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NATURE 
[ April 5, 1883 
ness and spontaneity. Elocutionary teaching has also 
been hindered by an over-cultivation of poetical rhythm, 
which tends to reduce speech to a kind of singsong. The 
same may be said of punctuation, which is not elocution- 
ary but grammatical ; though the absurd rule has been 
formulated to “‘pause one for the comma, two for the 
semicolon, three for the colon, and four for the full stop.” 
It is sufficient to test this pedantic error by reading 
any piece of nervous or pathetic English on the system, 
and thus to show its full absurdity. 
It has been said above that whereas in singing the 
musical note is predominant, in speaking it is secondary 
and subsidiary to the words; but it still exists, and its 
function is well described by Cicero in his treatise, “ De 
Oratore.” 
cantus obscurior.”’” An appreciation of this fact is of the 
greatest value to the public speaker, since the imperfect 
regulation of the laryngeal element often renders the 
voice indistinct and even inaudible. Many speakers drop 
their voices with a descending inflection, and from want 
of musical ear fail to raise it again: others err from 
excess of noise, and in their anxiety to be audible, shout 
and labour, with the result of enveloping the significant 
sound in an overwhelming mass of heterogeneous and 
meaningless vibration. 
It has several times been attempted to reduce speech 
to a definite musical notation like that of singing. To a 
certain extent this was done in the Ecclesiastical Plain- 
song ; but it was carried to its extreme limit in a work of 
the last century, the “Prosodia Rationalis” of Joshua 
Steele. It is sufficient to glance at the vague and com- 
plicated symbols there employed to realise its practical 
uselessness.! Indeed, so far from being an advance, it is 
really a step of retrograde character. Mr. Deacon, in 
«Grove’s Dictionary of Music,” gives very clearly the 
our chief differences between song and speech :—1. The 
isochronism of vibration is never present long enough to 
make a musical note. 2. Little more than the lower third 
of the singing voice comes into play in speech. 3. In 
singing short syllables do not exist. 4. Singing tends to 
preserve intact purity of language; speaking, to split it 
up into dialects and idiosyncracies. 
A common defect in speaking in large buildings is 
inability to catch the keynote or resonance vibration of 
the inclosed space. All large areas have such resonance 
notes, and in some it is very marked: Westminster 
Abbey, for instance, consonates to G sharp, and intoning | 
on this note is much more audible than on one a semi- 
tone above or below it. Personally the lecturer prefers 
He says, ‘‘Est in dicendo etiam quidam | 
the use of an open chest-voice as little vocalised as may | 
be. 
It is less laborious, less liable to accidents, less | 
liable to develop the affection commonly known as | 
“clergyman’s throat,” and, by removing the sensation of 
effort, more easy and sympathetic. 
He then proceeded to analyse the constituents of a 
good delivery; and first, pauses. 
commonest faults in speech. It has two defects; the 
one in overtaxing the complex muscular mechanism of 
the speaker; the other in adding to the intellectual 
labour of the listener. The former would be considered 
in the third lecture ; the latter needed a few words. 
rapidity of reception of ideas through the ear differs 
materially in different persons, even excluding those 
distinctly “hard of hearing.” It is not great among the 
uneducated, whence it had been paradoxically said that 
all illiterate persons are deaf. But they do require a 
longer time to arouse them to a state of attention than 
the more cultivated. Naval officers had defended the 
practice of swearing, or as it was euphemistically termed, 
“shotting their speech,” with sailors; the expletive 
rousing attention and preparing the mind for the suc- 
ceeding command. Mr. Hullah had on a similar ground 
explained the refrains or fal-lal-las of the older music, in 
t “ King’s College Lectures on Elocution,”” Plumptre, ps 142. 
Haste is one of the | 
The | 
that the) dilute the too concentrated sense of the words, 
and give time for the perception of the music. 
When the great actor Salvini was in this country in 
1875, the lecturer made some experiments on this point. 
Salvini’s voice was one of the most remarkable ever 
heard for its power of travelling ; even suppressed phrases 
coming up to the distant gallery with perfect clearness. 
He spoke on a note about D in the bass, from the chest, 
and in a sort of recitative; there were distinct periods 
from accent to accent, and the inflections were very large, 
running over an interval of more than a fifth. The in- 
dividual words came about one a second, and the pauses 
were astonishingly long. 
four, several times to five, and at the two great crises of 
the play to seven continuous seconds. And yet there was 
no sense of delay or of interruption, but quite the reverse. 
The lecturer incidentally noted another thing, which the 
recent development of Wagner’s musical theories had 
invested with additional interest. In the play “Il 
Gladiatore,” the four principal characters, a young 
Christian virgin, a Roman matron, the hero a Roman 
officer, and the gladiator, formed an unintentional though 
perfect vocal quartett of soprano, contralto, tenor, and 
bass. At times the alternations of dialogue produced a 
distinctly musical effect, an observation which to his 
mind strongly corroborated the views of the great 
musician lately deceased, that dramatic music, instead of 
being conventional, should be the outflow of passion and 
emotion, and that this result could be attained as well 
from the elocutionary as from the strictly melodic side. 
Pronunciation, under which is included respiration 
as well as vocalisation, was then spoken of, schemes of 
the vowels and consonants by Dr. Bristowe and Melville 
Bell being distributed among the audience. The latter 
being unfamiliar in this country, may be reproduced in 
this abstract. 
GENERAL VOWEL SCHEME, MELVILLE BELL. 
Lingual. Labio-Lingual. Labial. 
1. Eel U (German) Ooze 
2. In U (French) O (Provincial) 
3. Alle U (French) Old 
4. Ill (Scotch) Zur (Provincial) Ore 
5. Ell Eu (French) Awe 
6. An Er Ir (English) Urge (Scotch) 
7. Ask Er Ir (variety) Urge 
8. ” Ah ” 
ARTICULATIONS or CONSONANTS. 
Mia v7 Oral. Nasal. 
P B M 
_ { Obstructive. } 
{ | Complete contact. § AF D N 
\k G Ng 
Ph Bh 
|Rh R (smooth) 
| Ch Gh 
Firm .../ Wh WwW 
's Zh 
| — Hes sh Z 
Ap; roximation Yh Y 
| 
} 4 /KRA Gr (burr) 
\ Continuous ) \ Relaxed (Rb k (rough) 
place 
(Partial contact x awaay en 
tr (Gaelic) 
The aspirate was briefly described as being no fixed 
They frequently amounted to” 
A 
