Page images
PDF
EPUB

II. GAY AND LIVELY.

Rapid Movement, High Pitch, Radical Stress, Energetic Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive and Explosive Forms.

[From "Coquette Punished."-Anon.]

Ellen was fair, and knew it, too,
As other village beauties do,
Whose mirrors never lie;

Secure of any swain she chose,

She smiled on half a dozen beaux,

And, reckless of a lover's woes,

She cheated these, and taunted those;

"For how could any one suppose

A clown could take her eye?"

III. IMPASSIONED AND INDIGNANT EMOTION. Rapid Movement, High Pitch, Radical Stress, Impassioned Force, Oro tund, Expulsive and Explosive Forms.

[From "Lochiel and the Seer."-Campbell.]

False wizard, avaunt! I have marshaled my clan,

Their swords are a thousand, their bosoms are one;
They are true to the last of their blood and their breath,
And like reapers descend to the harvest of death.
Then welcome be Cumberland's steed to the shock;
Let him dash his proud foam like a wave on the rock;
But woe to his kindred, and woe to his cause,
When Albin her claymore indignantly draws;
When her bonneted chieftains to victory crowd,
Clanranald the dauntless, and Moray the proud,
All plaided and plumed in their tartan array.

SECTION XXXVI.

VERY RAPID MOVEMENT,

Very rapid movement is appropriate for the delivery of ecstatic joy, lyric description of brilliant and exciting

scenes.

EXAMPLES: I. ECSTATIC Joy.

Very Rapid Movement, Very High Pitch, Radical Stress, Impassioned Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive and Explosive Forms

[From "It Snows."-Mrs. Hale.]

"It snows," cries the schoolboy; "hurrah!" and his shout

Is ringing through parlor and hall;

While swift as the wing of a swallow he's out,
And his playmates have answered his call.
It makes the heart leap but to witness their joy;
Proud wealth has no pleasure, I trow,

Like the rapture that throbs in the pulse of the boy

As he gathers his treasures of snow.

II. HURRY AND COMMOTION-LYRIC STYLE.

Very Rapid Movement, Very High Pitch, Radical Stress, Impassioned Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive and Explosive Forms.

[From "Mazeppa."-Byron.]

Away, away, and on we dash!
Torrents less rapid and less rash.

Away, away, my steed and I,

Upon the pinions of the wind,
All human dwellings left behind:
We sped like meteors through the sky,
When with its crackling sound the night
Is checkered with the northern light:
From out the forest prance

A trampling troop-I see them come;
A thousand horse, and none to ride;
With flowing tail and flying mane,
Wide nostrils, never stretched by pain,
Mouths bloodless to the bit or rein,
And feet that iron never shod,
And flanks unscarred by spur or rod:
A thousand horse-the wild, the free,
Like waves that follow o'er the sea,

Came thickly thundering on.
They stop, they start, they snuff the air,
Gallop a moment here and there,

Approach, retire, wheel round and round,
Then plunging back with sudden bound,
They snort, they foam, neigh, swerve asiae,
And backward to the forest fly,

By instinct, from a human eye.

Perfect command of every degree of movement is in dispensable to the appropriate expression of the different forms of thought and emotion.

No defect more certainly kills the power of utterance than an improper rate of movement.

Ministers of the Gospel not unfrequently weary the patience of their audience by a slow, monotonous, tedious delivery. Lecturers and lawyers often mar the effect of a good discourse by a hurried and rapid utterance.

Schoolboy speaking is characterized by an unvarying

movement.

"It is evident from the very nature of 'movement' that it must be an element of immense power in expression. The funeral march suggests to the ear its effect in music as associated with awe, gloom and grief, and the music of the dance reminds us of its power over the feelings of gladness and exhilaration. The grave psalm and the song of serious sentiment express, in their measured regularity, the adaptation of gentle and 'moderate movement' to tranquil and sedate feeling.

"Similar effects in degree characterize the use of the voice in recitation and in reading. Appropriate elocution accommodates the movement of the voice to every mood of thought, from the slowest, prolonged and lingering utterance of deep contemplation and profound awe to the swift and rapid strains of lyric rapture and ec stasy. Every mood of mind has its appropriate 'movement,' or 'rate,' of utterance, as definitely expressed as its 'quality' of voice, its characteristic 'force,' or its

peculiar pitch,' 'slide,' or 'wave.' Utterance, to be natural and effective, must have the genuine expression of its appropriate 'movement.' Solemnity cannot exist, to the ear, without slowness, nor gayety without briskness of utterance, gravity without sedate style, nor animation without a lively movement.'

[ocr errors]

"The power of 'movement,' in the elocution of a skill ful reader or speaker, is indefinite, as we may observe in the difference between a schoolboy gabbling through his task, in haste to get rid of it, and a great tragedian, whose whole soul is rapt in the part of Cato uttering the soliloquy on immortality, or Hamlet musing on the great themes of duty, life and death.

"A command over the 'lively' and 'brisk movements' of the voice is not less important than the power of slow and solemn utterance. The style of reading which is most frequently introduced to enliven the evening circle at home requires of the reader the power to 'trip it as he goes' in the mood of gay description, light satire, vivid dialogue and droll humor.

6

"The three principal faults of movement,' which are exemplified in the common practice of reading, are uniform slowness, or, perhaps, a drawling style; habitual rapidity, which prevents all deep and impressive effect, and, perhaps, causes indistinctness of enunciation; a uniform 'moderate' 'movement,' which never yields to any natural influence of emotion-so as to become appropriately expressive, and pass from grave to gay, or the reverse, by a change in the gait of the voice--but utters, automaton-like, all feelings in the same unmeaning and mechanical style, the voice marching on, with one uniform measured step, over all varieties of surface as regards the tenor of language and the subject."

SECTION XXXVII.

ACCIDENTS.

The attributes of voice having been sufficiently discussed, the attention of the student is now directed to those properties of utterance which may be appropriately termed accidents.

All the previously discussed elements, being essential to the delivery of any combination of words, have been denominated attributes; but the following being only employed at intervals in utterance, may or may not be exhibited in the delivery of every sentence, and hence are called accidents.

It will be observed that the accidents, except pauses, which are simply the absence of all attributes, are composed of two or more attributes; while the attributes themselves are original elements, and cannot therefore be resolved.

SECTION XXXVIII.

QUANTITY.

Quantity is the length of time occupied in the utterance of words and syllables. It might at first view appear that quantity is an attribute, since the utterance of any word or syllable occupies some time; but it must not be forgotten that form is the manner in which the sound is sent forth from the organs; that Effusive form is the sound sent forth gently from the organs, and therefore implies long quantity; that Explosive is the sound sent forth violently and abruptly, and hence necessitates short quantity. Again, Stress is an element of quantity.

Regarded as a separate element, it will be sufficient to discuss quantity under the divisions of long and short.

« PreviousContinue »