Expressive Voice Culture | Page 9

shall
secure the activity of its highest powers. The whole aim is to secure the
development of character by the expression of the highest elements of
character.
Although the voice, like all other agents of expression, is naturally the
reflector of the individual and his states, it is necessary to understand
what that statement implies in order to appreciate the great need for the
higher culture of the vocal organism. If the individual's condition were
attuned to perfect harmony, to perfect unity of action, and to singleness
of purpose, together with the habit of personal expression rather than
expression through some limited mode of action--if, indeed, this were
so, his voice would scarce need training,--certainly not corrective
training,--nor would he need "culture" of any kind, being already a
perfect human being.
Those who postulate the "perfectly natural" voice, _i.e._, one that is
unconscious of its own art, either presuppose this condition of innate
perfection or assume that the simple wish to speak--and its
exercise--will be sufficient to overcome wrong habits and conditions.
Will it? Let us see.
The culture of expression is a very different thing from the artful

imitation of the signs of feeling and purpose. If we are to have a real
education along lines of expression we must begin with the "content,"
or cause, of expression. We may for the moment postpone discussion
as to the relative power of the sign to evoke the feeling, and the power
of the feeling or condition to evolve the most effective sign. There is
something to be said upon both sides; and, surely, the truth lies in the
adoption of all good means to produce the desired end.
First, then, to the basis. All oratorical values are measured primarily
from the standpoint of the "what;" the "how" is important, too, but only
in its relation to the "what" and "wherefore." The voice of the orator
must be an influence--a sincere vibration of the motive within.
Theoretically it is so naturally, but practically it is so only when the
voice is free from bias and is responsive through habit or spontaneous
inspiration to the thought of the speaker.
We will admit that genius sometimes is great enough to bring into
harmonious action all powers of the individual under its sway; but
education mainly strives to unfold the imperfect, to balance, the
ununified elements. Even genius, however, needs direction and
adjustment to secure the most perfect and reliable results. How, then,
shall we develop the motive, how enlarge the content?
There is such a subtle relation between motive and action that it has
been said, "The effect of any action is measured by the depth of the
motive from which it proceeds." [Footnote: Ralph Waldo Emerson.]
And so this is why the clever performer cannot reproduce the effect of a
speech of Demosthenes or Daniel Webster. This is a reason aside from
that arising from the difference in the occasion. Great men and great
artists make the occasion in the hearts of their hearers. The voice of the
orator peculiarly should be free from studied effects, and responsive to
motive. It is not the voice of entertainment, but of influence above all.
The orator should be taught self-mastery. The orator who is not moved
by high moral sense is a trickster or a hypocrite; the former juggles
with human susceptibility for unworthy or inadequate ends, and the
latter poses for motives he has not. So complex is human nature that
this can be done by a good actor so as to deceive the judgment and

feelings; but the influence will ultimately reveal the truth, if the auditor
will use intuition and not be taken off guard by the psychic influence of
a strong will bent on a given effect.
The sincere endeavor to express a quality, with the aspiration to make it
real, has the tendency to focus the power of that quality and concentrate
the mind upon it. This, by repetition of effort, both increases the power
and facilitates its expression. One must come to think vividly in terms
of expression. In the instance before us it should be in terms of vocal
expression. Anything well expressed--unconsciously--is to real art what
innocence is to virtue, or what the spontaneous grace of a child is to
that grace as applied to forms definitely intended to communicate an
ideal to others. Self-consciousness must precede
super-self-consciousness.
Unconsciousness is childishness in art, and leads to vagueness of
meaning, to the perpetuation of personal idiosyncrasies; and while a
larger consciousness may be induced from the mind side, positive and
overwhelming inspiration will be needed to overcome habitual
limitations. A musician must love music itself, as well as its meanings,
and a voice cannot be made the best of by one who does not love its
music. Self-consciousness represents