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of characters who speak, or who are described, or who have a place in the poem or story. Literature, of whatever form it may be, should be thought of and presented as a record of the thought and experience of living men, and not as a mere conventional arrangement of words.

CHAPTER VIII

Vocal Quality

In the chapter on "Vocal Quality" a brief consideration of abnormal qualities of tone has been offered rather for the purpose of explaining peculiar action and use of the voice than to encourage students in an extended practice of impure qualities as such. The student's first effort should be given to the acquisition of a free, natural use of the vocal instrument. Whenever, in the oral rendering of literature, it becomes necessary to express such thoughts and emotions as demand extraordinary use of the voice, the student will do well to give his attention to the sense and spirit of the lines rather than to a conscious effort to acquire a peculiar style of utterance. This suggestion applies with equal force to the study of all phases of reading aloud. The reader is not an actor. It is the reader's duty to suggest rather than portray character. If the voice is obedient, extreme and abnormal emotions, when they are understood and felt, will be intimated in tone quality and that is all that should be attempted. The harshness of Shylock's character will make itself evident in the voice. The demands made upon the actor, however, are more severe. He must be and live the character before the audience. For him the command of all abnormal qualities of voice is necessary. If, for example, he enact Adam, in As You Like It, he must assume a voice suited to that aged character, a voice thin, tremulous, weak. In the portrayal of such eccentric

individuals as the Gobbos of the Merchant of Venice, he may seek humorous effects in a voice which breaks from an ordinary key and pitch into high falsetto and piping tones. The reader may give a hint of these peculiarities, but no more than that. The acquisition of a voice suited to the realistic portrayal of eccentric characters, or to the occasional intense and abnormal emotions of normal men, such as Macbeth and Brutus, is partly a matter of imitation and experiment and partly of sympathetic adaptation to the attitude of mind and mood of the individual under certain conditions. One who has witnessed a good actor in the scene where the ghost of Cæsar appears to Brutus in his tent at night will readily understand this. The sympathetic reader may suggest the surprise, bewilderment, and alarm of Brutus; the actor must do more. He must give full utterance and action to these emotions. For the time he must live Brutus. Since this phase of expression is concerned more with the art of the actor than with that of the reader, it has not been deemed desirable to devote more space than has already been given in the text to a discussion of abnormal qualities of voice.

CHAPTER IX

The Music of Speech

The difficulty of teaching the melody of speech is obvious. Indeed, strictly speaking, it cannot be taught. Only as taste, appreciation, and musical sense are educated, will musical qualities appear in speech. The teacher may do much toward educating spiritual responsiveness and training the inner ear in the natural melody of speech by sympathetic vocal rendering of musical verse and prose. The need of such education is as great as are the difficulties it presents.

CHAPTER X

Technical Principles of Speech

That so little attention is paid to the use of the voice, in either our homes or our schools, is a deplorable deficiency in our education. Our children may speak in piping, shrill, rasping tones, and may go on speaking that way until they reach maturity, and little is said or done about it. A lamentable feature is that there appears to be little likelihood of improvement with the next generation. The young are inheritors of our vocal delinquencies. They learn to pitch and manage their voices largely by imitating their elders and their associates, and we are passing on to them, not only our bad habits, but also our indifference to the value and charm of well modulated speech. Were our children to hear better voices in home and school, the next generation would not incur the censure of cultured people of other nations who value excellent speech more than we do.

Though it may not be possible, under existing conditions in our schools, to carry out any very extended program of voice work, something at least should be done in connection with reading lessons, and possibly with certain classes in English, to help the student to a better knowledge of the use of his own voice, and to render him more sensitive to the difference between well-used and badly-used voices.

CHAPTER XI

Training the Voice

Whenever practicable, a few minutes should be devoted to vocal and breathing exercises throughout the course, preferably at the beginning of the recitation period. If five or ten minutes are spent on vocal drill in alternate class hours,

the interest may be sustained better than when the drills are insisted on at every recitation. The various breathing exercises and vocal drills should be reviewed at frequent intervals. Good use of voice does not depend on a great number of exercises but on a few thoroughly mastered and persistently practiced.

The teacher should take the exercises with the students and should have them so well in mind that no reference to the text is necessary.

CHAPTER XII

Enunciation and Pronunciation

Even though the classroom may afford but a limited opportunity for vocal training, this objection does not hold against practice for the attainment of clear and pleasing enunciation. Every recitation and reading lesson offers occasion for some kind of discipline in careful speech. Instead of the familiar admonition, "Speak a little louder, please," the student, whose speech is faulty and indistinct, should have the difficulty and the remedy pointed out to him. If vowels or consonants are inaccurately formed, the aid of a teacher is more valuable than printed directions. Showing the student how the organs of speech are placed for making certain sounds, like l or r, when this instruction is coupled with practice in making the sounds, is usually productive of good results. Habits of correct and distinct speech are acquired only by persistent effort.

III. PROGRAM OF RECITATIONS AND

ASSIGNMENTS

In offering the following program the author does not assume that it is adapted to all circumstances and conditions. Perhaps few teachers will find strict adherence to the plan here outlined practicable. The time devoted to the subject, the size and character of the class, the teacher's own views and purposes, are all factors in determining the method of conducting the work and the nature and the length of assignments. The program has been prepared in the hope that it may afford suggestions and help the teacher in planning the work of a class in oral reading meeting twice a week throughout the year.

Possibly the program will prove valuable chiefly in showing that lessons in expressive reading and speech may be assigned with as much definiteness as in any other subject and that the Handbook contains plenty of material for a full year's course.

Some assignments may prove to be too long for certain classes. If the assignment is concerned with problems in reading and involves too much work, time may be saved and better preparation insured by apportioning certain problems to different members or sections of the class. Whenever the program does not seem to be suited to a particular case or class, the teacher should follow the needs and best interest of the students, not the program.

Occasional papers in which problems and selections are analyzed, paraphrased, or criticized, and certain principles and chapters are discussed, may be found worth while. Such assignments have been sparingly made in the pro

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