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CHAPTER IV

MODULATION

Modulation has reference to the means of varying the voice so as to express thought with truth and effectiveness. The principal modulations are quality, pitch, time, inflection and force.

QUALITY

Quality may be described as the character of the speaking voice, and for convenience is divided into two kinds: Pure and Impure. Pure quality is subdivided into Simple Pure and Orotund, while Impure quality is divided into Aspirated, Oral, Falsetto, Guttural and Pectoral.

Simple pure voice is the quality used in conversation. It can be readily cultivated by practising the exercises given under the head of purity in Chapter III. The pure qualities should be acquired before proceeding to the impure.

Orotund is marked by unusual roundness and fulness of tone. Daily practise on the vowel "O," with variety in pitch and force, will materially assist the student in securing this quality. It is used to express sublime and deeply earnest thought.

Aspirated quality is used to express fear, secrecy, surprise, caution and kindred emotions.

Oral quality is that of weakness.

Falsetto is employed in imitating the voices of children, women, old age, etc.

Guttural is used in language of revenge, anger, horror,

aversion.

Pectoral quality is a deep hollow chest-tone, used in expressing awe, remorse, deep terror.

The whisper is sometimes used to express secrecy, fear, caution. Exercises in whisper will rapidly develop strength of voice.

SIMPLE PURE

1. Oh young Lochinvar is come out of the West.

Through all the wide border his steed was the best;
And, save his good broadsword, he weapons had none;
He rode all unarmed and he rode all alone.

So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war,
There never was knight like the young Lochinvar.
"Lochinvar's Ride."
SIR WALTER SCOTT.

2. How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank; Here will we sit, and let the sound of music Creep in our ears; soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony. "Merchant of Venice."

SHAKESPEARE.

3. The splendor falls on castle walls,
And snowy summits old in story;
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.

"Bugle Song."

TENNYSON.

4. I should think myself a criminal, if I said anything to chill the enthusiasm of the young scholar, or to dash with any scepticism his longing and his hope. He has chosen the highest. His beautiful faith, and his aspiration, are the light of life. Without his fresh enthusiasm, and his gallant devotion to learning, to art, to culture, the world would be dreary enough.

CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER.

5. We all ride something. It is folly to expect us always to be walking. The cheapest thing to ride is a hobby; it eats no oats; it demands no groom; it breaks no traces; it requires no shoeing. Moreover, it is safest; the boisterous outbreak of the children's fun does not startle it; three babies astride it at once do not make it skittish. If, perchance, on some brisk morning it throws its rider, it will stand still till he climbs the saddle. For eight years we have had one tramping the nursery, and yet no accidents; though, meanwhile, his eye has been knocked out and his tail dislocated. T. DE WITT TALMAGE.

6. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

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8. Speak the speech I pray you, as I pronounced it to you,trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lief the town-crier spake my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness. Oh! it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters,-to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings; who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb show and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant: it out-herods Herod. Pray you, avoid it.

Be not too tame, neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word; the word to the action; with this special observance-that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature: for anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was, and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature;-to show virtue her own feature; scorn her own image; and the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure. Now this, overdone or come tardy off, tho it make the unskilful laugh, can not but make the judicious grieve; the censure of which one must, in your allowance, o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. Oh! there be players, that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, or man, have so strutted and bellowed, that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well,-they imitated humanity so abominably!

"Hamlet."

SHAKESPEARE.

9. At church, with meek and unaffected grace,
His looks adorned the venerable place;
Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway,
And fools who came to scoff, remained to pray.
The service past, around the pious man,

With ready zeal, each honest rustic ran;
E'en children followed, with endearing wile,

And plucked his gown to share the good man's smile.

His ready smile a parent's warmth expressed;
Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distressed;
To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given,
But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven:
As some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form,
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm;
Tho round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

"The Village Preacher."

OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

10. Insects generally must lead a jovial life. Think what it must be to lodge in a lily. Imagine a palace of ivory and pearl, with pillars of silver and capitals of gold, and exhaling such a perfume as never arose from human censer. Fancy again the fun of tucking one's self up for the night in the folds of a rose, rocked to sleep by the gentle sighs of summer air, nothing to do when you awake but to wash yourself in a dewdrop, and fall to eating your bedclothes.

11. We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.

We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
Life is but a means unto an end; that end,—
Beginning, mean, and end to all things, God.
"Festus."

BAILEY.

12. I consider a human soul without education like marble in the quarry, which shows none of its inherent beauties until the skill of the polisher fetches out the colors, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot, and vein that runs through the body of it. Education, after the same manner, when it works upon a noble mind, draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection, which, without such helps, are never able to make their appearance.

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