APPENDIX.

[Our desire to render this manual conducive, as far as possible, to a perfect development of the voice, induced us to solicit the aid arising from the perfect discipline to which the organs are subjected, in the elementary practice of the art of music. Professor G. J. Webb, of the Boston Academy of Music, has, in compliance with our request, furnished the following directions for the cultivation of perfect purity of tone, the want of which, in elocution, is a prevalent fault, both in public speaking and private reading.]

CULTIVATION OF PURE TONE.

Ir is important that the pupil, at the very outset of vocal study, should have the ability of appreciating purity of tone. Unless he has some distinct perception of it; in other words, unless a model of pure tone has been formed in his own mind, all merely physical effort to acquire it will be likely to fail.

The practice of the scale in swelling tones, is chiefly relied upon by teachers of vocal music, for developing the voice, and for acquiring purity, mellowness, flexibility, and an adequate breadth of tone.

Immediately before singing each sound, breath should be taken so as completely to inflate the lungs ; and after pausing an instant with the chest well expanded, the sound should commence with firmness, but with great softness, then gradually augmented to the loudest degree, succeeded by being as gradually diminished to the degree of force with which it began. Each tone should be prolonged from eighteen to twenty seconds.

This exercise, as a general rule, should be continued for about two months; singing the scale daily about four times.

In the delivery of the tones of the "chest register," the air ought to escape without touching the surfaces of the mouth; the tones of the "medium register," are best acquired by directing the air a little above the upper front teeth :-in those of the "head register," the air is directed vertically.

ah:

ah

ah

ah

To adapt the above exercise to the Contralto and Bass voice, it must be transposed a third or fourth lower.

This mark ff pp

-pp

is designed to indicate the swelling tone; the double comma before each note, the place for breathing.

PIECES FOR PRACTICE.

EXERCISE I. - A SEA VOYAGE. - Irving.

[This extract exemplifies, in its diction, the forms of narrative, descriptive, and didactic style. The emotions arising from the subject and the language, are those of tranquillity, wonder, admiration, pathos, and awe.

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The first of these emotions prevails through the first two paragraphs, and produces, in the vocal " expression," 'pure tone," decreasing gradually from gentle expulsion to effusion : the "force " is "moderate: " the stress, at first, "unimpassioned radical," gradually changing to a soft "median: " the "pitch" is on "middle notes," - the 66 melody," "diatonic," in prevalent "intervals of the second," varying from the "simple concrete" to the " " is "slow," wave: "the" movement the pauses moderately long, the “ rhythm" requires an attentive but delicate marking.

Wonder is the predominating emotion expressed in the third paragraph. It produces a slight deviation from perfect "purity of tone" towards "aspiration": the "force” increases gently, after the first sentence: a slight tinge of "vanishing stress pervades the first sentence; an ample "median" prevails in the first two clauses of the second, and a vivid "radical" in the third clause; and, in the third sentence, a stronger "vanishing stress than before, becomes distinctly audible, in proportion to the increasing emphasis: the "pitch" of this paragraph is moderately “low," at first, and gradually descends, throughout, as far as to the last semicolon of the paragraph;—the "slides "

are principally downward "seconds and thirds": the " movement" is "slow," excepting in the last clause of the second sentence, in which it is "lively "; the pauses are long; and the "rhythm" still requires perceptible marking.

to

Admiration, is the prompting emotion in the "expression" of the fourth paragraph. After the first sentence, which is neutral in effect, the voice passes from " pure tone to "orotund," as the "quality" required in the union of beauty and grandeur: the force passes from "moderate "declamatory ": the "stress" becomes bold "median expulsion": the "middle pitch," inclining to "low," for dignity of effect; and downward "thirds" in emphasis: the "movement” is “moderate;" the pauses correspondent; and the "rhythm somewhat strongly

marked.

The fifth and sixth paragraphs are characterized, in “ expression," by pathos and awe. The first two sentences of the fifth paragraph, are in the neutral or unimpassioned utterance of common narrative and remark; the next three sentences introduce an increasing effect of the "pure tone" of pathos; the last three of the paragraph are characterized by the expression of awe carried to its deepest effect; and the preceding pure tone, therefore, gives way to " aspiration," progressively, to the end of the paragraph. The "force," in the first part of the paragraph, is “subdued ”; —in the latter, it is "suppressed": the “ stress is " median," throughout, — gently marked in the pathetic part, and fully, in that expressive of awe. The " piteh " is on "middle" notes, inclining high, in the pathetic expression, and "low," descending to "lowest," in the utterance of awe; the "melody " contains a few slight effects of "semitone," on the emphatic words in the pathetic strain, and full downward "slides" of "third" and "fifth," in the language of awe. The "move

ment" is "slow,” in the pathetic part, and “ very slow" in the utterance of awe; the pauses correspond; and the " rhythm" is to be exactly kept in the pauses of the latter, as they are the chief source of effect.

The first two sentences of the sixth paragraph, are characterized by the expression of deep pathos, differing from that of the first part of the preceding paragraph, by greater force, lower notes, fuller

"stress," slower "movement, and longer pauses. The "ex

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pression" of the third sentence passes through the successive stages of apprehension, or fear, awe and horror,- - marked by increasing aspiration and force, deepening notes, slower "movement," and longer pause, so as, at last, to reach the extreme of these elements of effect. The fourth sentence expresses still deeper pathos than before, and by the increased effect of the same modes of utterance. In the last sentence, in which awe combines with pathos, the "expression " becomes yet deeper and slower, but without increase of “force.”

A similar analysis should be performed on all the following pieces previous to the exercise of reading them. The analogy of

emotion, exemplified in the numerous examples contained in the body of the book, will be found a sufficiently definite guide for this purpose.]

To an American visiting Europe, the long voyage he has to make is an excellent preparative. From the moment you lose sight of the land you have left, all is vacancy until you step on the opposite shore, and are launched at once into the bustle and novelties of another world.

I have said that at sea all is vacancy. I should correct the expression. To one given up to day-dreaming, and fond of losing himself in reveries, a sea-voyage is full of subjects for meditation; but then they are the wonders of the deep, and of the air, and rather tend to abstract the mind from worldly themes. I delighted to loll over the quarter-railing, or climb to the main-top on a calm day, and muse for hours together on the tranquil bosom of a summer's sea; or to gaze upon the piles of golden clouds just peering above the horizon, fancy them some fairy realms, and people them with a creation of my own, or to watch the gentle undulating billows rolling their silver volumes, as if to die away on those happy shores.

There was a delicious sensation of mingled security and awe, with which I looked down from my giddy height on the monsters of the deep at their uncouth gambols. Shoals of porpoises tumbling about the bow of the ship; the grampus slowly heaving his huge form above the surface; or the ravenous shark, darting like a spectre, through the blue waters. My imagination would conjure up all that I had heard or read of the watery world beneath me; of the finny herds that roam its fathomless valleys; of shapeless monsters that lurk among the very foundations of the earth; and those wild phantasms that swell the tales of fishermen and sailors.

Sometimes a distant sail gliding along the edge of the ocean would be another theme of idle speculation. How interesting this fragment of a world hastening to rejoin the great mass of existence ! What a glorious monument of human invention, that has thus triumphed over wind and wave; has brought the ends of the earth in communion; has established an interchange of blessings, pouring into the sterile regions of the north all the luxuries of the south; diffused the light of knowledge and the charities of cultivated life; and has thus bound together those scattered portions