Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

They tell us, either in written or spoken words, all we know of the history of the earth on which we live and of the human family; all we have learned of the progress of science and art. They give us the ideal creations of the novelist and the poet. They are the medium through which we have had transmitted to us the inspirations of prophets and seers. And yet in our spoken language we have not treated them well, and we continue every day to treat them not only disrespectfully, but meanly; for we deprive them of the proper display of their great beauty by not articulating them clearly.

Now it is important that all should become acquainted with these little symbols; study their forms and proportions as expressed in sounds, and learn what are their specific uses.

The vowels have a mission specifically their own. The subvowels and aspirates have quite another.

The vowels convey the full voice. All the vowels, when clearly and fully uttered, vibrate nothing but voice-sound. They are used as motive power to convey words from the speaker to the listener. We might almost say we shoot words on these sounds. We will take for illustration the word hope. Let us sound the long vowel o alone; then the apirates h and p by themselves; then unite them, and we find the importance which is attached to voice vibrations. If we articulate the aspirates by themselves, they can be heard but a few yards from us; but when uttered in connection with vowels they are easily distinguished at a comparatively great distance.

"Wonderful truths, and manifold as wondrous,
God hath written in the stars above;
But not less in the bright flowers under us
Stands the revelation of his love.

Gorgeous flowers in the sunlight shining,
Blossoms flaunting in the eye of day,
Tremulous leaves, with soft and silver lining,
Buds that open only to decay.

Brilliant hopes, all woven in gorgeous tissues,
Flaunting gaily in the golden light;
Large desires, with most uncertain issues,
Tender wishes blossoming at night.

These in flowers and men are more than seeming,

Workings are they of the self-same powers

Which the poet, in no idle dreaming,

Seeth in himself and in the flowers."

ear.

A given number of vibrations make a particular note or tone, but a forcible continuance of the tone makes prolongation. Singing can be heard farther than speaking, for the reason that there is a greater prolongation of vowel-sounds in song than in speech. This is philosophical. The atmosphere surrounding the earth, by a beautiful and wise provision of our Creator, is made of vibratory and elastic quality, which renders it the general receptacle and medium of sound. Voice-sound being a sensation produced by tremulous motion, the waves of air thus continuously agitated convey the pulsations to the Therefore the more forcible and continuous these pulsations the farther the sound is conveyed. It is the rapid and continuous vibration of the vocal muscles that produce the prolongation of sound; and the more even the pulsation the smoother and more musical the tones. If we speak, in an ordinary conversational pitch of voice, the words hope or home, we find the vibrations of the vowels are stopped in the mouth for the articulating organs to form the letters p and m; but if we sing the words, the vibrations are continued as long as we dwell upon that particular note. In singing the articulatory sounds are secondary to the vowel or emotional sounds; while in speaking the expression of thought and ideas requires the clearly-defined expression of the constrained aspirate and sub vowel sounds. Therefore, if we wish our voices to penetrate to great distances, we must use force that will produce continuous vibrations, sufficient to carry the sound to the desired point. If we have not power to do this, the sound of course must stop exactly where the vibration or air-wave ceases. Let this fact be distinctly impressed upon the minds of all who desire to become public speakers.

Another fact must be remembered, which is, that it is one thing to be heard and quite another thing to be understood. A speaker may have great power in rolling out sounds, yet the aspirates and subvowels may be so feebly given, or mouthed in such a slovenly way, as to make the speech all sound and no sense. It is plain that the vowels must receive great practice in regard to loudness, to length of tone, to clearness of tone, to evenness in swelling and diminishing the same sound, either for speaking or singing.

The vowel-sounds are the basis of spoken language, and subserve a double purpose. They are not only the motive power of speech, but express the musical tones, and to a great degree the affectional and passional elements. This will be readily seen if we notice the utterances of animals and birds, also of children before they learn to express their wants and desires by articulated words.

CHAPTER V.

VOCAL GYMNASTICS-EXERCISES IN ACCENT AND EMPHASIS-SOUNDS OF THE LETTER A.

Every pupil should be required to notice distinctly not only all the specific sounds of our language, simple and compound, but also the different and exact positions of the vocal organs necessary to produce them. The teacher should unyieldingly insist upon having these two things faithfully attended to; for success in elocution and music absolutely demands it. No one therefore should wish to be excused from a full and hearty compliance. Master these elementary principles, and you will have command of all the mediums for communicating your thoughts and feelings.

In practicing the following vocal-sounds the mouth must be as wide open and the lips as free and expanded as the nature of the sound will allow. The sounds must be made pure and strong, free from any nasal taint; the position of the body elevated enough to permit the perfect and harmonious action of the dorsal and abdominal muscles.

When the sound is entirely emitted the mouth must be closed, and the replenishing breath received slowly and moderately through the nose. There must be no raising of the shoulders, nor any kind of heaving or motion of the upper portions of the lungs; but an even inhalation, that will contract the diaphragm and put in motion the abdominal muscles.

The pupil in elocution and music is strongly urged to attend to the right and the wrong method of producing the sounds of our letters, as well as in enunciating words. By all means make the effort entirely below the diaphragm, while the chest is comparatively at rest; and as you value health and life, and good natural speaking, avoid the cruel practice of exploding the sounds, by whomsoever taught or recommended. The author's long experience and practice, with his sense of duty, justify this protest against that unnatural manner of coughing out the sounds, as it is called. Nine tenths of his hundreds of pupils whom he has cured of the bronchitis have induced the disease by this exploding process, which ought itself to be exploded.

Bear constantly in mind that all sounds are made of vibrations of air. We will vocalize the sound of a, thus:

Ha

-h.

We will next produce the vocal-sound, leaving off the aspirate, which will give us the grave sound of a, commencing full and strong, gradually diminishing in force and quantity of sound until it ceases. Great care must be observed to make the a h expulsion

of the breath even, that the sound emitted may be smooth and pure, bearing in mind that converting all the breath into sound gives purity and sweetness; whereas, if it is allowed to escape without being thus used, a husky or rasping noise will accompany the voice-sound. After having repeated a few times the example given, we will reverse the effort; after which we will unite the swell and diminish; and then reverse it.

These are daily exercises for the voice; and in each succeeding daily practice the endeavor should be to increase the volume and length of sound; but caution must be used, lest it fatigue the organs too much.

For a second step in measure, we will divide the swell into half the length, the teacher beating or counting the time.

"Then I heard a strain of music,

So mighty, so pure, so dear,
That my very sorrow was silent,
And my heart stood still to hear.
It rose in harmonious rushing
Of mingled voices and strings,
And I tenderly laid my message

On the music's outspread wings.

And I heard it float farther and farther,
In sound more perfect than speech;
Farther than sight can follow,

Farther than soul can reach.

And I know that at last my message
Has passed through the golden gate;
So my heart is no longer restless,
And I am content to wait."

We will now practice on three notes of the scale involving the diminish and swell. Commence softly on the second note, increasing and slurring into a full swell on the first note; gradually diminish and slur again to the second note, making it an almost imperceptible sound; rise to the third note, and descend in the same way, catching breath at the diminishing note.

To shorten this vocalized breath-sound cut it up for the formation of words and syllables. We will repeat the word АH a great many times in quick succession, making three sounds at each effort: the first one very loud, the second much fainter, and the third one a mere echo of the second: Aн-ah-ah.

In the examples just given we take the first step in forming words. By giving stress or force to the first effort, lessening it on the second, and letting the third receive the natural diminution of the sound, we bring into use accent. In this second unaccented expulsion we get the true sound of ah as used in all conditions where there is no particular stress needed.

EXAMPLES.-I saw a man and a boy in a field after a horse, a cow, and a sheep, while a hawk, a swallow, and a robin flew over them all. Charles bought a large and a small apple for a cent of a woman who had a stall beside a stream where a lad caught a pike, a roach, and a trout. Ah, alms, arch, ark, arms, art, aunt, ardent, argue.

Here is an illustration of the manner in which words are enunciated: ART-ful-ly, ART-less-ly, ART-i-zan.

In these examples the accent is on the first syllable, while the others are merely spoken loud enough to be heard.

In the following examples the accent is on the second syllable, the first one being like the last sound of the preceding measure: Ap-PLIance, so-NO-rous, be-HAV-ior.

The accented syllables should be as prominent to the ear as these letters are to the eye.

"Let each cadence melt in languor

Softly on my ravished ears,
Till my half-closed eyes are brimming
With a rapture of sweet tears.
Summon back fond recollections,
Such as gentle sounds prolong;
Flights of memory embalming
In the amber of a song."

"Then read from the treasured volume

The poem of thy choice,

And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.

And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away."

« AnteriorContinuar »