ON MELODY IN SPEECH. 



7*7 



Slow. 



^3=Ed=s=^is== 



Of a man at Boulogne : 

 Slow. 



A collection of such melodious and pleasant cries from towns in 

 England and abroad would be most interesting in showing the musical 

 talent and taste of the people who invent and use them. 



Friendly conversations keep mostly to the key of the principal per- 

 son of the circle, who at the time gives, not only the moral and social 

 tone, but also the musical tone to all around him ; and if any one of 

 the company would speak in a different tone, he would be out of tune 

 and out of countenance with the others. When we read by ourselves 

 we speak in C, or in B flat, or lower still ; but when we read to others, 

 we raise our voice to the fourth or fifth of our own key, that is, to G, 

 or F, or E flat. 



"We ought to study and exercise our voice in the different keys in 

 which we may have to speak, through the whole extent of our voice, 

 to enrich it with an easy flow of a variety of tones, so as to match our 

 words and sentences with suitable melodious turns, to render them 

 fervid and impressive, to touch a vibrating chord of sympathy and 

 interest in our hearers. 



When abroad I heard once a young orator speaking for nearly 

 half an hour, with every sentence descending in these off tones of 



the scale 





H£ 



* 



fzt 



:t: 



-t — i — F^ 



Avhich unvarying de- 



scent of 6 5 4 3 2 1 made his well- worded speech tedious and unim- 

 pressive. 



In a speech of some length the orator will save his voice by keeping 

 more in the middle part of it, on and about his individual dominant, 

 which part requires least strain and is the most pleasing ; from where 

 he may with good effect rise or descend in accordance with the excit- 

 ing or soothing flow of his ideas and sentiments. By thus arranging 

 the melodious part of his speech somewhat like a musical composition, 

 and suitably contrasting the high parts of his voice with the middle 

 and lower parts, he will engage and rivet his audience all the more to 

 every word. 



Some persons spoil the sonorousness of their voice by not letting it 

 flow out freely and naturally, by giving it a peculiar throaty twang, 

 by speaking too high, or by using the head voice (falsetto) too much. 



