT. - Byron "All heaven and earth are still,-though not in sleep, All is concentrated in a life intense, Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost, But hath a part of being, and a sense Of that which is of all Creator and Defence."2 1 See Chapter on Orthoëpy, and Tables of Orthophony. 2 It is not meant that the above stanza is necessarily and uniformly to be whispered, in reading or reciting the passage from which it is taken. The extract is here used as a convenient exercise, merely. |