EXERCISES IN STRESS.

The student will name and apply the proper stress in the following selections:

1.

"Arm, arm, and away!'

2.

"O Father, have mercy, look down on my child!”

3.

"How dare you enter here, vile wretch!"

4.

How sweet the chimes of Sabbath bells!

Each one its creed in music tells,

In tones that float upon the air,

As soft as song, as pure as prayer.

5.

Shy. Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond,
Thou but offend'st thy lungs to speak so loud.
Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will fall

To cureless ruin. I stand here for law.

6.

Julia. Why do you think I'll work?

Duke. I think 'twill happen, wife.

Julia. What, rub and scrub your noble palace clean?

Duke. Those taper fingers will do it daintily.

Julia. And 'dress your victuals (if there be any)? Oh, I

shall go mad!

7.

"Still, always it is beautiful

- that blessed life-water!

No poisonous bubbles are on its brink; its foam brings not madness and murder; no blood stains its liquid glass; pale widows and starving orphans weep not burning tears in its

depths; no drunkard's shrinking ghost, from the grave, curses it in the worlds of eternal despair! Speak out, my friends: would you exchange it for the demon's drink, ALCOHOL?” A shout, like the roar of a tempest, answered “No!”

127. PITCH.

1. Pitch is the degree of elevation or depression of sound.

2. We say that one tone is higher than another when the number of vibrations produced in the utterance of one is greater than the other.

3. Pitch in music is determined by the unvarying musical scale, and transitions from high to low or the reverse, are made by steps; while in speech the appropriate pitch depends upon the sentiment to be expressed and the construction of the vocal organs of the speaker; and the various changes are made by slides of the voice called the concrete movement.

4. A number of persons singing the same piece of music would employ the same pitch, but if these same persons read the same selection, though it require a high or low pitch, there is scarcely any probability that their voices would be pitched upon the same key; and yet, each, using his appropriate pitch for the sentiment, would read it correctly. In the first instance. the pitch is determined by musical instruments; in the latter by the voices of the respective individuals.

5. All that has been said concerning the influence of emotion in determining the appropriate element in vocal expression applies to pitch. These conditions operate directly upon the vocal organs,-tension of the vocal chords, producing a high pitch, arises from

exaltation of spirit; relaxation of these chords, producing low pitch, accompanies mental depression; while a tranquil state of mind leaves the vocal chords in their natural condition, and a pitch midway between high and low will be selected.

128. DIVISIONS OF PITCH.

1. Since the sentiment determines the appropriate Pitch, three divisions are naturally formed, which we designate High, Middle and Low.

2. These divisions are not absolute, and have no definite place on the musical scale. They vary according to intensity of feeling and the natural key of different voices.

3. Each of these divisions has an extended compass, since many emotions that are classed as exciting, differ widely in degree and in their influence upon individuals; hence, we may have pitch high, moderately high, and very high, and the same is true of low pitch. The pupil must decide from the intensity of the sentiment what degree of high or low pitch he shall use, bearing in mind that the greater the agitation from joyous or angry emotions, the higher the pitch; and, conversely, the greater the depression from emotions of solemnity or grief, the lower the pitch.

129. Exercises.

NOTE. In the practice of these exercises the pupil must preserve the same Quality throughout the various divisions. Utter each element in Low, Middle and High Pitch, next in the order Middle, High and Low, then give the sounds in the order High, Low, Middle.

130. MIDDLE PITCH.

The Middle Pitch is used in our ordinary conversation in the delivery of narrative, descriptive and didactic thought, and in the introduction to lectures, orations and sermons.

131. Examples: NARRATION.

49.

[From "Robinson Crusoe Finds his Man Friday." -Defoe.]

I smiled at him, and looked pleasantly, and beckoned to him to come still nearer: at length he came close to me; and then he kneeled down again, kissed the ground, and laid his head upon the ground, and taking me by the foot, set my foot upon his head: this, it seems, was in token of swearing to be my slave forever. I took him up, and made much of him, and encouraged him all I could. But there was more work to do yet; for I perceived that the savage whom I knocked down was not killed, but stunned with the blow, and began to come to himself; so I pointed to him, and showed him the savage, that he was not dead; upon this he spoke some words to me, and though I could not understand them, yet I thought they were pleasant to hear; for they were the first sound of a man's voice that I had heard, my own excepted, for above twenty-five years.

DESCRIPTION.

50.

[From "The Highland Light-House."

Thoreau.]

It was a neat building, with everything in apple-pie order, and no danger of anything rusting there for want of oil.

The light consisted of fifteen argand lamps, placed within smooth concave reflectors twenty-one inches in diameter, and arranged in two horizontal circles one above the other, facing every way excepting directly down the Cape. These were surrounded, at a distance of two or three feet, by large plate-glass windows, which defied the storms with iron sashes, on which rested the iron cap.

All the iron-work, except the floor, was painted white. And thus the light-house was completed. We walked slowly round in that narrow space as the keeper lighted each lamp in succession, conversing with him at the same moment that many a sailor on the deep witnessed the lighting of the Highland Light. His duty was to fill and trim and light his lamps, and keep bright the reflectors. He filled them every morning, and trimmed them commonly once in the course of the night.

DIDACTIC THOUGHT.

51.

["A Psalm of Life." - Longfellow.]
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
"Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;
"Dust thou art, to dust returnest,"
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.