GRAND, SUBLIME, AND REVERENTIAL STYLES OROTUND VOICE The Orotund voice, or the voice that is used in the expression of impassioned selections, needs now to be specially considered, as we are about to treat of various classes of composition that depend upon that voice for their appropriate interpretation. What is the Orotund voice, and wherein does it differ from the natural or conversational voice? These questions are pertinent to the present discussion. The Natural and Orotund voices are manufactured in the same way, and differ only in their intensity and volume of sound. If a drum-head be tapped by the finger, a feeble report is heard; but if you beat the drum with great force, a very much louder report follows each blow, and a consequent resonance is heard inside as the sound passes from one head of the drum to the other. So with these voices. In the case of the Natural voice, the sound made in the glottis, as we talk, is not sufficiently loud to produce any resonance, except a slight one in the head; but when by the action of the abdominal muscles, the air in the lungs is thrown into the glottis with great force, a loud explosion of sound is heard, and a consequent resonance takes place in the cavities of the body, especially in the chest; hence the term, chest tone. The most direct answer that we can make to the inquiry, what is the Orotund voice and wherein does it differ from the Natural voice, is this: The Orotund voice is that full, deep and resonant sound heard in all impassioned sublimity, oratory and fierce emotion, and it differs specifically from the Natural voice in that its depth, fullness and roundness arise chiefly from resonance in the cavities of the body. The use of the Orotund voice in impassioned styles is so common a thing in ordinary life that the mention of a single example may serve to dissipate the absurd notion that elocutionary rules are arbitrary and conventional. For example, when the boy loses a finger he does not talk, he roars; he has so much feeling to get rid of that he cannot find vent in the Natural voice, and is forced by an irresistible impulse to use a larger voice in order that he may find relief. You can read an essay, but you must speak an oration. The emotion that fills the orator's soul as he denounces an enemy, or excites his countrymen to heroic deeds, must find an outlet in the full, strong and ample tones of the Orotund. There are three kinds of Orotund voice, Effusive, Expulsive and Explosive, each of which will receive a separate consideration. EFFUSIVE OROTUND This kind of Orotund is used in the rendition of all grand, sublime, and reverential styles. It is the appropriate voice of prayer, of all the prayer services of the church, of nearly all hymns since they are but prayers in verse - of the grand passages of the Prophets and Psalms, as well as the sublime utterances of the Revelation. It is also the appropriate voice for the expression of all emotions that are excited by the grandeur, vastness, or splendor of natural objects. The prevailing pitch of voice is low, and in profound awe, despair and horror, we descend to the lowest pitch. Care should be taken to avoid all harshness of tone, as impure qualities of voice are more readily detected in the full, longdrawn notes of the Effusive Orotund than in any other style of reading or speaking. A deep, full, sonorous quality of voice, free from all false intonations, sudden transitions, or conversational inflections, should be cultivated for the proper expression of this class of selections. GRAND, SUBLIME, AND REVERENTIAL SELECTIONS HYMN TO MONT BLANC Hast thou a charm to stay the morning-star Rave ceaselessly; but thou, most awful Form! dread and silent Mount! I gazed upon thee, Didst vanish from my thought: entranced in prayer, Yet, like some sweet beguiling melody, So sweet we know not we are listening to it, As in her natural form, swelled vast to Heaven! Awake, my soul! not only passive praise Thou first and chief, sole Sovereign of the Vale! Or when they climb the sky or when they sink: And you, ye five wild torrents fiercely glad! Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy, And who commanded (and the silence came), Ye ice-falls! ye that from the mountain's brow Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven God! sing, ye meadow-streams, with gladsome voice! Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal frost! Ye wild goats sporting round the eagle's nest! Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain-storm! Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds! Utter forth God, and fill the hills with praise! Thou, too, hoar Mount! with thy sky-pointing peaks, Slow traveling with dim eyes suffused with tears, To rise before me- Rise, O ever rise! Rise like a cloud of incense, from the earth! "And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day." -Deut. xxxiv, 6. By Nebo's lonely mountain, On this side Jordan's wave, For the angels of God upturned the sod, And laid the dead man there. That was the grandest funeral |