EXAMPLE. O my soul's joy! If after every tempest come such calms, May the winds blow till they have wakened death! And let the laboring bark climb hills of seas As hell's from heaven! If it were now to die, ASTONISHMENT, Admiration, Amazement. The dignified expression of these sentiments requires Long Quantity, a good degree of Force, and the Emphasis of the Downward Concrete, or of the Equal Direct Wave of the Third or Fifth combined with the Median Stress. Mirthful Wonder, or Surprise, may require the Downward Octave, or the Equal Single Direct Wave of that interval; and as the utterance becomes more rapid, the Radical or Vanishing Stress is used. Aspiration may be connected with the simple Downward Slides; though with the Waves it would express scorn, sneer, or contempt. EXAMPLE. Sir Richard, what think you? Have you beheld, Or do you almost think, although you see, That you do see? Form such another? The height, the crest, Of Murder's arms: Could thought, without this object, or crest unto the crest This is the bloodiest shame, The wildest savagery, the vilest stroke, That ever wall-eyed Wrath, or starving Rage, Presented to the tears of soft Remorse. PLAINTIVE EXPRESSION, TEnderness. The elements employed to express pathetic sentiments or tender emotion are few, but strongly marked. They are Softness of voice, Long Quantity, Slow Time and the Semitone, or the Direct and Inverted Waves of that interval, combined with the Median Stress. The sentiments which require the Chromatic Intonation are various and widely different from each other. The difference however is marked by the language rather than the intonation. Among other sentiments which may be thus expressed are, Awe, Complaint, Contrition, Penitence, Petition, Submission, Supplication, Fondness, Love, Pity, Compassion, Commiseration, Condolence, Mercy, Grief, Lamentation, and Sorrow. The simple rise and fall of the Semitone, or the Wave of that interval, is the most effective of the elements enumerated above, for the expression of the tender and pathetic sentiments. The choice between the Simple Concrete and the Wave is determined by the degree of Dignity, in the sentiment expressed; and this may be still further enhanced by combining with the other elements the Partial Drift of the Monotone. Many of the expressions which go under a common name, as Complaint and Supplication, vary essentially at different times in the degree of plaintiveness which they express. When this emotion is wanting, the Simple Concrete and the Wave of the Second are substituted for those of the Semitone; and on the contrary, when this emotion becomes painfully strong, the Tremor and Aspiration are added to the Semitone, on the emphatic words of Long Quantity. Further to heighten the effect, the clauses may terminate with the Rising Slide, or the Inverted Wave of the Semitone; and the Broken Melody may be employed. In the case of plaintive Exclamation, or whenever Surprise or Positiveness are to be connected with the Chromatic Melody, the Unequal Direct Wave is employed, the first constituent being a Semitone. EXAMPLES. 1. We have erred and strayed from thy ways, like lost sheep. We have done those things which we ought not to have done, and have left undone those things we ought to have done, and there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders. Spare thou those, O! God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent, according to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O! most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of thy holy name. 2. Ah, Richard! with the eyes of heavy mind, I see thy glory like a shooting star, 3. Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know not seems. Together with all forms, modes, shows of grief, 4. Grief fills the room up of my absent child, 5. My mother! when I learned that thou wast dead, 6. The laurel shoots when those have passed away, 7. Death found strange beauty on that polished brow, On cheek and lip;-he touched the veins with ice 8. Sleep on-sleep on-above thy corse Sleep on-thy corse is far away, For thee the heart-wrung sigh is breathed, And she, the young and beauteous bride, 9. The thoughts are strange that crowd into my brain, Thy flood to chronicle the ages back, And notch his centuries in the eternal rock. 10. In this example the words in italics, to be read with dramatic effect, should receive the Tremor. Forsake me not thus, Adam! Witness, Heaven, |