Expression therefore is a refinement on Intonation : they go hand in hand: we cannot think of the one without the other. Intonation gives the voice volume and power; expression uses and adapts it to the feeling of the moment.

Even monotone has its expression.

MONOTONE

is intonation without change of pitch: that is, preserving a fullness of tone, without ascent or descent on the scale.

THE EXPRESSION OF MONOTONE.

It expresses repose of feeling or scene-the calm confidence of power-vastness of thought-veneration—and the over-awing sublimity of grandeur.

But it must not be listless, vapid, soulless monotone; it must be a deep, swelling, crescendo monotone, speaking as it were from the recesses of the heart; as,

Calm-ness sits throned on yon un

mo-ving cloud.

speaker woulde; but when a man is always in one tone, like a humble-bee, or else now in the top of the church, now downe that no man knoweth where to have him; or piping like a reede, or roaring like a bull, as some lawyers do, which thinke they do best when they crye loudest; these shall never move, as I know many well-learned have done, because theyr voyces were not stayed afore, with learninge to singe. For all voyces, great and small, base and shrill, may be holpen and brought to a good point by learninge to singe."

H

It requires practice; and the practice of monotone tends essentially to the improvement of intonation.

The sign of monotone is an even line or mark (denoting an even tone of voice) over the words to be spoken without inflection: but mark,-the sound must swell and gather volume as it proceeds.

EXERCISE ON MONOTONE.

Our revels now are ended: these our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits, and

Are melted into air, into thin air;

And like the baseless fabric of this vision

The cloud-capp'd towers the gorgeous palaces

The solemn temples the great globe itself

Yea, all which it inherit shall dissolve

And like this unsubstantial pageant faded

Leave not a rack behind.

Shaks.

The following passage from Talfourd's classical tragedy of Ion is also good practice in the Intonation of Monotone.

Commence on a deep, full tone.

Ye eldest Gods,

Who in no statues of exactest form

Are palpable; who shun the azure heights

Of beautiful Olympus, and the sound
Of ever-young Apollo's minstrelsy;
Yet mindful of the empire which ye held

Over dim Chaos, keep revengeful wrath

On falling nations, and on kingly lines

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About to sink for ever; ye, who shed

Into the passions of earth's giant brood"

And their fierce usages the sense of justice;
Who clothe the fated battlements of tyranny
With blackness as a funeral pall, and breathe
Thro' the proud halls of time-emboldened guilt
Portents of ruin, hear me! In your presence,

For now I feel you nigh, I dedicate

This arm to the destruction of the king

And of his race! O keep me pitiless!

Expel all human weakness from my frame,

That this keen weapon shake not when his heart
Should feel its point; and if he has a child

Whose blood is needful to the sacrifice

My country asks, harden my soul to shed it!

PITCH OF VOICE.

Expression, as I have said, depends chiefly upon pitch of voice.

We all know that the tones of the voice vary considerably, according to the affection of mind or passion under which a person speaks. We see this daily in nature-we hear a man give a command in one tone, and make an entreaty or ask a favor in another: his voice grows sharper and shriller in rage, and softer and more liquid in tenderness and affection: the voice

is light and rapid in pleasure,-low, moaning, and broken in grief,-dull and heavy in pain,-cracked, wild, and shrieking in despair. The voice of deep passion,-sorrow, love, woe, remorse, pity, &c.-is seated in the chest, (voce di petto,) and its pitch is low : while that of more impulsive passion, as rage, delight, triumph, &c. is high in pitch, and partakes of the quality of the head voice-(voce di testa). It is on our power to command our voice at will to any pitch, that we must rely for vocal expression: that is, the adaptation of tone to sentiment and passion.

Pitch is quite distinct from force; by which, however, its effect may be aided and increased.

The pitch of the speaking voice may be divided into

MIDDLE PITCH,

HIGH PITCH,

LOW PITCH.

By middle, or mean pitch, I intend the ordinary pitch of voice, as used in common conversation, unmarked by passion. That pitch varies according to the quality or character of the individual voice, whether it be soprano, tenor, or bass.

Suppose, for example, the natural key of any voice to be Bb, and the prevailing tone of its ordinary

speech to be

the middle pitch of that voice

may be considered to extend a third above and a third below that tone: and so of any other prevailing tone of any voice.

Above and below the range of the middle pitch, are the high and low pitch respectively. Low pitch may be said to be a third below the mean pitch; and high pitch, a third above it: so that where middle pitch ascending ends, high pitch begins; where middle pitch descending ends, low pitch begins: the range of each, high or low, depending of course on the compass of the speaker's voice.

These are the clearest and most distinct indicia that I am able to give for the regulation of pitch on the speaking voice.

Now each of these three pitches,-the middle, the high, and the low,-has its appropriate sphere of use or expression.

1. THE MIDDLE is the proper pitch for narration, description, (when not particularly animated,) statement, and moral reflection, or calm reasoning.

Such a poetical description as the following, for example, requires only middle pitch.

EXERCISE ON MIDDLE PITCH.

Sometime we see a cloud that's dragonish;
A vapor, sometime, like a bear, or lion,

A tower'd citadel, or pendant rock,

A forked mountain, or blue promontory,

With trees upon it, that nod unto the world,

And mock our eyes with air; thou hast seen these signs;

They are black vesper's pageants.

That which is now a horse, even with a thought,

The rack dislimns; and makes it indistinct

As water is in water.

Shaks.