RECITATION FOURTH. ELOCUTION is the art of so employing the Quality, Abruptness, Force, Time, and Pitch of the voice, in the utterance of syllables, as to convey the sense and sentiment of discourse in the fullest manner, and with the greatest possible gratification to the ear. Each of these properties of the voice, (except abruptness, is exerted more or less in the utterance of every element or syllable. Every syllable is uttered by voluntary muscular effort, and therefore requires some force, for this is implied in all voluntary action. Every syllable consumes time in its pronunciation. Every uttered sound has pitch-finally a particular quality of voice (apart from the before mentioned properties) will be observable whenever a syllable is spoken; for no two voices are exactly alike in quality. Abruptness means suddenness combined with fullness, and therefore may or may not accompany the utterance of a syllable. Hence the meaning of discourse and the impression made by it, will depend upon the relative degrees and modifications of the Quality, Abruptness, Force, Time, and Pitch of the voice. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. QUALITY OF VOICE. THE Quality of the voice, no doubt depends partly on unknown circumstances in the structure and action of the organs of speech; as the same tune played upon two organs or piano-fortes will differ in quality of tone, because one instrument differs from another in its peculiar power of modifying sound, owing to its physical properties as an instrument. The ancients employed a great number of terms to describe the quality of the voice, such as rough, smooth, harsh, full, thin, slender, soft, musical. The most important properties of the voice are, gravity, or depth of tone; fullness, or volume of sound; smoothness, and strength ; by which latter property is meant the power of rendering syllables audible through an extensive space. There are other modifications of the quality of the voice which will be explained hereafter. FORCE OF VOICE. The degrees of force are best described by the terms loud and soft, forcible and feeble, strong and weak. Force may be manifested, 1st by loudness, and consequent violent impression on the ear, during a short impulse of sound; or 2dly it may be continued equally through a long one: or 3dly it may be manifested by gradual increase, as when a sound increases perceptibly in volume during its progress as compared with its commencement, terminating at its loudest point, or diminishing again before it terminates. Suppose the element a (or any other syllable) uttered with great percussive force and quickness, it will exhibit one modification of force. Suppose it to begin with less force, growing louder by degrees, in the usual sense of the expression, swell of voice, and then again gradually diminishing to its termination, and you have another modification of force. Again, suppose the voice to begin with comparative fullness and to lessen constantly in its volume till it dies away in silence, and the ear would be able to compare degrees of force under a third modification. Lastly, suppose the element a to be uttered in the usual manner except at its termination, but there to have a great and sudden increase of sound, and you have a modification of the element of force different from any of the preceding instances. TIME. The varieties of Time in the utterance of syllables are best expressed by the terms long and short, quick, slow, rapid, moderate. The most important general consideration as to the time of syllables, is that it can be varied upon the same syllable. The term quantity, as applicable to syllables, means exactly the same as time. The time of pauses, it is perfectly apparent, may be lengthened or shortened at pleasure. Suppose the sounds a, bee, cee, dee, (the names of the first four letters of the alphabet,) to be uttered in immediate succession, each sound to be shortened as much as possible and as short pauses as possible to be made between each; in such case each syllable will have short quantity, the pauses will have short time and the general movement will be in quick time. But the four sounds above mentioned can be greatly lengthened without altering their customary pronunciation. If a lengthened pronunciation is given to each, and the pauses between them are made proportionally long (a, bee, cee, dee,) each syllable will have long quantity and the whole series will be in slow time. The term quantity is employed absolutely and relatively. If a syllable is pronounced long, we may say with propriety it has quan> tity absolutely: but we speak of quantity as a power inhe rent in the voice relative to syllables, because many of the vowels and consonants can (though many cannot) be pronounced long or short as may be desirable: and the terms long and short quantity describe the two cases of such syllables. of We say then of syllables, that they are syllables of Quantity because they can be extended, or because they are actually extended in their pronunciation. We say a passage that it has long quantity, meaning that the syllables and pauses are intentionally lengthened; that it has short quantity because the syllables either do not admit of extension or are not extended. The pauses in all good delivery bear a proportion to the length of syllables. High on a throne of royal name.* Let the superscribed sentence be uttered with the extremes of quick and slow time as already described and the nature of time or quantity as applicable to speech will be demonstrated. ABRUPTNESS. Abruptness means a sudden and full pronunciation of sound. In utterance it is best demonstrated in the explosion of the vowels in the manner already described in the Recitation on Articulation. It is a power to be again treated of, under the head of force, being a particular modification of that property of the voice. *The word name has been employed for illustration in this example, instead of state, on account of its quantity—as the word state is necessarily short. PITCH. Pitch means the place of any sound in the musical scale. A person wholly unacquainted with pitch may obtain clear ideas of this property of sound from a piano forte. In running over a few of the keys, he will perceive that the sounds they yield differ from each other. Now this difference consists in pitch. The different sounds are called notes. If a person strike the lowest key on the left hand and pass from that to the other end touching each key successively, he will observe as he goes on that each note rises in pitch until he reaches the most distant key on the right hand of the instrument. If an ear unaccustomed to compare varieties of pitch does not at once perceive the difference of the pitch of two notes next to each other, let him try two notes with one between them; two notes with three between them; two notes with six between them. He will thus obtain an impressive notion of the nature of pitch from the varieties which these distant notes present to the ear. The whole of the notes of a piano constitute a scale referred to by musicians. Pitch and inflection have been used as synonymous in their application to speech. Great care, however, is required in order to obtain clear ideas of Pitch. If the finger be slid up and down the string of a violin with continued pressure, while the bow is drawn across it, a mewing sound will be produced. The sound will end at a higher or lower pitch than that at which it began, according to the direction of the movement of the finger. The sound produced is named in the science of speech a concrete or continuous sound, inasmuch as |