And, having swelled a moment there, | Thus melts into eternity. The passions, [like heavy bodies down steep hills, [once in motion | move themselves, and know no ground but the bottom. 'Every man who speaks and reasons | is a grammarian and a logician, [although unacquainted with the rules of art, Las exhibited in books and systems. *Alas! how light a cause may move Dissension between hearts that love! Hearts, that the world in vain had tried, And sorrow but more closely tied ; [That stood the storm, [when waves were rough, [Yet in a sunny hour fall off, [Like ships that have gone down at sea When heaven is all tranquillity! ["A something light as air | a look A word | unkind-or wrongly taken; "Oh! love, [that tempests never shook, | A breath, a touch like this, hath shaken. Again the hardy Britons rushed [like lions [to the fight. Murder, therefore, is the most atrocious of all crimes [which affect individuals only, [in the sight both of mankind, and of the person who has com. mitted it. While beholding this vast expanse, [I learn my own extreme meanness, 1 would also discover the abject littleness of all terrestrial things. 3To die?to sleep; To sleep?—perchance to dream! 'Ay, there's the rub! He woke to hear his sentries shriek "To arms!-they come !-'the Greek!-the Greek !” He woke 'to die. His children So knelt she Lin her woe; A weeper Lalone with the tearless dead! 'Oh, they reck not of tears o'er their quiet shed, 4 Or the dust had stirred below! -But here my heart began to bleed, and I was forced to go on with another part of the portrait. "He started: ['mid the battle's yell, He saw the Persian rushing on; FORCE, TIME, AND EXPRESSION. The same principle which dictates variety of Modulation requires also a corresponding variety in the Force and Time of utterance. No unvarying uniformity of manner, in any particular of delivery, can be effective; for it is unnatural. We do not enlarge upon the rationale of Force and Time, as the reasons for modifications of these qualities must lie chiefly in the reader's sympathetic appreciation of sentiment, situation, &c. We shall content ourselves with furnishing a simple notation for the greater changes of Force and Time, and illustrating their application in a few marked passages. We assume as middle points those degrees of Force and of Time which are used in unimpassioned conversation; which we call moderate, and mark m. Two degrees of slower and of quicker Time, and of stronger and feebler Force, we call slow and adagio, quick and rapid, energetic and vehement, feeble and piano; and mark e. v. f. p ;, s. a. q. r. In addition to these, which may be employed as accidental marks, it will be useful to have a more general notation for a gradual or climactic increase or diminution of Force, and acceleration or retardation of Time. For this purpose, we adopt the marks cres. dim. ac. ret. There are other varieties of Expression which, as they fundamentally affect the quality of the voice, or the mode of utterance, must be noticed and included in our notation. These are Whisper, marked (Wh.) Hoarseness, (H.) Falsetto, (Fals.) Orotund, (Or.) Plaintiveness, (Pl.) Tremor, (Tr.) Prolongation, (Pr.) Effect of Distance, (Dist,) Effect of Strong Effort, or Straining, (Str.) Staccato, (St.) Sostenuto, (Sst.) Sympathetic, (Sym.) Imitative, (Im.) Sudden Break, (---) Expresssive Pause, (^) THE WHISPER is used to express secrecy and cunning; it denotes also apprehension of evil, or fearful suspense in presence of danger. HOARSENESS, or an aspirated vocality, is employed to express horror, loathing, agony, and despair. THE FALSETTO voice is expressive of puerility or senility; it denotes also acute anguish, or an overpoweringly mirthful feeling. THE OROTUND, a deep, 'mellow quality of voice, is appropriate for expressions of pomp, sublimity, and vastness-also for those of bombast and self importance. PLAINTIVENESS is produced by employment of the semitonic interval of inflexion, (see page 267.) It is expressive of suffering-but not without hope; of sympathy in suffering, of fond desire, of supplication, and earnest entreaty, and also of mild reproach. TREMOR, or an unsteady, tremulous formation of voice, is expressive of anxiety, alarm, eagerness, and intense emotion. When the intervals of the tremulous movement are not chromatic or plaintive, but diatonic, the tremor is expressive of self-gratulation, exultation, boasting, triumph :-it is then, in other words, chuckling, by which term we designate this vocal effect in its strongly joyful applications. PROLONGATION of voice, or of articulative effort, is often most expressive, but so variously that its precise effect cannot be briefly denoted—it is frequently employed in scorn, derision, malignity, &c., but it is also often used to convey the very opposite sentiments—it is an intensive effect, applicable to many passions. The EFFECT OF DISTANCE differs from low modulation and feeble force-it is a "ventriloquial" effect, but one within the compass of any voice. The Effect of Strong Effort differs from any of the qualities of Force and Modulation, being a sort of subdued STRAINING, chiefly on the articulations—which are thus rendered more explosive than usual; it is not loud, though expressive of loudness. The STACCATO movement consists in a strongly pointed, abrupt, and frequent accentuation, and is expressive of recrimination, reproach, and all acrimonious sentiments; and also of any marked sentential emphasis. The SOSTENUTO movement consists in a smooth, flowing, equable accentuation, and is expressive of admiration, tenderness, love, and pleasing sentiments generally. The occasions for a strictly IMITATIVE tone must always be obvious, and the effects of the imitation will, of course, be as various as its objects :but there is a certain sympathetic suiting of the sound to the sense employed by the effective reader in almost every paragraph of descriptive language, which, though not strictly imitative, may yet be called analogously so. Thus, in describing cheerful or gay objects, the voice will leap from pitch to pitch in its inflexions with a buoyancy of effect that aptly analogizes the bounding pulse and buoyant spirits of cheerfulness; in depicting gloomy, solemn, or sad objects, the inflexions will be low and limited, and the march of accentuation slow and equable. In speaking of the roaring or the whistling wind, the booming shot, the crashing and rolling thunder, the sweep of the hurricane, the heaving and splashing of waters, the glowing, crackling fire, &c., the articulation of the words may be made highly illustrative of the objects by this sort of imitative effect. Indeed, the articulative construction of the most expressive words is often strikingly imitative of the objects they denote, so that the words bear well, and seem to require this illustrative effect by the voice. We shall use the notation Sym. (Sympathetic,) where mental emotion is to be expressed, and Im. (Imitative,) where physical properties,-sound, motion, &c. are concerned. The SUDDEN BREAK in utterance may be demanded by a rhetorical break occurring in the composition, or it may be simulatively introduced by the reader for some purpose of effect. The EXPRESSIVE PAUSE is reflective or monitory, conveying the effect of meditation, deliberation, &c., or of preparation for important emphasis; it also denotes listening, and is highly effective in representations of terror, of anxious watchfulness, &c. PP Without attempting to include in our notation the Passions generally, for their variety of shading and admixture would render an accurate notation of them far too complex to be of service, there are a few other qualities of Expression, which, as they have peculiar functional manifestations, we must add to our system of Expressive notation. These are Laughter, (L.) and Weeping, (W.) and their more subdued forms, Chuckling, (Ch.) and Sobbing, (Sob.) to which we may add Joy, (Joy,) and Sadness, (Sad.) Panting Respiration, (Resp.) Audible Inspiration, (Insp.) Audible Expiration, (Ex. and Exp.) Open LAUGHTER and WEEPING come seldom or never within the scope of reading, though acting and gesticulated recitation must occasionally employ them: we need not point out the situations in which they would be appropriate. A CHUCKLING effect is expressive of vulgar self-satisfaction, and boasting in a modified degree, it may be generally used in the utterance of all triumphal or gratulatory sentiments; for these we shall use the notation Joy. This sort of effect, with waving tones, is used in sneer, ridicule, and sarcasm. A SOBBING effect may be quite admissible in expressive reading: the degree in which it is employed, and the occasions for its employment, will greatly depend upon the temperament of the reader. The notation Sad. (Sadness) will express the more modified degrees of grief. Ordinary respiration should be silent, equable, and almost imperceptible: perturbation and mental suffering, nervous excitement, flurry, exhaustion, &c., may be expressed by convulsed, heaving, or PANTING RESPIRATION, An AUDIBLE, gasping, or semi-vocal INSPIRATION is wildly expressive of despair, and generally of mental or bodily agony. AUDIBLE EXPIRATIONS also may be occasionally used for emotional expressiveness; if slowly accompanying the utterance (noted Ex.) they produce the effect of sighing, and "suit the action to the word" of sadness; if suddenly gushing out with the accented syllable or word, (noted Exp.) they have the effect of denoting intensity of the feeling in the passage, whether of joy or sorrow.* *The functions of Laughter and Crying-as the ingenious and deeplyobservant author of the " Philosophy of the Human Voice," remarks are organically the same: their different effects arising from the chromatic intervals of the aspirations of sorrow, and the diatonic intervals of those of joy. This accounts for the tears of laughter, and for the common and notable phenomenon of children crying and laughing" in the same breath." RECAPITULATIVE TABLE OF THE MARKS EMPLOYED IN THE MODULATION Refer to pages 288 and 290. FORCERefer to page 296. TIME High Key. -Conversational. -Lower. -Low Key. PROGRESSIVE ELEVATION is denoted by Elevate Subordinate clause or sentence marked Mark of Separation between clauses, 66 [ L 1 PROGRESSIVE RETARDATION OF TIME, marked Ret. Pr.-Prolongation. L.-Laughter. W.-Weeping. Sob.-Sobbing. Dist.-Effect of Distance. Sst. Straining, or Effect of Strong Effort. Staccato. Sostenuto. Sym.-Sympathetic. Expressive Pause Resp.-Panting Respiration. EXPRESSIVE EXERCISES. Expiration. In the following passages, a very minute notation is attempted, to assist the student in cultivating a varied and effective delivery. The difficulty of working with types has, however, been fully felt. In the first few pages the notation is chiefly confined to Inflexion and Modulation: in the subsequent passages the other Expressive marks are more generally introduced. Our space forbids lengthened illustrations, or very copious examples. |