AN ELOCUTIONARY ANALYSIS. INTRODUCTION. ALL that language or tones can effect, to convince the understanding, arouse the feelings, or enlist sympathy, must be done by the voice addressed to the ear. Hence, upon its quality and management depends the perfection of reading and speaking. A full, clear, and energetic utterance, united with richness and mellowness of tone, constitutes the properties of a good voice. In order to acquire these properties, by practising exercises designed for vocal culture, freedom of movement must be allowed to all the enunciatory organs. 1. The posture of the body must be upright and easy, the head erect, and the shoulders held back and down, so as to expand the chest as much as possible. 2. The teeth must not be too nearly closed, or the cavity of the mouth so contracted but that the tongue may execute its proper movements with celerity and exactness. 3. The lungs must be kept inflated; the portion of air given out being constantly and imperceptibly supplied, so that there shall always be a quantity in reserve. 4. In order to preserve an erect and easy position, when standing, the feet should be placed a few inches apart, one being a little in advance of the other, with its heel slightly turned inward; and the foot kept back should receive the principal weight of the body. VOCAL GYMNASTICS. GYMNASTICS in the open air are among the most important aids to vocal culture. The following movements and breathings, suitable for Upon what depends the perfection of reading or speaking? tutes the properties of a good voice? What should be the body? How must be the teeth and mouth? The lungs? feet be placed? What is said of Gymnastics? What of the What constiposture of the How must the movements? |