2 A MIDDLE TONE, or medium loudness of voice, is employed in reading narrative, descriptive, or didactic sentences. EXAMPLE. I love my country's pine-clad hills, In wild fantastic forms. 3. A LOUD TONE, or fullness and stress of voice is used in expressing violent passions and vehement emotions. 1. EXAMPLES. STAND! the ground's your own, my braves, Will ye give it up to slaves? Will ye look for greener graves? Hope ye mercy still? What's the mercy despots feel? Hear it in that battle-peal,— 2. Read it on yon bristling steel,— Ask it—ye who will! PIERPONT. "HOLD!" Tyranny cries; but their resolute breath QUALITY. QUALITY has reference to the kind of sound uttered. Two sounds may be alike in quantity and pitch, yet differ in quality. The sounds produced on the clarinet and flute, may agree in pitch and quantity, yet be unlike in quality. The same is true in regard to the tones of the voice of two individuals. This difference is occasioned mainly by the different positions of the vocal organs. The qualities of voice mostly used in reading or speaking, and which should receive the highest degree of culture, are the Pure Tone, the Orotund, the Aspirated, and the Guttural RULES FOR QUALITY. 1. THE PURE TONE is a clear, smooth, sonorous flow of sound, usually accompanied with the middle pitch of voice, and is adapted to express emotions of joy, cheerfulness, love, and tranquillity. EXAMPLE. Hail! beauteous stranger of the wood, Attendant on the spring, Now heaven repairs thy vernal seat, And woods thy welcome sing. COWPER. 2. THE OROTUND is a full, deep, round, and pure tone of voice, peculiarly adapted in expressing sublime and pathetic emotions. EXAMPLE. It thunders! Sons of dust, in reverence bow! I hear thy awful voice. Alarmed-afraid- And in the very grave would hide my head. 3. THE ASPIRATED TONE of voice is not a pure, vocal sound, but rather a forcible breathing utterance, and is used to express. amazement, fear, terror, anger, revenge, remorse, and fervent emotions. EXAMPLE. Oh, coward conscience, how dost thou affright mel 4. THE GUTTURAL QUALITY is a deep, aspirated tone of voice, used to express aversion, hatred, loathing, and contempt. EXAMPLE. Tell me I hate the bowl? HATE is a feeble word: I loathe, ABHOR, my very soul With strong disgust is stirred, EXAMPLES FOR EXERCISE IN MODULATION. (p) Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows, (f.) (sl.) 고훈 When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, (−) Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main. Pʊph Go ring the bells and fire the guns, Give back the cradle shout. WHITTIER. "And now, farewell! 'Tis hard to give thee up, The sun hath set in folded clouds, Its twilight rays are gone, And, gathered in the shades of night, The storm is rolling on. Alas! how ill that bursting storm The fainting spirit braves, When they, the lovely and the lost, Are gone to early graves! WILLIS (°) ("') On! onward still! o'er the land he sweeps, With wreck, and ruin, and rush, and roar, On his dreary track, But speeds to the spoils before. MISS J. H. LEWIS. From every battle-field of the revolution-from Lexington and Bunker Hill-from Saratoga and Yorktown-from the fields of Eutaw from the cane-brakes that sheltered the men of Marion-the repeated, longprolonged echoes came up-(f.) "THE UNION: IT MUST BE PRESERVED." (<) From every valley in our land—from every cabin on the pleasant mountain sides-from the ships at our wharves-from the tents of the hunter in our westernmost prairies-from the living minds of the living millions of American freemen-from the thickly coming glories of futurity-the shout went up, like the sound of many waters, (f.) “THE UNION: IT MUST BE PRESERVED." BANCROFT. (p.) (sl.) (0) (==) Hark! Along the vales and mountains of the earth From every hill-top of her western home; And lo! it breaks across old Ocean's flood, And "FREEDOM! FREEDOM!" is the answering shout Of nations, starting from the spell of years. G. D. PRENTIC "Quick! Man the boat!" (=) Away they spring The stranger ship to aid, And loud their hailing voices ring, As rapid speed they made. (sl.) (pp.) (10) (f.) (0°) (f.) Hush! lightly tread! still tranquilly she sleeps; Matter immortal? and shall spirit die? Away! away to the mountain's brow, Where the streams are gently laving. An hour passed on ;-the Turk awoke ;— That bright dream was his last ; He woke to hear his sentry's shriek, YOUNG "To ARMS! they come! (ff.) THE GREEK! THE GREEK!" And death-shots falling thick and fast "Strike-till the last armed foe expires! HALLECK. He said, and on the rampart hights arrayed (*) His speech was at first low-toned and slow. CAMPBELL. Sometimes his voice would deepen, (。。) like the sound of distant thunder; and anon, (") his flashes of wit and enthusiasm would light up the anxious faces of his hearers, like the far-off lightning of a coming storm. |