The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886 | Page 7

respect to one another, speech
syllables, like notes in music, are discrete. This may be exemplified by
uttering the words, "Where are you going?" In singing these words,
they may be uttered on the same note, or on different notes, or, indeed,
with different notes for the same word; but the voice skips from note to
note through the intervals. In speaking the words, each is uttered with
an inflection or intonation in which the voice varies in pitch, but passes
through the interval concretely; the separate words, however, and the
separate syllables (if there were any) being uttered discretely. Musical
utterance might be graphically illustrated by a series of horizontal lines
of less or greater length succeeding one another at different distances
above or below a fixed horizontal line. In a similar notation for speech
utterance the lines would all be curved, to represent the concrete
passage through the various intervals. It is the concrete intonation of
every syllable and monosyllabic word which gives to speech its
distinctive character from music. Each syllable and monosyllabic word
is called a =concrete=, and it is with the concrete in all its various
possibilities of utterance that voice culture has mainly to do.
The intervals traversed by the voice in uttering the concrete are very
variable. Using the musical scale for reference it may be said that in
ordinary speech they are generally of but one, or, at most, two notes. In
animated discourse or passionate utterance the intervals may be greater.
For illustration, let the pronoun "I" be uttered in a tone of interrogative
surprise; a concrete with a rising interval will be the result. The more
the surprise is emphasized, especially if indignation be conjoined with
it, the greater will be the interval that the voice passes through in
uttering the concrete. If the word "lie" be given immediately after the
pronoun with the same intensity of feeling, the voice discretely

descends from the high pitch heard at the end of the utterance of the
pronoun, and in uttering the next concrete, again ascends through an
interval, of less or more extent according to the emphasis which is
imparted to it.
Again, in speech of sorrow, murmuring, piteous complaint, and the like,
concrete intervals of less extent than those used in ordinary discourse
are often heard. Thus, if the sentence "Pity me, kind lady, I have no
mother," be uttered with a plaintive expression, concretes with small
intervals will be distinctly noticeable; but it will be also noticed that
with respect to one another the syllables are discretely uttered, just as in
the sentence where the concrete intervals were much greater.
Without intending a scientifically accurate and rigid statement, it may
be said (again borrowing the terminology of music) that in ordinary
speech the concretes are uttered with intervals of a second, or at most a
third; that in very expressive or impassioned utterance intervals of a
fifth or an octave are frequently used; and that the mode of progression
from syllable to syllable is diatonic, that is, not concretely, but
discretely from tone to tone; and further, that in plaintive language, the
syllables are uttered concretely with intervals of a semitone only, but
that the mode of progression from syllable to syllable is still discrete.
Sometimes, but rarely, syllables are uttered tremulously, or with a
tremor; that is, with constituent intervals of less than a semitone,
uttered discretely in rapid succession, and passing, in the aggregate,
through an interval of more or less width. An exaggerated form of this
utterance may be heard in the neighing of a horse.
EXERCISE.--1. Utter the syllable pä as a concrete, with rising and
falling intervals, severally, of a second, third, fifth, and an octave; also
with intervals of a semitone; also with a tremor. Let the exercise be
varied so as to include many degrees of initial pitch. Use a diagram of a
musical staff for reference.
2. Read with exaggerated impressiveness, "Am =I= to be your slave?
=No!="

In the pronunciation of the letter [=a], as in pate, two sounds are heard:
the first is that of the name of the letter, which is uttered with some
degree of fulness; the second is that of [=e] in mete, but, as it were,
tapering and vanishing;--in the meantime the voice traverses a rising
interval of one tone, that is, of a second. The utterance of these two
sounds, although the sounds themselves are distinct, is completely
continuous, from the full opening of the one to the vanishing close of
the other, and it is impossible to say where the first ends and where the
last begins. It is essential, however, to consider them separately. The
first is called the =radical movement=, and the second the =vanishing
movement=; and these together constitute the entire concrete.