Expressive Voice Culture | Page 6

kept pure and free, and practised with varying degrees of force, with the idea of steady projection and determined control. The ability to sustain the tone for a long time will increase, and with it the power of the muscles exercised.
The idea of projecting tone is based upon the feeling of sympathy with those at a distance, and not simply upon the desire to make them hear. Short passages of a vital and animated nature should be practised with varying degrees of radiation, so that the consciousness of the student may adapt itself to the idea of including in his sympathies a larger or smaller number of people. The thought of sympathy with, or nearness to, those addressed is a most important principle in the development of this power. It is never the best way to strive to speak loud in order that one may be heard. Such selections as Lanier's "Life and Song," Wordsworth's "The Daffodils," and Scott's "Lochinvar" will be found helpful studies for radiation. It is useful in practising the humming tone, or the nares tone, to imagine the whole atmosphere pervaded with pure resonance. Too much emphasis cannot be placed upon the idea of perfect purity as the essential foundation of power. The pure voice will grow to power. In taking this exercise there should be no consciousness of effort in the throat, and no shade of sharpness should be heard in the tone. One must try for the pure, pervasive resonance which seems to float on the air like the soft note of a violin. The right condition for the expression of this radiant vitality in the voice is a complete alertness and responsive vivacity of the whole person. This animation should be vital and not nervous.
PITCH
A voice, to express variety, must have sufficient compass to give opportunity for a free play of inflection over various degrees of pitch. It has been said, "Inflection is the tune of the thought." It is that which makes it attractive. If one desires to emphasize a point of thought and make it attractive to another person he instinctively increases his emphasis by lengthening the slide or inflection. The high pitch indicates mental activity; the medium pitch is the normal or heart range; the low pitch is more peculiarly vital. If one would express varieties of thought with brilliancy and effectiveness, the range of his voice must be wide, and the evenness of quality so perfect that he can glide from one extreme of pitch to another without any break in the tone. Facility in thus handling the voice may be developed by means of special attention directed to this characteristic. The practice for securing this adaptability in the modulations of pitch is as follows.
Begin with the nares or humming tone, giving it on as many different notes of the scale as can be easily reached. Practise the scale gliding from one note to another while maintaining the pure tone. Practise gliding in the form of inflection, or slide, from one extreme of pitch to another. This may be given with variations, according to the ability of the student to control his voice with evenness and to maintain that pure smoothness of gradation in quality which permits no break or interruption in gliding from one pitch to another. These varieties of practice in slides and scales should be introduced with the practice of various elements of speech, as well as with the humming tone. The different vowels should be so used. Selections for practice should be chosen which contain much variety of thought and feeling and are smooth in movement. For instance, Tennyson's "Song of the Brook," "The Bugle Song," practised with the introduction of the bugle notes and their echoes, and various other selections of a musical and attractive nature, may be adapted to this practice by simply exaggerating the slides which one would naturally make in bringing out the meaning. No extravagant or unwarrantable inflections which will mar the expression of the thought should be permitted, but it is quite desirable to gradually extend the range of the inflections, if one still maintains in the practice that common sense which will leave the expression in perfect symmetry when the extra effort made for inflection shall have been withdrawn. Though it is sometimes desirable to exaggerate one element, even to the sacrifice of others, it is never necessary to introduce false notes, the effect of which may remain as a limitation upon the expression of the selection used.
VOLUME
Other things being equal, the volume of voice used measures the value that the mind puts upon the thought. Of course the expression of this value is modified and characterized by the nature of the thing spoken of. For example, one would express the value of the ocean with a different