Delsarte System of Oratory

Chapter 211: Vocal Organ.

Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

About This Book

A systematic manual presents a comprehensive codification of expressive technique for public speaking and performance, beginning with a biographical sketch and preface and then treating voice—its anatomy, vowel formation, intensity, tempo, respiration, and inflection—followed by an extended theory of gesture covering general principles, the laws of gesture, detailed movement of head, eyes, torso, limbs, and a semeiotic analysis, and concluding with articulate language, prosody, the oratorical value of words and phrases, and practical exercises and gesture series for common sentiments; appendices collect lectures, lessons, and contemporary articles illustrating application and pedagogy.

Vocal Organ.

The organ assumes at birth a form; this form is called the timbre or tone, This tone corresponds to the constitutional form. Under the sway of habit, the form assumes an acquired tone which is called emission. The emissive form corresponds to the habitual tone. Under the sway of emotion the voice is modulated and assumes forms which we will call passional or transitory.

The mouth is normal, concentric and eccentric. [See chart in Delaumosne, page 81.]

From these three types we have succeeded in fixing and classifying forty-eight million phenomena.