Effects of Cultivation on the "Quality" of the Voice.

The student who will faithfully apply his powers to the mastering of Dr. Rush's system, will be enabled so to use his voice that every truth which he utters, every emotion which he endeavors to impart, will be carried. home to the minds and hearts of his hearers, “clothed in fitting sound." Every mode of vocality which is essential to expression, will be fully at his command. We shall hear, in his utterance, an entire exemption from all those vulgarisms of voice which degrade the pulpit, when uttered within its precincts: we shall recognize, in his tones, the perfect "purity" and subdued manner, which pathos, tranquility, and solemnity impart :-the ample and noble effect of grandeur and sublimity, in the appropriate style of a voice trained to roundness, smoothness, and fullness, the characteristic qualities demanded by the larger dimensions of space, and the stronger incitement of feeling, in public speaking, as it differs from private conversation.‡

*The effect produced on the ear by the mere sound of the voice, as agreeable or otherwise. Thus, we recognize one voice as harsh, another as smooth; one as thin, another as full.

† What the musician denominates "pure tone," or "head tone,” – from its resonance in the head, is nothing else than that perfectly liquid quality of voice, which is its natural perfection,—as is evinced in the untutored utterance of early childhood,—and which corresponds to the sound of a flute, when played on by a skilful performer, as contrasted with the mere learner, whose manner is recognized in consequence of its harsh and hissing sound.

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The perfect voice of the accomplished elocutionist, Dr. Rush has designated by the introduction of a new but expressive term, tund,” — in allusion not only to the rotundity of its sound, but, also, the actual position of the interior and back part of the mouth, by which it is produced.

Articulation.

The well-trained speaker will be distinguished, moreover, by the perfect exactness yet perfect case of his articulation, and even by its brilliancy of effect and posi tive beauty of sound, in consequence of the exact adjustment and free play of the organs of speech, in every function which they perform, and in every sound which they execute.

A distinct and perfect enunciation is of the utmost service to the public reader or speaker; as it not only secures to him the indispensable condition of intelligible communication, and gives an intellectual clearness and finish to his style of expression, but, by the definite and precise character which it imparts to every sound of his voice, it enables him to dispense with that mere loudness which would otherwise exhaust his own strength, and annoy the ears of his audience. Pure tone and distinct articulation enable a speaker of comparatively limited vocal power to convey his words, with perfect ease, through a large extent of space. The result is similar to that which attends the performance of the softest strains of vocal music, by a skilful singer: the ear loses neither his notes nor his syllables; as he delivers every tone with perfect clearness and purity of sound, and every letter with exact though delicate execution, in its articulation.

The faulty character of early education, however, in very many instances, leaves the professional speaker quite deficient in correct habit as to enunciation. Not a few preachers are, in this respect, inaccurate and remiss, to an extent which hinders their usefulness, and degrades their address.

The same remark applies to the habitual accent and pronunciation of many speakers in the pulpit, who, instead of exhibiting the appropriate refinement of good

education, descend to the style of vulgar negligence and slovenliness.

The discipline of the vocal organs which is prescribed by the art of clocution, while it would guard the speaker against all such faults, would save him from the opposite ones of finical nicety and affectation.*

Force and "Stress."

The cultivated speaker will be felt, in his power of producing, on the requisite occasions, any effect of force and volume of voice, - from the approach to whispering, which extreme earnestness produces, to the full body of tone thrown out in warm and powerful exclamations, resembling, perhaps, the style even of a hearty shout or piercing call. The thorough-going cultivation of the voice will impart to every word uttered by the speaker its peculiar modification of force, as regards the characteristic commencement and termination of sounds expressive of emotion. His tones of command will be marked by the boldness and decision with which the accented sound of every emphatic word commences,‡-his tones of entreaty by sounds commencing softly, but swelling out earnestly, and afterwards diminishing his utterance in the mood of stern and determined resolve, will be marked, on the contrary, by the abrupt explosive termination of characteristic sounds;|| and his tones of surprise will exhibit the

* An extensive course of practice in orthoëpy, is contained in the American Elocutionist.

The modes of force above referred to, are termed, by Dr. Rush, the "stress," (the maximum, or sometimes, the ictus.) of the voice, in a given sound; as in the gentle "swell" of pity, or the abrupt "explosion" of

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"Radical" (initial) "Stress."

§ "Median Stress," - force attaining its maximum at the middle of a sound.

"Vanishing" (final) "Stress."

peculiar intensity of this emotion in its characteristic tendency to mark, with special force, both the opening and the closing of emphatic sounds: his exclamations of empassioned excitement will be distinguished not merely by vague and general loudness, or by an ordinary swell of voice, but by a well-marked and highly characterized utterance which lays an obvious stress on the beginning, the middle, and the end of every emphatic sound. It is thus that the language of emotion is rendered intelligible by nature's distinct alphabet of sound being preserved specifically to heart and ear, while the unpractised speaker, whose voice has not been disciplined on these distinctions, utters his words with the "uncertain sound" of the trumpet unskilfully blown, at which "no man armeth himself for the battle.”

Pitch.

The discipline of the voice imparts to the practised speaker an indescribable power over the feelings of his audience, not merely by his command over every mood and form of force by which the soul may be roused or tranquillized, impelled or subdued, but not less by the range which it gives to his voice over all the keys of expressive utterance, as high or low-pitched, lively or grave, gay or sombre, brisk or solemn. The unpractised reader. or speaker has but little compass of utterance, and clings to the same unvaried notes. The disciplined voice traverses, with the utmost facility, and with electric effect, from pole to pole of the scale of expressive tones, touches every point with perfect precision and definite meaning, and throws out, at pleasure, the most impressive effects of contrast, whenever the sudden shifting of the current

"Compound Stress,"-combining the effects of both "Radical" and Vanishing' Stress."

79.66

†Thorough" (pervading) "Stress."

of language and emotion, requires a marked transition of vocal effect.

It is such reading only which can present the tones of the heart, in the language of the Psalmist, as he passes from the lowest depths of despondency and remorse, to the highest strains of joy and praise. Many of the hymns so commonly read with a dead level of voice, require similar variations of utterance, to give anything like true and soul-felt effect to the emotions which they were designed to express. The habitual tones of many readers of hymns, are so cold, so lifeless, and inexpressive, so flatly prosaic and mechanical, that the whole style is virtually a desecration of the sacred lyrics, which were composed for the express purpose of breathing a higher and purer life into the exercise of devotion. The miserable defectiveness of education as it is, never appears more striking than when the minister who has spent a large part of life, the whole period from the commencement of his academic career to the close of his professional course,

in professed preparation for the right discharge of the duties of the pulpit, "goes through the ceremony" of reading a hymn, as if it were a page of an almanac, with a perpetually returning clink of voice, that seems to resemble nothing so much as the never varying sound of the hammer on the anvil.

No reader needs so complete a control over the pitch and range of the voice as the preacher. The deepest notes of profound awe, solemnity, and reverence, are indispensable to his utterance, not as an occasional resort for variety and effect, but as the prevalent strain of devout expression, whether in the reading of the Scriptures and of hymns, or in the appropriate effect of a sermon which happens to exemplify, with more or less frequency, the language of profound emotion. None but a practised speaker can sustain long the peculiar organic action requisite for the production of deep-toned utterance. It is, of all modes of voice, the most exhausting to organs not