CHAPTER V. QUALITY OF VOICE. INTRODUCTORY. 1. Quality of voice relates to the kind of tone used in reading or speaking in order to express varied thoughts and emotions. 2. The ever-varying intonations of a rich and cultivated voice constitute one of the greatest charms of a good reader or speaker. 3. In poetical and impassioned language," says Prof. Russell, "tones are often the most prominent and the most important qualities of voice; and to give these with propriety, force, and vividness, is the chief excellence of good reading or recitation. 4. "The language of prose, being generally less imaginative and exciting, does not require the extent and power of tone used in poetry. But as true feeling is, in both cases, the same in kind, though not in degree, and as no sentiment can be uttered naturally without the tone of its appropriate emotion, and no thought, indeed, can arise in the mind without a degree of emotion, a great importance is attached, even in the reading or speaking of prose composition, to those qualities of voice comprehended under the name of tones. 5. "Without these, utterance would degenerate into a merely mechanical process of articulation. It is these that give impulse and vitality to thought, and which constitute the chief instruments of eloquence." KINDS OF TONE. The different qualities of tone may be classed as follows: 1. Pure tone. 4. The Guttural. 2. The Orotund. 3. The Aspirated. 5. The Falsetto. 6. The Semitone. Of these divisions, the pure tone and the orotund are the most important, because they are most used in reading. FAULTS IN QUALITY. 1. Perhaps the most common fault in school reading consists in using one uniform tone for all kinds of selections. 2. This hard, thin, high, grating quality is appropriately termed the "school tone." 3. The faulty habits of pupils in this respect are best corrected by requiring pupils to repeat in concert, after the teacher, short extracts which include great variations of quality. Many timid pupils are, at first, frightened at the sound of their own voices in any other tone than the conventional school tone. 4. Another fault is the tendency to the nasal tone. This high, thin, sharp, disagreeable tone is produced by forcing the breath into the nose before it leaves the mouth, and this fault in reading is the result of not opening the mouth sufficiently in reading. It may be broken up by persistent drill on the open vowel sounds, and by exercises that keep the voice down to a low pitch. I. PURE TONE. 1. Pure tone, or head tone, is a clear, smooth sound, so formed as to have a slight resonance in the head or through the nasal passages. A good illustration of this quality is afforded by giving the sound of oo as in moon, prolonged for ten seconds, in a thin, clear, gentle vocal sound, on a moderately high pitch. 2. Pure tone is used in all quiet, gentle, subdued forms of utterance; in the expression of pathos and tenderness; in ordinary conversation; in unimpassioned reading; and in the prolonged tones of shouting or calling, when the voice, raised to a high pitch, flows in a thin, clear, penetrating volume. 3. The production of pure and full tone," says Prof. William Russell, "is the common ground on which elocution and vocal music unite, in elementary discipline. Both arts demand attention to appropriate healthful attitude, and to free, expansive, energetic action in the organs. 4. "Both require erect posture, free opening of the chest, full and regular breathing, power of producing and sustaining any degree of volume of voice, and, along with these, the habit of vivid, distinct articulation. 5. "Both equally forbid that imperfect and laborious breathing which mars the voice, exhausts the organs, and produces disease. Both tend to secure that healthy vigor of organ which makes vocal exercise, at once, a source of pleasure and a source of health." EXAMPLES. 1. Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, While the landscape round it measures. 2. O that this lovely vale were mine! 3. O then I see Queen Mab hath been with you! 4. Rejoice, ye men of Angiers; ring your bélls; Open your gates to give the victors way. 5. Joy! joy forever! my task is done! 6. Ring, joyous chords! ring out again! 7. Hear the sledges with the bells-silver bells! S. Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. 9. Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. 10. Has there any old fellow got mixed with the boys! 11. Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. 12. BUGLE SONG. O hark, O hear! how thin and clear, The horns of Elf-land faintly blowing! 13. THE BELLS. Hear the sledges with the bells Silver bells! TENNYSON. What a world of merriment their melody foretells! In the icy air of night! Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells Bells, bells, bells; From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. 14. SONG ON MAY MORNING. POE. Now the bright morning Star, day's harbinger, The flowery May, who from her green lap throws The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose. Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire Mirth, and youth, and warm desire: Woods and groves are of thy dressing, Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing. Thus we salute thee with our early song, And welcome thee, and wish thee long. 15. DRIFTING. The day so mild is Heaven's own child, The airs I feel around me steal Are murmuring to the murmuring keel. 16. TO A SKYLARK. Hail to thee, blithe spirit- That from heaven, or near it, In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. Higher still and higher, From the earth thou springest; Like a cloud of fire The blue deep thou wingest, MILTON. READ. And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. 17. PASSING AWAY. Was it the chime of a tiny bell That came so sweet to my dreaming éar, Like the silvery tones of a fairy's shell, SHELLEY. That he winds, on the beach, so mellow and cléar, |