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KATHERINE JEWELL EVERTS
KATHERINE JEWELL EVERTS
AUTHOR OF "THE SPEAKING VOICE" HARPER & BROTHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON MCMXI Books by KATHERINE JEWEL EVERTS Vocal Expression net $1.00 The Speaking Voice . Post 8vo net 1.00 HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY HARPER & BROTHERS PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PUBLISHED NOVEMBER, 1911 ...
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PLAN OF THE BOOK
PLAN OF THE BOOK
To the Pupil Introduction STUDIES IN VOCAL INTERPRETATION Preliminary Study: —To Establish a Conscious Purpose. Discussion: —The Relation of the Speaker to His Audience. Material: —Direct Appeal in Prose and Verse, with Suggestive Analysis. Selections for Interpretation. First Study: —To Establish Vitality in Thinking. Discussion: —Action of the Mind in Reading Aloud. Material: —The Essay and Didactic Poetry, with Suggestive Analysis. Selections for Interpretation. Second Study: —To Establish In
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TO THE PUPIL
TO THE PUPIL
Let me trace the evolution which has led to the plan of this text-book. A class in elocution of which you are a member is given a paragraph from Modern Eloquence , a bit from an oration or address of Beecher or Phillips or Beveridge, to study. The passage appeals to you. You are roused by it to an eager, new appreciation of courage, conservatism or of the character of some national hero. You "look" your interest. You are asked to go to the platform. You are glad. You want to repeat the inspired
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
The strongest impulse of the human heart is for self-expression. The simplest form of expression is speech. Speech is the instinctive use of a natural instrument, the voice. The failure to deal justly with this simple and natural means of expression is one of the serious failures of our educational system. Whether the student is to wait on another's table or be host at his own; whether he is to sell "goods" from one side of a counter or buy them from the other; whether he is to enter one of the
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TO ESTABLISH A CONSCIOUS PURPOSE
TO ESTABLISH A CONSCIOUS PURPOSE
"The orator must have something in his very soul he feels to be worth saying. He must have in his nature that kindly sympathy that connects him with his fellow-men and which so makes him a part of the audience that his smile is their smile, his tear is their tear, the throb of his heart the throb of the hearts of the whole assembly."— Henry Ward Beecher. We have said that whatever part in the world's life we choose or are chosen to take, it remains precisely true that to speak effectively is ess
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DISCUSSION OF DIRECT APPEAL
DISCUSSION OF DIRECT APPEAL
Do you ask me, then, what is this Puritan principle? The Puritan principle in its essence is simply individual freedom!— Curtis. Mind your own business with your absolute will and soul, but see that it is a good business first.— Ruskin. — MacKaye. What news, and quickly!— MacKaye. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.— Phillips Brooks. Hence! home, you idle creatures, get you home. Is this a holiday?— Shakespeare. And so, gentlemen, at this hour we are
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SUGGESTIVE ANALYSIS
SUGGESTIVE ANALYSIS
HAMLET'S SPEECH TO THE PLAYERS Hamlet: Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus; but use all gently: for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.... Be not too tame, neither, but let your own discretion be y
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SELECTIONS FOR INTERPRETATION
SELECTIONS FOR INTERPRETATION
There was once a noble ship full of eager passengers, straining at full speed from England to America. Two-thirds of a prosperous voyage thus far were over, and in our mess we were beginning to talk of home. Suddenly a dense fog came, shrouding the horizon, but, as this was a common occurrence in the latitude we were sailing, it was hardly mentioned in our talk. A happier company never sailed upon an autumn sea. When a quick cry from the lookout, a rush of officers and men, and we were grinding
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TO ESTABLISH VITALITY IN THINKING
TO ESTABLISH VITALITY IN THINKING
Among the axioms of our subject-matter already formulated stands this one: reading aloud is thinking aloud. If reading aloud is thinking aloud the quality of the reading will depend, of course, upon the quality of the thinking. But while clear thinking does not assure lucid reading (since there are other elements in the problem), the converse is true, that good reading implies clear thinking. For it is impossible to read convincingly unless one is thinking vitally, which brings us to the object
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SUGGESTIVE ANALYSIS
SUGGESTIVE ANALYSIS
Let us read this passage from Emerson's Experience : To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom. It is not the part of men, but of fanatics—or of mathematicians, if you will—to say that, the shortness of life considered, it is not worth caring whether for so short a duration we were sprawling in want or sitting high. Since our office is with moments, let us husband them. Five minutes of to-day are worth as much
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SELECTIONS FOR INTERPRETATION
SELECTIONS FOR INTERPRETATION
By choosing as further material for vocal interpretation selections which shall also be good examples for examination as to their literary construction, we shall serve the double purpose of adapting our studies in vocal interpretation to the uses of English composition. The following selections are to be: first, read aloud (in class); second, examined as to their literary construction (in class); third, analyzed and reported upon as specimens of exposition and argumentation (in the study). Expos
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TO ESTABLISH INTELLIGENCE IN FEELING
TO ESTABLISH INTELLIGENCE IN FEELING
Art is in bondage in this country: its internal polity to the temperamental ideal; its external polity to the commercial ideal. Business and social life are in the same bondage. In music, in drama, in letters, in society, and in trade we permit personality to exploit itself for commercial purposes. The result is either chaotic or calculated expression on every side. When temperament seeks restraint in technique, and policy, whether business or social, seeks freedom in service, then shall we have
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SUGGESTIVE ANALYSIS
SUGGESTIVE ANALYSIS
I have chosen for suggestive analysis of the lyric, Shelley's ode To a Skylark . I shall analyze in detail only the first five stanzas: How shall we create an atmosphere for the reading of these verses! How can we catch the spirit of the creator of them! Shall we ever feel ready to voice that first line? Do you know Jules Breton's picture The Lark ? Do you love it? Go, then, and stand before it, actually or in imagination. Let something of the spirit which informs that lovely child, lifting her
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SELECTIONS FOR INTERPRETATION
SELECTIONS FOR INTERPRETATION
The following selections from lyric poetry are designed to give the voice exercise in the expression of varied emotions. I — Wordsworth. — Wordsworth. II — Wordsworth. — Wordsworth. III — Wordsworth. — Wordsworth. IV — Shelley . — Shelley . V — Shelley. — Shelley. VI — Keats. — Keats. VII — Shakespeare. — Shakespeare. VIII — Heywood. — Heywood. IX — Marlowe. — Marlowe. X — Scott. — Scott. XI Besides the rivers Arve and Arveiron, which have their sources in the foot of Mont Blanc, five conspicuou
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TO DEVELOP THE WHIMSICAL SENSE
TO DEVELOP THE WHIMSICAL SENSE
Addressing the Gentle Reader in deliciously whimsical vein on the Mission of Humor , Mr. Samuel Arthur Crothers declares: "Were I appointed by the school board to consider the applicants for teachers' certificates, after they had passed the examinations in the arts and sciences, I should subject them to a more rigid test. I should hand each candidate Lamb's essays on 'The Old and New Schoolmaster' and on 'Imperfect Sympathies.' I should make him read them to himself, while I sat by and watched.
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SUGGESTIVE ANALYSIS
SUGGESTIVE ANALYSIS
The danger in handling a fable does not lie, as the interpreter seems so often to think, in adopting too serious a tone. All the literature of pure fancy, from the humorous essays of Bacon through the Arabian Nights to the nonsensical rhymes of Lear, must be treated with great gravity of tone and temper by the interpreter. It is not levity, but only whimsicality of temperament, I demand from one who would read from this particu lar lore to me. I want my whimsical friend to interpret my Chaucer a
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SELECTIONS FOR INTERPRETATION
SELECTIONS FOR INTERPRETATION
And, now, here is Alice herself to play with a little. Go fearlessly into her Wonderland and let her teach you "how to meet the illusive, the incongruous, and the unexpected." Let her minister to your ability to enjoy the imperfect. Let her develop your sense of humor . If she cannot do so no one can. DOWN THE RABBIT-HOLE [8] Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do; once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading,
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TO DEVELOP IMAGINATIVE VIGOR
TO DEVELOP IMAGINATIVE VIGOR
In one of the great manufacturing towns of the Northwest there are some twenty-five thousand girls employed in factories. The city permits conditions of work hostile to the physical life of these girls. Civic reform is trying to control these conditions. In time it doubtless will succeed in doing so; meanwhile it makes efforts in other directions. It establishes working girls' clubs. A class in literature in one of these clubs enlisted the services of a comprehending young teacher, who kept the
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SUGGESTIVE ANALYSIS
SUGGESTIVE ANALYSIS
We shall use for suggestive analysis in this study not a complete specimen of narration, but several examples illustrating two of the three elements necessary to the personnel of a good story. These three recognized elements are the setting or situation which the pictures compose, the atmosphere which the characters create, and the plot or the action in which the characters engage. We shall leave the question of the plot to class work upon the selections from epic poetry to be considered later i
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SELECTIONS FOR INTERPRETATION
SELECTIONS FOR INTERPRETATION
The following selections were chosen for this study with a double concern in the choice,—concern for the development of imaginative vigor in vocal interpretation; concern for the development of a sense of plot in narrative composition. The demand upon the interpreter of any of these poems, for sensitive progressive play of imagination, in carrying an auditor through a series of events up to a critical issue, cannot fail to develop, with imaginative vigor, a new sensitiveness of creative instinct
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TO DEVELOP DRAMATIC INSTINCT
TO DEVELOP DRAMATIC INSTINCT
Our final study in interpretation has for its concern the development of dramatic instinct. The work just finished should have left no doubt in your mind as to the nature or value of this final step in the training, since it has anticipated both. Development of imaginative vigor should arouse a latent dramatic instinct and release histrionic power. The choice of place in these studies for this phase of the training was made to insure cumulative evolution resulting in balanced expression. As imag
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THE VOCAL VOCABULARY
THE VOCAL VOCABULARY
There is a theory that it is dangerous to go beyond the mere freeing of the instrument in either vocal or physical training. In accordance with this theory I was advised by a well-known actress to confine my study for the stage, so far as the vocal and pantomimic preparation was concerned, to singing, dancing, and fencing. "Get your voice and body under control," she said. "Make them free, but don't connect shades of thought and emotion with definite tones of the voice or movements of the body;
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I
I
It is asserted that, "the last word has not been said on any subject." Mr. Hamilton Mabie seemed to me to achieve a last word on the subject of pause when he casually remarked: "Emerson was a master of pause; he would pause, and into the pool of expectancy created by that pause drop just the right word." There seems little to be added to complete the exposition of that single sentence. It surely leaves no doubt in our minds as to the effect to be desired from the use of this element of our vocab
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II
II
To me, the most notable among the many notable elements in Madame Alla Nazimova's acting is her illumination of the text of her impersonations through inflection . To an ear unaccustomed to the "broken music" of her speech, a word may now and then be lost be cause of her still faulty English, but of her attitude toward the thought she is uttering, or the person she is addressing, or the situation she is meeting, there can never be a moment's doubt—so illuminating is the inflectional play of her
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III
III
And now we must turn to our last point of discussion, tone-color. What is the nature of this element of our vocabulary—this Klangfarbe , this Timbre ? Upon what does it depend? You will say, "It is a property of the voice depending upon the form of the vibrations which produce the tone." True! And physiologically the form of the vibrations depends upon the condition of the entire vocal apparatus. Tone-color , then, is a modulation of resonance. But what concerns us is the fact that it is an emot
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THE UNINTERRUPTED TONE
THE UNINTERRUPTED TONE
When a rich, dramatic temperament seeks for its instrument of expression the control of faultless technique the result ought to be art of the highest order. Such is the art of Gracia Ricardo. She has translated her English name into musical Italian, but does her country the honor to announce her beautiful voice as an American soprano. Every tone of Gracia Ricardo's singing voice is as absolutely free from effort as the repeated note of the hermit thrush's song, and her tone as pure tone has the
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LEARNING TO SUPPORT THE TONE
LEARNING TO SUPPORT THE TONE
Before attempting the exercises involved in the first step, let us examine a tone in the making, or, rather, let us feel how it is made—for the process of tone production, so far as it concerns us, is not of physio logical, but rather psychological, significance. The huge tomes on the physiology of the voice which are of vital interest to the student of anatomy are not only of no use, but are apt to be a positive hindrance to the student of vocal training. A vivid picture of the larynx or vocal
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LEARNING TO FREE THE TONE
LEARNING TO FREE THE TONE
We have worked, so far, for support of tone. We must now free the supported tone, by freeing the channel for the emission of the breath as it is converted into tone and moulded into speech. We shall find that in learning to support the tone we have gone far toward securing that freedom; but the habit of years is not easily overcome, and every time you have spoken without proper support of breath you have forced the tone from the throat , by tightening the muscles and closing the channel, thus ma
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LEARNING TO REINFORCE THE TONE
LEARNING TO REINFORCE THE TONE
And now we turn from the second step in the training to the third and last step—the reinforcing of the supported and freed tone. It is again a freeing process. This time we are to free the cavities now closed against the tone; we are to use the walls of these cavities as sounding-boards for tone, as they were designed to be, so reinforcing the tone and letting it issue a resonant, bell-like note with the carrying power resonance alone can give, instead of the thin, dull, colorless sound which co
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A LAST WORD TO THE PUPIL
A LAST WORD TO THE PUPIL
Mr. William James tells us that we learn to swim in winter and to skate in summer. The principle underlying this statement is of immense comfort in approaching a class in vocal expression. The hope of satisfying results is fostered by the knowledge that a mere statement of the fundamental facts of right tone production will do much toward inducing a right condition for tone. But I know, too, that immediate results depend upon immediate and faithful putting into practice of the principles set for
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TO THE TEACHER
TO THE TEACHER
When I consider how much depends in the training of a voice upon listening to the made tone, how little depends upon knowing how it was made, I realize that it is your ear , not my book, which must become the real guide in this Study of Vocal Expression ....
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