each case rightly without further rules. The following general law may be found of use. The voice descends on the relatively unimportant parts of a sentence to make the strong rising slides, and ascends on the relatively unimportant parts to make the strong falling slides. CAUTION. No matter how great the temptation, never allow the voice to rise and fall merely for the sake of the sound. The thought should always govern the melody. NOTE I. -It sometimes happens that a word has the rising and falling slides combined, so as to form a kind of wave. This may either be a wave upward ( .), or a wave downward ( some cases, even, more than one wave is found ( ). In ), or Examples of a few such waves are seen in Figure 52. NOTE 2. Often, too, a slide is started downward, but as it nears its end, the next thought comes to the mind, and the end of the slide is turned back up. Or the opposite may take place, and a slide started up may be turned down at the end. These cases often occur at the close of clauses in a sentence. EXAMPLES OF MELODY NOTE. To save space, the selections will be given first, and afterwards their melody, indicated by short lines for the steps and long lines for the slides. It will be a saving of the pupil's time if the same method is used in class. It has the advantage, too, of showing plainly whether a slide or a step is meant, which cannot be done when the words themselves are arranged. Be sure to get a line for each syllable, or there will be a great deal of confusion when you come to read your melody. He has done the murder: no eye has seen him, no ear has heard him. The secret is his own, and it is safe. Ah, Gentlemen, that was a dreadful mistake. Such a secret can be safe nowhere. The whole creation of God has neither nook nor corner where the guilty can bestow it, and say it is safe. - WEBSTER. * See footnote at the bottom of page 84. ---| x x The day is done, and the darkness х Still at the bayonet's point he stood, and strong to meet the blow: The foe!" The stir, the tramp, the bugle call, he heard their tumult grow: And sent his dying voice through all, — " Auvergne! Auvergne! The foe! The foe!" ---)-)-)-)-) x EXERCISES IN WRITING MELODY 1. Write out the melody for one of your high school yells. 2. Write out the melody for some two stanzas of a poem that you know or can get out of a book. 3. Write out the melody for some one of the oratorical extracts found in this book. TO THE TEACHER. It might be well to have one student write out on the blackboard the melody for a stanza, and then have some other student read it as written. My an-ces-tors, ha-ving ar-rived in this coun-try a-mong the ear-ly sett-lers on the one side in New York on the other in New Eng-land, and ha-ving fall-en in love, and mar-ried in the old fash-ioned way. FIG. 54. Musical notation of Figure 55. |