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FROM THE VOICE OF SPRING.-Mrs. Hemans.

("Expulsive orotund :" "Impassioned" force: "Median stress.") "I come! I come!-ye have called me long : I come o'er the mountains with light and song! Ye may trace my step o'er the wakening earth, By the winds which tell of the violet's birth, By the primrose stars in the shadowy grass, By the green leaves opening as I pass.

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From the streams and founts I have loosed the chain: They are sweeping on to the silvery main,

They are flashing down from the mountain brows,-
They are flinging spray o'er the forest-boughs,-
They are bursting fresh from their sparry caves;
And the earth resounds with the joy of waves!"

Exultation.

FROM THE HYMN OF THE STARS. -Bryant.

("Quality," force, and "stress," as before, but more fully given.)

"Away, away! through the wide, wide sky,

The fair blue fields that before us lie,

Each sun with the worlds that round him roll,
Each planet, poised on her turning pole,

With her isles of green, and her clouds of white,
And her waters that lie like fluid light!

"For the source of glory uncovers his face,
And the brightness o'erflows unbounded space;
And we drink, as we go, the luminous tides
In our ruddy air and our blooming sides :
Lo! yonder the living splendors play!
Away! on our joyous path away!

"Away, away!-In our blossoming bowers,
In the soft air wrapping these spheres of ours,
In the seas and fountains that shine with morn,
See Love is brooding, and Life is born;

And breathing myriads are breaking from night,
To rejoice like us, in motion and light!”

V. "Very High" Pitch.

The extreme of the upper part of the musical scale, as far as it is practicable to individuals, in the management of the voice, is the natural range of pitch for the utterance of ecstatic and rapturous or uncontrollable emotion. It belongs, accordingly, to high-wrought lyric and dramatic passages, in strains of joy, grief, astonishment, delight, tenderness, and the hysterical extremes of passionate emotion generally.

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As the appropriate utterance of excessive feeling, the "extremely high pitch" is not so important for the general purposes of elocution, as the "middle" or the high.' Passages requiring this mode of expression must obviously be of comparatively rare occurrence. It is not less true, however, that the peculiar beauty, or power, or natural effect, of a strain of poetry, may depend, for its true expression, on the command which the reader or reciter possesses over this element of voice. It is equally certain that practice and discipline on the uppermost notes of the scale, give the voice great pliancy, on the range immediately below; and that the frequent repetition of the highest note which the student can command, is one of the most efficacious means of imparting firm, clear, and wellcompacted tone.

The following examples, together with the elements and selected words, should be repeated, as daily exercises, for the purpose of training the organs to easy execution on high notes.

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[SONG OF THE Valkyriur, or FATAL SISTERS, TO THE DOOMED WARRIOR.]-Mrs. Hemans.

("Expulsive Orotund :" "Sustained" force of calling and shouting: "Median stress.")

"Lo! the mighty sun looks forth!

Arm! thou leader of the north!

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DROMIO OF SYRACUSE, [ON HIS BEING MISTAKEN FOR HIS BROTHER.]·

Shakspeare.

("Expulsive Orotund:" "Impassioned" force: " Thorough stress.")

"This drudge laid claim to me; called me Dromio; swore I was assured to her; told me what private marks I had about me, as the mark of my shoulder, the mole in my neck, the great wart on my left arm,- that I, amazed, ran from her as a witch; and I think, if my breast had not been made of faith, and my heart of steel, she had transformed me to a curtaildog, and made me turn i' the wheel."

To attain a perfect command of " pitch," as an element of expression, it will be a useful exercise, to review, in close succession, all the examples of "pitch," and to add, at each stage, a repetition of the elements and of words. The student who can borrow the aid of the musical scale, will derive great benefit from the exactness which it will impart to his practice; as it will enable him to observe and to remember certain notes as the appropriate pitch for natural and impressive reading, in passages characterized by given emotions. The habit of analyzing passages, so as to recognize readily their predominating feeling, and, consequently, their "pitch," is one which every earnest student of elocution will cultivate with persevering diligence, till he finds himself able, from a single glance at the first line of a piece, to determine its gradation of feeling, and its true note in

utterance.

Besides practising the examples of "pitch," in the order in which they occur in the preceding pages, it will contribute much to facility in changing the "pitch" of the voice, if the student will vary the order of the examples, so as to become accustomed to pass easily from one point of the scale to another,- as from highest to lowest, and the reverse. The practice of the elements and of words, should always be added to the repetition of the examples.

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66 TRANSITION IN PITCH.

The paucity of terms in our language, for the various phenomena of voice, has laid writers on elocution under an imagined necessity of using some words, borrowed from other sciences or arts, in a manner not consistent with scientific accuracy of expression. Thus, the word "modulation," which has an exact meaning in music, has been used in elocution, in an irregular manner, to designate the observance of the difference of pitch, in the utterance of emotions, as they occur successively in reading or speaking. Popular, and even reputable usage, has sanctioned this application of the term. But as it tends to create confusion of ideas, when it is used in certain relations to elocution which regard the "melody" of the component parts of sentences, it would be better, perhaps, to regard the transitions of the voice from one strain to another, in consecutive reading, as merely the necessary assumption of a new "pitch," adapted to each successive emotion, and being nothing else, as a vocal accomplishment, than skill in instantly striking a given note of the scale.

A passage of composition, in prose or verse, used as an exercise in reading, may be marked to the ear by one prevalent tone of feeling, which allows or requires little or no variation of voice, and, consequently, as little transition from one note of the scale to another. We find one piece, as Milton's Allegro, for example, pervaded by the expressive tones, and "high" notes, and consequent high pitch," of joy throughout, another, as the same author's Penseroso, marked by the prevalence of the style of grave musing and poetic melancholy, with their appropriate expression in "low" notes, and, therefore, low pitch."

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Other compositions are characterized by great and frequent transitions of feeling and of utterance, and consequently by corresponding high or low notes, and the frequent transition from one to the other. It is to these changes of voice that the term "modulation" has sometimes been arbitrarily applied; and it is to the department of elocution sometimes designated by this term, that we now proceed in our analysis.

This branch of our subject is one of the utmost importance to the student. Without the power of easy and exact accommodation of voice to the natural" pitch " of every successive emotion in a piece, there can be no such thing as natural or impressive reading. But variation of "pitch" is a topic on which we need not dwell; as it is, practically, but the consecutive application of the same functions of voice to which we have just been attending in detached and separate instances. Let the student read in close sequence, and with perfect exactness of "pitch," all the examples given under that head, and he will have necessarily executed, at the same time, an extensive practice in "transition" from one portion of the scale to another, as he shifted the pitch of his voice in passing from one example to another.

A piece of varied topics and style, in prose writing, or what has been termed a Pindaric ode, in lyric poetry, will furnish, by its changing character of thought and expression, appropriate occasions

for frequent and great transitions on the scale, as the voice passes from the utterance of one strain of emotion to that of another.

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EXAMPLES OF "TRANSITION IN PITCH.

1. From Joy to Grave and Pathetic Emotion.

(From "High" to "Low Pitch.")

THE VOICE OF SPRING.-Mrs. Hemans.

"High."

Away from the dwellings of care-worn men,
The waters are sparkling in grove and glen!
Away from the chamber and sullen hearth,
The young leaves are dancing in breezy mirth!
Their light stems thrill to the wild-wood strains ;
And youth is abroad in my green domains!

"Low."

“But ye―ye are changed since ye met me last!
There is something bright from your features passed!
There is that come over your brow and eye,

Which speaks of a world where the flowers must die!
Ye smile! but your smile hath a dimness yet:
Oh! what have ye looked on since last we met?"

2. From Horror to Tranquillity.

(From "Very Low" to "Middle Pitch.")

STANZAS FROM A RUSSIAN POET.-Bowring.

"Very Low."

"How frightful the grave! how deserted and drear! With the howls of the storm-wind, the creaks of the bier, And the white bones all clattering together!

"Middle Pitch."

"How peaceful the grave! its quiet how deep: Its zephyrs breathe calmly; and soft is its sleep; And flowrets perfume it with ether."

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