Expressive Voice Culture

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Title: Expressive Voice Culture Including the Emerson System
Author: Jessie Eldridge Southwick
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EXPRESSIVE VOICE CULTURE ***

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Expressive Voice Culture
Including
The Emerson System
By
JESSIE ELDRIDGE SOUTHWICK
Teacher of Voice Culture in the Emerson College of Oratory.

Preface
The Emerson System treats the voice as a natural reporter of the
individual, constantly emphasizing the tendency of the voice to express
appropriately any mental concept or state of feeling.
This treatise is a setting forth of methods and principles based upon this
idea with a fuller elaboration of the relation of technique to expression.
No attempt is here made, however, to present more than an individual
contribution to this broad subject.
J. E. S.

Expressive Voice Culture.

CHAPTER I
Principles of Voice Culture.
The first essential to one beginning the study of voice culture is an
appreciation of the real significance of voice development. We must

recognize at once the fact that the voice is a natural reporter of the
conditions, emotions, thoughts, and purposes (character and states or
conditions) of the individual. The ring of true culture in the voice is that
perfect modulation of tone and movement which, without
self-consciousness, communicates exactly the meaning and purpose
which impel the utterances of the speaker.
It is almost impossible for any person to cultivate vocal expression to
the best advantage without an intelligent and sympathetic teacher; he
lacks the perspective upon himself which is necessary in order to
correct his individual faults and draw out his most effective powers.
Then, again, he needs that personal supervision and direction of his
efforts which will allow his mind to be constantly occupied with
thoughts and principles, and relieve him of all temptation to watch his
own performances as such. But it is necessary that the student should
have a simple and logical basis for practice, however great may become
the variety of its application.
That the voice is naturally expressive is shown in the fact that even
where there is no possible suggestion of cultivation we instinctively
read the broad outlines of meaning and feeling in the tones and
inflections of the voice. May it not therefore be possible that a finer
culture will reveal all the subtle shades of thought and feeling, and a
more discriminating judgment be able to detect these, just as the
ethnologist will reconstruct from some crude relic the history of an
earlier civilization?
We must remember, too, that first of all the voice is a vital instrument.
The physical condition affects most noticeably the quality, strength,
and movement of the voice. Hence we see that physical health is
essential to a good voice, and the proper use of the voice is itself one of
the most invigorating exercises that can be practised. All the vital
organs are called into healthful action through this extraordinary
manipulation of the breath, and the nervous system, both vitally and
emotionally, receives invigoration.
In the beginning, therefore, such vital conditions as are essential to the
production of tone should be considered.

First, a standing position, in which the vital organs are well sustained,
is essential. One cannot even breathe properly unless one stands well.
The weight should be mainly upon the balls of the feet, and the crown
of the head so positively elevated as to secure the erectness of the
spinal column. This will involve the proper elevation of the chest, the
essential freedom of respiration, and the right sustaining tension of the
abdominal muscles.
(_a_) Take standing position as follows: weight on balls of feet, heels