A good reader or speaker will vary his or her voice in the elements of emotional expression (that is, pitch, quality, movement, stress, force), on words, phrases, and sentences, in such a manner that the listeners get a suggestion of the meaning of a word by the sound of it. For instance, the words bright, glad, joyful, dull, sad, weak, may be pronounced in such a manner as to suggest by the quality of voice used their meaning; and, in the same manner, phrases and whole sentences may have variation in voice so as to suggest their meaning. This is modulation.
To modulate well, first, you must use your imagination, to form a perfect picture in your own mind of what you wish to describe, just as you would if you were an artist, and were intending to paint an ideal picture; and, in reality, you are an artist, for you paint with words and tones. Secondly, you should understand the exact meaning of each word, and, when you speak it, make your manner of speaking it suggest its meaning. Suppose you were to read Tennyson's "Song of the Brook." We will analyze as near as words may the manner of reading each verse. Read the whole song, and form the picture in imagination of the flow of the water, the scenery along its course, the roughness or smoothness of the water as described, the slowness or rapidity of its flow at different points, how large or small the brook is, making the picture as perfect as if you would paint upon canvas the whole scene.
THE BROOK.
As a whole, this piece requires for quality of voice the pure tone; force, gentle; movement, moderate; pitch, middle; stress, median. The variations in modulation must be from these, and will be mostly variations in quality, movement, and pitch.
Lines 2 to 6. Movement, quick; pitch, high; with quality changing on words sudden, sparkle, bicker, hurry, slip, in such a way as to suggest the meaning of the word.
Lines 7 to 12. Movement, moderate; pitch, middle.
Lines 13 to 16. Movement, quick; pitch, high; the words chatter, stony, sharps, trebles, bubble, babble, spoken with suggestion of their meaning.
Lines 17 to 20. Movement, moderate; pitch, middle.
Lines 21 to 24. Movement, quick; pitch, high; make quality suggest on chatter, brimming.
Lines 25 to 28. Movement, slow; pitch, middle; change to suggestive quality on wind, blossom, lusty.
Lines 29 to 36. Movement, moderate; pitch, middle; suggestive quality on foamy, silvery, golden, brimming.
Lines 37 to 40. Movement, slow; pitch, low; suggestive quality on steal, slide, move, happy.
Lines 41, 42. Movement, pitch, quality, all varied on words slip, slide, gloom, glance.
Lines 43, 44. Movement, quick; pitch, high; suggestive quality on dance, shallows.
Lines 45 to 48. Movement, slow; pitch, low; quality, very slightly aspirate; suggestive quality on murmur, linger, loiter.
Lines 49 to 52. Movement, moderate; pitch, middle; suggestive quality on brimming.
This analysis is very imperfect, as it is impossible in words to explain it. What modulation requires is, as a popular author says, "genius and sense" on your part, and you will be enabled to do as here is imperfectly suggested. You will do well to select some pieces, and analyze them, as here suggested. In Longfellow's launch of the ship, in his poem "Building of the Ship," picture the whole scene in imagination, the size and kind of ship, the number of the crowd, &c.
The following pieces are marked so that you may get a general idea of what is required for emotional expression in each. No marking can give you particulars of what is necessary, as the modulation of voice or variety in emotional expression—the light and shadow in the coloring of your word-picture—must depend upon your artistic "sense and genius." Imagine your picture, understand the meaning of every word and suggest its meaning in tone, concentrate yourself in the thought and feeling of the piece, and let your voice be governed by that, and you will not go far wrong if you have faithfully practised what has been recommended in the previous pages of this book.
1. Pure quality, gentle force, slow movement, middle pitch, median stress.
2. Orotund quality, with fulness and power, varying middle and low pitch, moderate and quick movement, median and radical stress mixed.
3. Pure to orotund quality, gentle to moderate force, moderate movement, middle pitch, radical and median stress mixed. This contains many words that can be pronounced with a quality or variation suggesting their meaning.
Rhetoric as taught in our seminaries and by elocutionists is one thing: genuine, heart-thrilling, soul-stirring eloquence is a very different thing. The one is like the rose in wax, without odor; the other like the rose on its native bush, perfuming the atmosphere with the rich odors distilled from the dew of heaven.
The one is the finely-finished statue of a Cicero or Demosthenes, more perfect in its lineaments than the original, pleasing the eye, and enrapturing the imagination: the other is the living man, animated by intellectual power, rousing the deepest feelings of every heart, and electrifying every soul as with vivid lightning. The one is a picture of the passions all on fire: the other is the real conflagration, pouring out a volume of words that burn like liquid flames bursting from the crater of a volcano.
The one attracts the admiring gaze and tickles the fancy of an audience: the other sounds an alarm that vibrates through the tingling ears to the soul, and drives back the rushing blood upon the aching heart. The one falls upon the multitude like April showers glittering in the sunbeams, animating, and bringing nature into mellow life: the other rouses the same mass to deeds of noble daring, and imparts to it the terrific force of an avalanche.
The one moves the cerebral foliage in waves of recumbent beauty like a gentle wind passing over a prairie of tall grass and flowers: the other strikes a blow that resounds through the wilderness of mind like rolling thunder through a forest of oaks. The one fails when strong commotions and angry elements agitate the public peace: the other can ride upon the whirlwind, direct the tornado, and rule the storm.
4. Aspirated orotund quality, moderate force, very slow movement, very low pitch, median stress.
5. Pure quality, moderate force, quick movement, high pitch, radical stress, suggestive quality on many words.
What you have to say, where you have to say it, when you have to say it, why you have to say it, and to whom you have to say it,—on these depend how you shall say it, or your style. Conversational style is as you would talk in earnest conversation with a friend; Narrative, as you would tell an anecdote or story to a company of friends; Descriptive, as you would describe what you had actually seen; Didactic, as you would state earnestly, decisively, but pleasantly, your knowledge or opinions to others; Public Address, which generally includes the Didactic, Narrative, and Descriptive, is spoken with design to move, to persuade, and instruct, particularly the latter; Declamatory is Public Address magnified in expression, exhibiting more emotion, both in language, and in quality, and fulness of voice; the Emotional or Dramatic, in which the emotions and passions are strongly expressed. In practising these different styles, the quality, pitch, force, and time must be regulated by your thought and feeling, guided, as in transition, by common sense, which will enable you to tell natural from unnatural expression. Practise these few exercises under each head; but you will do better to practise pieces such as are referred to under each head in the "Reading Club."
CONVERSATIONAL.
1. "And how's my boy, Betty?" asked Mrs. Boffin, sitting down beside her.
"He's bad; he's bad!" said Betty. "I begin to be afeerd he'll not be yours any more than mine. All others belonging to him have gone to the Power and the Glory; and I have a mind that they're drawing him to them, leading him away."
"No, no, no!" said Mrs. Boffin.
"I don't know why else he clinches his little hand, as if it had hold of a finger that I can't see; look at it!" said Betty, opening the wrappers in which the flushed child lay, and showing his small right hand lying closed upon his breast. "It's always so. It don't mind me."
3. "Now," said Wardle, "what say you to an hour on the ice? We shall have plenty of time."
"Capital!" said Mr. Benjamin Allen.
"Prime!" ejaculated Mr. Bob Sawyer.
"You skate, of course, Winkle?" said Wardle.
"Ye—yes; oh, yes!" replied Mr. Winkle. "I—I am rather out of practice."
"Oh, do skate, Mr. Winkle!" said Arabella. "I like to see it so much!"
"Oh, it is so graceful!" said another young lady.
A third young lady said it was elegant; and a fourth expressed her opinion that it was "swan-like."
"I should be very happy, I'm sure," said Mr. Winkle, reddening; "but I have no skates."
This objection was at once overruled. Trundle had got a couple of pair, and the fat boy announced that there were half a dozen more down stairs; whereat Mr. Winkle expressed exquisite delight, and looked exquisitely uncomfortable.
See "Reading Club," No. 1, p. 56; No. 2, p. 49; No. 3, pp. 5, 38; No. 4, pp. 94, 67.
NARRATIVE.
2. The illustrious Spinola, upon hearing of the death of a friend, inquired of what disease he died. "Of having nothing to do," said the person who mentioned it. "Enough," said Spinola, "to kill a general." Not only the want of employment, but the want of care, often increases as well as brings on this disease.
3. Sir Isaac Newton was once examining a new and very fine globe, when a gentleman came into his study who did not believe in a God, but declared the world we live in came by chance. He was much pleased with the handsome globe, and asked, "Who made it?"—"Nobody," answered Sir Isaac: "it happened there." The gentleman looked up in amazement; but he soon understood what it meant.
See "Reading Club," No. 1, pp. 23, 73; No. 2, pp. 37, 44; No. 3, pp. 9, 99; No. 4, pp. 26, 49, 89.
DESCRIPTIVE.
2. The broad moon lingers on the summit of Mount Olivet; but its beam has long left the garden of Gethsemane, and the tomb of Absalom, the waters of Kedron, and the dark abyss of Jehoshaphat. Full falls its splendor, however, on the opposite city, vivid and defined in its silver blaze. A lofty wall, with turrets and towers and frequent gates, undulates with the unequal ground which it covers, as it encircles the lost capital of Jehovah. It is a city of hills, far more famous than those of Rome; for all Europe has heard of Sion and of Calvary.
3. It was a fine autumnal day: the sky was clear and serene, and Nature wore that rich and golden livery which we always associate with the idea of abundance. The forests had put on their sober brown and yellow; while some trees of the tenderer kind had been nipped by the frosts into brilliant dyes of orange, purple, and scarlet. Streaming files of wild ducks began to make their appearance high in the air; the bark of the squirrel might be heard from the groves of beech and hickory nuts, and the pensive whistle of the quail at intervals from the neighboring stubble-field.
See "Reading Club," No. 2, pp. 15, 39; No. 3, pp. 28, 97; No. 4, pp. 19, 36, 92.
DIDACTIC.
2. All professions should be liberal; and there should be less pride felt in peculiarity of employment, and more in excellence of achievement. And yet more: in each several profession no master should be too proud to do its hardest work. The painter should grind his own colors; the architect work in the mason's yard with his men; the master-manufacturer be himself a more skilful operative than any man in his mills; and the distinction between one man and another be only in experience and skill, and the authority and wealth which these must naturally and justly obtain.
See "Reading Club," No. 1, p. 82; No. 2, pp. 88, 76; No. 3, p. 59.
PUBLIC ADDRESS.
1. Let not, then, the young man sit with folded hands, calling on Hercules. Thine own arm is the demigod: it was given thee to help thyself. Go forth into the world trustful, but fearless. Exalt thine adopted calling or profession. Look on labor as honorable, and dignify the task before thee, whether it be in the study, office, counting-room, work-shop, or furrowed field. There is an equality in all, and the resolute will and pure heart may ennoble either.
2. While you are gazing on that sun which is plunging into the vault of the west, another observer admires him emerging from the gilded gates of the east. By what inconceivable power does that agèd star, which is sinking fatigued and burning in the shades of the evening, re-appear at the same instant fresh and humid with the rosy dew of the morning? At every hour of the day the glorious orb is at once rising, resplendent as noonday, and setting in the west; or rather our senses deceive us, and there is, properly speaking, no east or west, no north or south, in the world.
3. In all natural and spiritual transactions, so far as they come within the sphere of human agency, there are three distinct elements: there is an element of endeavor, of mystery, and of result; in other words, there is something for man to do, there is something beyond his knowledge and control, there is something achieved by the co-operation of these two. Man sows the seed, he reaps the harvest; but between these two points occurs the middle condition of mystery. He casts the seed into the ground; he sleeps and rises night and day; but the seed springs and grows up, he knows not how: yet, when the fruit is ripe, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. That is all he knows about it. There is something for him to do, something for him to receive; but between the doing and receiving there is a mystery.
See "Reading Club," No. 1, p. 83; No. 2, pp. 77, 79; No. 3, pp. 74, 91; No. 4, pp. 35, 53.
DECLAMATORY.
1. You speak like a boy,—like a boy who thinks the old gnarled oak can be twisted as easily as the young sapling. Can I forget that I have been branded as an outlaw, stigmatized as a traitor, a price set on my head as if I had been a wolf, my family treated as the dam and cubs of the hill-fox, whom all may torment, vilify, degrade, and insult; the very name which came to me from a long and noble line of martial ancestors denounced, as if it were a spell to conjure up the devil with?
2. I have been accused of ambition in presenting this measure,—inordinate ambition. If I had thought of myself only, I should have never brought it forward. I know well the perils to which I expose myself,—the risk of alienating faithful and valued friends, with but little prospect of making new ones (if any new ones could compensate for the loss of those we have long tried and loved), and the honest misconception both of friends and foes. Ambition!—yes, I have ambition; but it is the ambition of being the humble instrument in the hands of Providence to reconcile a divided people, once more to revive concord and harmony in a distracted land; the pleasing ambition of contemplating the glorious spectacle of a free, united, prosperous, and fraternal people.
3. Tell me, ye who tread the sods of yon sacred height, is Warren dead? Can you not still see him, not pale and prostrate, the blood of his gallant heart pouring out of his ghastly wound, but moving resplendent over the field of honor, with the rose of heaven upon his cheek, and the fire of liberty in his eye? Tell me, ye who make your pious pilgrimage to the shades of Vernon, is Washington indeed shut up in that cold and narrow house? That which made these men, and men like these, cannot die. The hand that traced the charter of Independence is indeed motionless; the eloquent lips that sustained it are hushed: but the lofty spirits that conceived, resolved, and maintained it, and which alone, to such men, "make it life to live,"—these cannot expire.
See "Reading Club," No. 1, pp. 66, 75; No. 3, pp. 50, 68, 84; No. 4, pp. 40, 55.
DRAMATIC OR EMOTIONAL.
See "Reading Club," No. 1, p. 8; No. 2, p. 28; No. 3, p. 60; No. 4, p. 14.