صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

pèrish, I am for the declarâtion! It is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment-Independence now, and independence | forêver!

WEBSTER.

EXPLOSIVE AND EXPULSIVE OROTUND.

These two forms of the orotund are often combined in the same piece, and it is not easy to draw a marked line of division. In impassioned declamation the utterance changes from one to the other, according to the degree of feeling or passion. The following extract affords an illustration:

1. WEBSTER'S TRIBUTE TO MASSACHUSETTS.

Mr. Président, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts; she needs none. There she is; behold her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill; and there they will remain forèver. The bones of her sóns, fallen in the great struggle for Indepéndence, now lie mingled with the soil of every State, from New England to Geòrgia; and there they will lie forèver.

And, sir, where American Liberty raised its first voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still lives, in the strength of its manhood, and full of its original spirit. If discord and disunion shall wound it; if party strife and blind ambition shall hawk at and téar it; if folly and mádness, if uneasiness under salutary and necessary restraint, shall succeed in separating it from that Union by which alóne its existence is made súre-it will stand, in the end, by the side of that crádle in which its infancy was ròcked; it will stretch forth its árm, with whatever of vigor it may still retáin, over the friends who gather round it; and it will fall at làst, if

fall it must, amid the proudest monuments of its own glóry, and on the very spot of its origin.

III. ASPIRATED QUALITY.

Aspirated quality means, in general, a combination of tone with whisper, causing the huskiness and harshness produced by a superabundance of breath under the influence of powerful emotions, such as anger, rage, terror, and horror. The whisper represents the extreme of aspirated quality.

THE WHISPER.

The pure whisper lies half way between breathing and vocality. The half-whisper is a combination of tone and whisper. The forcible whisper is a most valuable vocal exercise. It requires full, deep, and frequent breathing, and the vigorous use of the lips, tongue, and other vocal organs. The degrees of force in the whisper are indicated by the terms effusive, expulsive, and explosive.

The pure whisper is rarely used in reading, the effect being generally suggested by the half-whisper, or by aspirated quality. The following exercises and examples are given for the purposes of vocal training.

TABLE OF ASPIRATES.

[First whisper the words, then the aspirates, and then give the phonic spelling of each word in a forcible whisper.]

[blocks in formation]

WHISPER DRILL.

Practice each exercise with three degrees of force: (1) Effusive, or soft. (2) Expulsive, or forcible. (3) Explosive, or intense.

1. With effusive force, repeat as many times as possible without taking breath: ā-ē-ī-ō-ū.

2. To ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, join ƒ, and repeat as above; join t; join h.

3. Count, in a whisper, from one to ten, with one breath; from one to twenty; one to thirty, or more.

EXAMPLES OF EFFUSIVE WHISPER.

1. Step softly, and speak low.

2. Whisper! she is going to her final rest. Whisper! life is growing dim within her breast.

3. Hark! hist! around I list.

The bounds of space all trace efface
Of sound.

4. And his little daughter whispered,
As she took his icy hand:
"Isn't God upon the water,

Just the same as on the land?"

5. And again to the child I whispered:

[ocr errors][merged small]

6. And the bridemaidens whispered: ""Twere better by far, To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar."

7. The red rose cries, "She is near, she is near;"

And the white rose weeps,

[ocr errors]

She is late;"

The larkspur listens, "I hear, I hear;"
And the lily whispers, "I wait."

EXAMPLES OF EXPULSIVE WHISPER.

1. Or whispering with white lips, "The foe! they come! they come!"

2. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate.

Come, come, come, give me your hand.

3. Soldiers! You are now within a few steps of the enemy's outposts. Let every man keep the strictest silence, under pain of instant death.

EXAMPLES OF EXPLOSIVE WHISPER.

1. Hark! I hear the bugles of the enemy. For the boats! Forward! Forward!

[blocks in formation]

3. Art thou some gód, some angel, or some devil, That mak'st my blood run cold and my hair to stand!

WHISPER AND TONE.

In some of the following illustrations of aspirated quality, the whisper predominates over tone; in others, the aspiration only affects the tone with a marked roughness, huskiness, or aspirated harshness. The extent to which aspirated quality may be applied is often a matter of taste on the part of the reader.

EXAMPLES.

1. But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell.

[ocr errors]

2. THE CURFEW BELL.

Sexton," Bessie's white lips faltered, pointing to the

prison old,

With its walls so dark and gloomy-walls so dark, and damp, and cold

"I've a lover in that prison, doomed this very night

to die,

At the ringing of the Curfew, and no earthly help is nigh. Cromwell will not come till sunset," and her face grew strangely white,

As she spoke in husky whispers, "Curfew must not ring to-night."

3. MACBETH TO THE GHOST.

Avaunt! and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold:
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes

Which thou dost glare with!

Unreal mockery, hènce!

Hence, horrible shadow!

4. HAMLET TO THE GHOST.

[Aspirated quality and occasional half-whisper.]

Angels and ministers of grace defènd ùs!
Be thou a spirit of health, or gòblin dàmned—
Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell-

Be thy intents wicked, or charitable

Thou com'st in such a questionable shape

That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee, Hàmlet,
King, father, royal Dàne: Oh, answer me:

Let me not burst in ígnorance! but tell
Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death,
Have burst their cèrements! why the sepulcher,
Wherein we saw thee quietly inurned,
Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws,
To cast thee up again? What may this mean,
That thou, dead corse, again, in cómplete steel,
Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous: and we fools of nature,
So horribly to shake our disposition,

With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we dổ?

« السابقةمتابعة »