Page images
PDF
EPUB

written expression. A ready responsiveness to the ideas of the printed page means an increased artistic sensitiveness. The Tone Drills have associated conception with expression, and the effect of this is not only to create a desire to set down our ideas in writing but to increase the power to express an idea freely and faithfully. Feeling is the basis of style.

The Tone Drills help to develop personal power. They engender that animation and enthusiasm that attracts and wins. People are drawn to us and influenced by life, energy, the manifestation of vitality, and these are materially quickened and strengthened by the practice of the Tone Drills.

The Tone Drills impel the pupil to a more thorough and accurate analysis of literature. Constantly realizing by actual practice on the Drills, that underneath all phraseology lies not only thought but also feeling, the pupil finds himself seeking the complete emotional conception of all he seeks to interpret or to read. He is alert for all those delicate shades and distinctions of tone which reveal the picture or situation in its completeness and tell us of the artist. He knows, through the Tone Drills, that not only every phrase but every word in literature has its true tone, and he will not be satisfied until he has seen and felt the full significance of all.

The Tone Drills achieve the coördination of the entire expressional organism. Coming into the experience of the pupil vividly and arousing objective desire, the pupil finds himself putting the whole man into the expression. The eye, the face, the body, the tone, the attitude all work together, and the result is a coördinate interpretation.

It will be seen from the foregoing details how wide is the scope of usefulness of the Tone Drills, and the author can only reiterate that he has found them the most valuable of all methods for the development of the fundamentals of expressional power.

THE TONE DRILLS.

1. In all Spoken Language there are not only Thoughts but Feelings.-In "John, go right home this moment," there is the thought that John is to go right home, and there is the feeling with which it is said. We can say "the soldier smote the man," so as to show pity for the smitten, or anger at the smiter, or indifference; can, in fact, always say the same words always telling the same thought (that the soldier smote the man), but showing a different feeling.

2. The Great Failure in Reading and Speaking is the Inability to Rightly Render the Feeling.-For one who fails to effectively express thought there are a thousand who fail to effectively express feeling. It is the common remark of the artistic reader that he has never fully satisfied himself in the portrayal of the emotions that his selections demand.

3. Feeling is the Soul of Utterance.-Without the true rendering of feeling there will be monotony. Feeling gives life, energy, variety, interest.

4. The Symbol that Conveys Feeling to the Listener is Tone. Listening outside a room we hear voices and though we can not distinguish the words, we are very positive in regard to the feeling of the speakers. We say one is angry, another is laughing, and so on. As by our premises we do not hear the words, but catch only vocal sounds, we can make our conclusions only from these sounds. The something in these sounds which proclaims the feeling we call tone.

5. The Best Way to Develop the Power to Portray Feeling (Oral Responsiveness) is to Practice the Rendering of Familiar Phrases, Sentences, and Selections that at once Appeal to the Students' Experience, thus Presenting the Feeling or Tone very Vividly to Him.-Common sense will readily admit that the more simply, the more clearly, the

more strikingly a task is put before a student the more likely will that task be effectively performed.

6.. The Best Way to Lead the Student into the Correct Interpretation of the Higher Literature is to Show Him Its Relationship to the Experiences of Daily Life.-When it is perceived that underlying the language of the classic authors are found emotions and thoughts similar to those of every day experience, at once, the difficulty of interpretation is largely overcome. This perception of relationship is attained by placing together the colloquial and the classical.

THE MANNER OF USE OF THE TONE DRILLS

In the use of the Tone Drills seek for Naturalness, Vividness, Completeness, Ease and Grace, and the Perception of the Relationship of the Colloquial to the Classical.

NATURALNESS. Aim to secure a rendering of each example that would be identified instantly as manifesting the feeling demanded. This is attained best by having the student tell the example to a listener, either a fellow student, the teacher or the class as a whole. Naturalness is also secured by drill in chorus. In this simultaneous work the self-conscious student loses his self-consciousness. Here as in individual drill each student should be objective and speak the example to some particular person or persons. A further aid to naturalness is to have the student compose for himself a colloquial drill of not more than a dozen words for each tone, and have him orally express it.

VIVIDNESS. Aim to secure degrees of intensity, as, angry, angrier, angriest. This is attained by spurring the student to stronger endeavor. Vividness is also attained by having the student search for examples of the more intense degrees of the various tones.

COMPLETENESS. Aim to secure a rendering that is complete, that brings into play all the organs of expression that legitimately can aid in the interpretation. This is attained by having the student express the example silently, using only facial expression, gesture and attitude; this to be followed by expression aloud, all the organs of

[ocr errors]

utterance coöperating; finally secure expression with regard not only to the feeling but to the pause, emphasis and articulation.

EASE AND GRACE. Aim to secure a rendering of each example that attains the maximum of effectiveness with the minimum of effort, and which, at same time, so coördinates as to make a harmonic whole; in other words, aim to secure a rendering that is artistic. This is attained by frequency of rendering, by seeking for variety of rendering, and by criticism in respect to things overdone, or not adequately done, or left undone.

PERCEPTION OF RELATIONSHIP OF THE COLLOQUIAL TO THE CLASSICAL. Aim to develop in the student a vivid appreciation of the underlying kinship between the colloquial and the classical. Let him see that the strange, complex or exalted, is after all, the familiar, the simple and the normal, differently clothed, refined or combined. This end is attained by drill on the Colloquial, followed by alternate renderings of the Classical and Colloquial, Colloquial and Classical. Also by having the student make a tonal analysis of selections as explained and illustrated under Interpretation (pages 75 to 83).

Always the teacher must cause the student to realize that his aim in speaking and reading is objective-to convey the thought and feeling to some particular person or persons.

NOTE.-Practice the most those exercises which are executed least effectively. Thus, a student may be excellent in the expression of indignation and kindred emotions, but poor in the expression of admiration, love and the like. Let him give special attention to the latter group and so on with all the feeling in which he is expressionally weak.

THE TONE DRILLS

EXAMPLES ILLUSTRATING THE TONE SYMBOLS THOSE SYMBOLS WHICH PICTURE OR EXPRESS THE

VARIOUS STATES OF FEELING

1. ADMIRATION:

Colloquial.

a-0, look at those lovely roses! Look at them!
b—I never listened to such beautiful music in all my life!
The purity of it! the sweetness of it!

c-What a magnificent sunset! Isn't it glorious!

Classical.

d-What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty; in form, and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!

2. ADMISSION:

SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, ii, 2.

Colloquial.

a-Well, yes, if you want to know, I was there.
b-I admit that I didn't state the case plainly.
c-I grant it, you are right.

Classical.

d-When I spoke that I was ill-temper'd, too.

SHAKESPEARE, Julius Caesar, iv, 3.

« PreviousContinue »