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RECITATION SEVENTH.

FULL CADENCE.

THERE is another form of the cadence, which marks the termination of a subject more completely than any yet described. The fuller close of the voice effected by this cadence, is produced by falling a discrete third, or fifth, upon some syllable preceding the common cadence, and near enough to it to be connected with it by the ear. It is exemplified in the following diagram.

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The voice descends here a discrete third upon the word "slept," which occasions a more perfect close than if the word were retained within the range of the simple melody. This cadence should often be employed at the end of a paragraph, and always at the close of a discourse.

TRANSITION OF VOICE,

AS TO ITS RADICAL PITCH.

The first or prelusive note upon which a speaker sets out in his discourse has often an influence on its whole melody. There is a medium pitch of the voice, differing of course in different individuals, from which ascent and descent through its whole compass is easy. Speakers should be careful to become familiar with this note, and to acquire a habit of striking upon it at once. They should always set out with it in discourse, and often return to it. It is the note most frequently heard in ordinary conversation. Some speakers almost immediately after commencing their discourse, run up to the top of the voice, and continue that high pitch through the largest portion of an address, thereby producing a continued radical monotony. This is tiresome and offensive, in the highest degree. To aggravate the evil, the high pitch is commonly united with great loudness, and an entire defect of the cadence is usually superadded. Others, immediately, or very soon, fall below the natural note and are not able to rise again. They cannot make a cadence because they cannot descend below the pitch they have assumed. They cannot speak with force, because if the voice descends to a certain point below its middle note it ceases to be able to employ force. Indeed this descent may may be carried so far, that syllables become at length inaudible. To maintain fullness and strength of tone, let the middle note, or that note above and below which, the voice can be easily managed, be

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always made the starting point of a discourse. Further, let a speaker accustom himself by frequent practice to rise and fall upon sentences, selected for the purpose, through the whole compass of the voice. Such a practice was common with the ancient speakers, and will be an effective means of removing the inconveniences we have described, by giving a ready command over the scale.

Another great fault of delivery arises from want of transition in tone at those parts of a discourse where the speaker enters on a new train of thought.

Such parts are generally divided, in writing, by paragraphs. But these, which require to be marked by changes of tone, are often quite disregarded. I have heard a boy at school deliver a long piece, distinguished by variety, without one marked transition of tone. I have heard students at college do the same in declamations composed by themselves, and well divided to the eye. I have even heard every student do this in a long succession of speakers, where the pieces averaged ten or fifteen minutes in delivery. I have been led by these circumstances to point out this defect to my class, and have shewn them by the voice, how it might be avoided; and the effect of marked but temperate transitions has been most striking in their subsequent declamations. Nothing relieves the ear more agreeably than well regulated transition. It should be effected temperately but whenever a speaker enters on a new train of thought, whether in reading or speaking, notice should be given to the ear by the following means differently modified as to degree, according to circumstances.

1. By a change in the quality and pitch of the voice.

2. By an alteration in the rate of the voice as to quickness or slowness. 3. By an abatement of the previous force or loudness. 4. by a change in the phrases of melody.

The falling on the monotone, for a short space, has often a striking effect. All these circumstances will of course, be most conspicuous during the pronunciation of the few first sentences, at the fresh paragraphs, after which the voice will naturally escape into the freer expansion of a more animated delivery. Always at the introduction of a subject requiring a new paragraph the directions here given should be followed. But, in slighter degrees, the changes insisted upon should occasionally be introduced, to mark the opening of successive sentences.

Pupils never find any difficulty in obtaining a command over the changes of the voice here described after they have been once clearly explained and exhibited to them.

The subject of transition may be somewhat farther illustrated by example: and as it is one of considerable practical moment, we subjoin the following extract for the purpose of further explanation.

1. At midnight, in his guarded tent,

The Turk was dreaming of the hour,

When Greece, her knee in suppliance bent,
Should tremble at his power;

In dreams, thro' camp and court, he bore

The trophies of a conqueror;

In dreams his song of triumph heard;

Then wore his monarch's signet ring,
Then pressed that monarch's throne—a king ;
As wild his thoughts, and gay of wing,
As Eden's garden bird.

3. An hour passed on.-The Turk awoke :
That bright dream was his last;

He woke to hear the sentry's shriek,
"To arms! they come! the Greek! the Greek!"
He woke to die midst flame and smoke,
And shout and groan, and sabre stroke,
And death shots falling thick and fast
As lightnings from the mountain cloud :
And heard, with voice as trumpet loud,
Bozzarris cheer his band;

"Strike-till the last armed foe expires,
Strike-for your altars and your fires,
Strike-for the green graves of your sires,
God-and your native land!"

4. They fought-like brave men, long and well,
They piled that ground with Moslem slain,
They conquered-but Bozzarris fell,

Bleeding at every vein.

-Marco Bozzarris. Elocutionist, p. 307.

The whole of the first section of the superscribed extract, should be read with about the same quality, rate, and pitch of voice, which are employed in conversation, with perhaps a little more force. The second sentence should begin about a radical third lower, with monotone, and a slower movement. Upon the third line, the voice should rise somewhat higher in pitch, with some increase of rate; while upon the fourth, it should be still louder, higher, and more rapid. Upon the last four lines especially, the delivery, should be loud, high and rapid.

The voice should again fall in pitch, upon the commencement of the next section, and should be slow in its movement, with a prevalence of the monotone.

These remarks may serve the purpose of explaining more fully, what we mean by transition.

It is less marked in all its circumstances, in prose composition, than in the extract above cited. Indeed, great

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