VOCAL CULTURE.

The Cultivation of the voice is necessary to an easy and correct use of it. To secure ease in its use, we develop it; to enable us to use it correctly, we improve its quality.

DEVELOPMENT.

The Development, or increased power of the voice is secured by a proper habit of breathing, by vocal drill, and by exercises in breathing and calisthenics.

NOTE.-In Elocution, we begin at the lowest step-breathing; after this follow, in natural order, articulation and modulation with their various subdivisions. Breathing is the simplest act we perform-we aim to render it correct; conversation is the next step-we endeavor to acquire a correct use of the conversational voice as the foundation of a knowledge of Elocution.

Proper Breathing consists in taking in and giving out full inspirations of pure air in such a manner as not to interfere with speech. It should be practiced until deep breathing becomes a fixed habit.

EXERCISES IN BREATHING.

I. Take an erect position and breathe deeply and very slowly, observing that the lungs are well filled with air at each inspiration.

2. Breathe slowly, allowing the air to escape through the mouth, raising the arms with each inflation and lowering them as the breath is expelled.

3. Take a deep inspiration and allow the breath to suddenly escape through the mouth.

4. Breathe quickly through the mouth, allowing the lungs to become filled with each breath.

5. Take a full breath, then place the hands, palms inward, just above the hips, and bend the body as far as possible without inconvenience forward, to the right, backward and to the left.

These exercises will tend to enlarge the breathing capacity and strengthen the muscles employed. In addition to an increase of vocal power, the general health cannot fail to be benefited by a judicious exercise of the breathing organs.

In Vocal Drill, the object should be to obtain a full, pure tone. The sentences under the Simple and Orotund qualities of voice may be practiced freely to secure this end.

TABLE OF EXERCISES FOR VOCAL CULTURE.

The following exercises are taken from the selections found in this book. They are designed to give purity and power to the voice, and strength and vigor to the vocal organs. They should be practiced often, not lung at a time, with the best quality of voice at command. In giving the Natural and Intense Forms, be particular to employ a full, rich, resonant tone.

Natural Form.

I.

2.

3.

Over the hill the farm-boy goes.

Maud Muller, on a summer's day,
Raked the meadow sweet with hay.

They've left the school-house, Charlie, where years ago we sat
And shot our paper bullets at the master's time-worn hat;
The hook is gone on which it hung, the master sleepeth now
Where schoolboy tricks can never cast a shadow o'er his brow.

4.

'Twas on Lake Erie's broad expanse,
One bright midsummer day,
The gallant steamer Ocean Queen
Swept proudly on her way.
Bright faces clustered on the deck,
Or, leaning o'er the side,
Watched carelessly the feathery foam
That flecked the rippling tide.

Intense Form.

1.

2.

3.

4.

Impregnable their front appears,
All horrent with projected spears.

It must not be: This day, this hour
Annihilates the invader's power!
All Switzerland is in the field-
She will not fly; she cannot yield;
She must not fall; her better fate
Here gives her an immortal date.

'Tis a cold, bleak night! with angry roar
The north winds beat and clamor at the door;
The drifted snow lies heaped along the street,
Swept by a blinding storm of hail and sleet;
The clouded heavens no guiding starlight lend,
But o'er the earth in gloom and darkness bend;
Gigantic shadows, by the night lamps thrown,
Dance their weird revels fitfully alone.

Toll! Roland, Toll!
Bell never yet was hung,
Between whose lips there swung
So grand a tongue!

Calling Voice.

I.

2.

Hi! Harry Holly! Halt-and tell
A fellow just a thing or two;
You've had a furlough, been to see
How all the folks in Jersey do.

"To all, the truth we tell! we tell!"
Shouted in ecstasies a bell.
"Come all ye weary wanderers, see!
Our Lord has made salvation free!

I.

2.

3.

4.

I.

(HIGH).

Ye crags and peaks, I'm with you once again!

"Ye purifying waters, swell!"

Rang out the clear-toned Baptist bell.

"Ring! oh, ring for liberty!"

Hurrah! hurrah! a single field hath turned the chance of war.
Hurrah! hurrah! for Ivry and Henry of Navarre !

(LOW).

'Tis midnight's holy hour-and silence now

Is brooding, like a gentle spirit, o'er

The still and pulseless world. Hark! on the winds

The bell's deep tones are swelling-'tis the knell
Of the departed year.

With woeful measures wan Despair-
Low, sullen sounds his grief beguiled;

A solemn, strange and mingled air;
'Twas sad by fits-by starts 'twas wild.

What a world of solemn thought their monody compels.

Effusive Form.

I.

2.

3.

4.

5.

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary.

How sweet the chime of the Sabbath bells!
Each one its creed in music tells,

In tones that float upon the air,

As soft as song, as pure as prayer.

Mabel, little Mabel, with her face against the pane,
Looks out across the night at the beacon in the rain.

How often, oh, how often,

In the days that had gone by,

I had stood on that bridge at midnight
And gazed on that wave and sky.

My soul to-day

Is far away,

Sailing the Vesuvian Bay;

My winged boat,

A bird afloat,

Swims round the purple peaks remote.

Expulsive Form.

I.

"Farewell! farewell! base world, farewell!"

2. Now, by the lips of those ye love, fair gentlemen of France, Charge for the golden lilies-upon them with the lance!

3.

"Maclaine! you've scourged me like a hound-
You should have struck me to the ground;
You should have played a chieftain's part;
You should have stabbed me to the heart."