From slaves that apes would beat !-Pluto and hell; And make my wars on you; look to 't. Come on. Emphasis of inflection is an upward or downward slide of the voice upon words. The illustrations under inflection will afford examples. Sink or swim, livé or diè, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. V Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing? V true, Let it appear so. Make your vaunting tri And it shall please me well. For mine own V Part, I shall be glad to learn of noble men. Yet this is Rome That sat on her seven hills and from her throne Was greater than a king! And once again Hear me, ye walls, that echoed to the tread The Eternal City shall be free! Oh, what a burial was here! Not as when one is borne from his home among weeping throngs, gently carried to the green fields, and laid peacefully beneath the turf and flowers! No priest stood to pronounce the burial-service. It was an ocean grave. The mists alone shrouded the burial-place. Down, down they sank, and the quick returning waters, smoothing out every ripple, left the sea as if it had not been. Emphasis by pitch is the degree of loudness or lowness given certain words. FORCE. Force is the degree of strength or weakness of the voice. Volume and loudness are dependent upon force. Volume is measured by the amount of space filled with the sound. Loudness is measured by the distance at which a sound can be heard. The tones of the organ are examples of volume; the notes of a fife are examples of loudness. SUBDUED FORCE; SOFT OR GENTLE. Tread lightly, comrades! Ye have laid Like life, save deeper light and shade,- Tread lightly! for 'tis beautiful, LOUD FORCE. Come back, come back, Horatius ! Up drawbridge; groom; what warder; ho! SUPPRESSED FORCE. Hark! James, listen! for I must not speak loud, Mother, the angels do so smile, and beckon little Jim. I have no pain, dear mother, now, but O, I am so dry! Just moisten poor Jim's lips again, and, mother, don't you cry. Pity the sorrows of a poor old man, Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door, Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span ; O give relief! and Heaven will bless your store! INFLECTION. Inflection is an upward or downward slide of the voice. Inflections are of two kinds: the rising and the falling. The rising inflection is a gliding of the voice upward, and is marked ('). The falling inflection is a gliding of the voice downward, and is marked (`). The circumflex is the union of the rising and falling inflections, and is marked by the caret (^v). Monotone is the sameness of tone, and it is produced by the absence of inflection and emphasis. Will they do it'? Dare they do it'? Who is speaking`? What's the news? O my son Absalom'! my son', my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, Absalom', my son', my son'! If I were an American', as I am an Englishman', while a foreign troop was in my country', I never would lay down my arms never! NEVER! NEVER! "Come back! come back!" he cried in grief, Across this stormy water; "And I'll forgive your Highland chief; My daughter! O, my daughter!" MOVEMENT. Movement of voice is the rate with which words are uttered. The three principal degrees of movement are:1. Moderate; 2. Slow; 3. Rapid. The first is used in the delivery of narrative, descriptive, and unimpassioned thought. The second is used to express grief, doubt, solemnity, seriousness, reverence, horror, and awe, The third is used to express mirth, joy, animation, cheerfulness; hate, anger, and excited emotions. Slowly and sadly we laid him down, From the field of his fame fresh and gory; A hurry of hoofs in a village street, A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, PITCH. Pitch is the degree of loudness or lowness of the voice. The three principal degrees of pitch are: 1. Medium; 2. Low; 3. High. The first best expresses narration and description. The second best expresses sorrow, pathos, solemnity, reverence, seriousness, devotion, awe, and grandeur. The third best expresses joy, gayety, earnestness, animation, delight, shouting, calling, commanding, and all impassioned thought. HIGH PITCH. I come! I come! Ye have called me long; I come o'er the mountains with light and song; LOW PITCH. Roll on, Stops with the shore; upon the watery plain When, for a moment, like a drop of rain, He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown. QUALITY OF VOICE. Quality of Voice relates to the purity or impurity of the tone. It is that by which we distinguish one voice from another. It depends upon the size, shape, and form of the vocal organs, and upon the resonating cavities. The five principal tones are:- 1. Pure; 2. Aspirated; 3. Orotund; 4. Guttural; 5. Nasal. Pure quality is tone in which all the breath is vocalized. “This quality is made by producing a smooth, clear, even, round, liquid stream of sound, free from all impurity. It derives resonance from the chest, firmness from the throat, and clearness from the head and mouth." This tone is free from these faults: the hollow note of the chest; the nasal twang; the harsh and grating sound produced by too forcible a use of breath; the unnecessary deep guttural sounds; the affected, mincing tones of the mouth. Is it the chime of a tiny bell That comes so sweet to my dreaming ear, Like the silvery tones of a fairy's shell, That he winds on the beach so mellow and clear, And he his notes as silvery quite, While the boatman listens and ships his oar, Are set to words-as they float they say: Orotund quality imparts grandeur to the voice. It is the fullness of tone which belongs naturally to the expression of animated and determined feeling. |