The philosophy of the human voice: embracing its physiological history

Front matter

.A r\

' w

^ nV • fCCv s» A ^o <^* *

SECTION 1. Off thx - is of vocal mud, with

a more particular Recount

II. * lical and Yuni>!iii tlie

yoke ; and i

III. Of tin- elementary sound- of th lan-

guage; with ami

IV. Of the influence oi \\\<

in the production ol (

, in relaticm to it> different qualiti< 88

VI. Ot the Melody ol ; ther with an

inquiry how i and Modu-

lation are applicable to it,

VII. Of Ike Expression ol S| uu

VII I. Of the Quality Of kind ol Voice,

1\. Of the 1 ime of th I 149

\. oi the Expression ol kfl

\I. Or the Intonaii 186

XII. Of the Groupi

XIII. Or the Interval ot th

XIV. Oi the Interval ot the Fifth, 21 i IV. Ol the Interval of the Third,

W 1. or the Intonation of Inter: . u(ences, 218

XVII Ot th" Interval of the Second 241

\ v CONTENTS.

SECTION XVIII. Of the Interval of the Semitone; and of

the Chromatic Melody founded thereon, 247

XIX. Of the downward Radical and Vanishing

Movement, 260

XX. Of the Downward Octave, 265

XXI. Of the Downward Fifth, 267

XXII. Of the Downward Third, 271

XXIII. Of the Downward Second and Semitone, 277

XXIV. Of the Wave of the voice, 279

XXV. Of the Equal Wave of the Octave, 287

XXVI. Of the Equal Wave of the Fifth, 289

XXVII. Of the Equal Wave of the Third, 292

XXVIII. Of the Equal Wave of the Second, 293

XXIX. Of the Equal Wave of the Semitone, 298

XXX. Of the Wave of Unequal Intervals, 301

XXXI. Of the Tremor of the Voice, 312

XXXII. Of Force of Voice, 325

XXXIII. Of the Radical Stress, 329

XXXIV. Of the Median Stress, 337

XXXV. Of the Vanishing Stress, 342

XXXVI. Of the Compound Stress, 346

XXXVII. Of the Thorough Stress, 348

XXXVIII. Of the Loud Concrete, 349

XXXIX. Of the Time of the Concrete 350 XL. Of the Aspiration, 352 XLI. Of the Emphatic Vocule, 359 XLII. Of the Guttural Emphasis, 362 XLIII. Of Accent, 364 XLIV. Of Emphasis, 373

Of the Radical Emphasis, 375

Of the Median Emphasis, 376

Of the Vanishing Emphasis, 377

¥ Of the Compound Emphasis, 378

Of the Thorough Emphasis, 379

Of the Aspirated Emphasis, 380

Of the Temporal Emphasis, 385

CONTENJ V

HON XLIV. Of the Emphasis of Pitch, 385

Of the Emphasis of the Octave, 387

Of the Emphasis of the Fifth, 390

Of the Emphasis of the Third, 391

Of the Emphasi* of the Semitone, 39S

Of the Downward Concrete, 395

Of the Downward Octal e, 397

Of the Downward Fifth, 399

<>t the Dow nw aid Third, 400

Of the Emphasis of the Wave, 409

Of the E(jua! k tave, 404

<M the Equal \ ave ot the Fifth, ib.

41)7 ib.

ib.

ot | ess, O!

ih.

itkm, ib.

al Drift of the Guttural Empha-

ib. •station, ib.

Dr. It ot \1.

Of the I

IK Feebleness of Voice, 445

By Loudness of Voice, ib.

SECTION XLVI. By Slowness of Voice, 446 By Quality of Voice, 447 By the Semitone, ib.

By the Second or Tone, ib.

By the Rising Third, Fifth and Octave, 448 By the Downward Third, Fifth and Octave, 449 By the Wave, of the Semitone, ib. By the Wave of the Second, 45Q By the Waves of the Third, Fifth and Octave, ib* By the Radical Stress, 451 By the Median Stress, 452 By the Vanishing Stress, ib.

By the Compound Stress, 455 By the Tremor of the Second and higher

Intervals, ib.

By the Tremor of the Semitone, 454

By the Aspiration, ib.

By the Guttural Emphasis, 455

By the Emphatic Vocule, ib.

By the Broken Melody, ib.

XLVII. Of the Mode of Instruction in Elocution, 461

Of Practice on the Alphabetic Elements, 465

Of Practice on the Time of Elements, 471

Of Practice on the Vanishing Movement, 473

Of Practice on Force, 474

Of Practice on Stress, ib.

Of Practice on Pitch, 475

Of Practice on Melody, 478

Of Practice on the Cadence, ib;

Of Practice on the Tremor, 479

Of Practice on the Quality of Voice, 480

Of Practice in Rapidity of Speech, 482

XLVIII. Of the Rhythmus of Speech, 491

XLIX. Of the Faults of Readers, 504

Of Faults in Quality, 515

Of Faults in Time, 516

CONTENTS.

vil

SECTION XLIX. Of Faults in Force, 518

Of Faults in Pitch, 520

Of Faults in the Concrete Movement, ib.

Of Faults in the Semitone, 521

Of Faults in the Second, 522

Of Faults in the Melody of Speech, 524

First Fault in Melody, j D .

Second Fault in Melody, 525

Third Fault in Melody, 526

Fourth Fault in Melody, 527-

Fifth Fault in Melody, 529

Sixtli Fault in Melody, 530

Seventh Fault in Melody, 535

Of Faults in the Cadence. 534

Of Faults in the Third, 537

Of Faults in the Fifth, 538

Of Faults in the Downward Movement, 539

CM Faults in the Discret.- M«.v. inent, ib.

Of Faults in the Wave, 540

Of Faults in the Melody of the Pause, 541

Ol 'Fault, in Drift, 540

Of Monotony of Voice, 545

Of Uanting in Speech, 545

Of Affectation in Speech, \\y

Ol Mouthing in Speech, j D#

Conclusion, 547 \ Uriel Analysis of Song and Recitative, 557

ERRATA.

Page xvi, line 18, for conventual, read conventional,

xxi, 5, Pausanius, Pausanias.

effect affect,

give gives,

cannon, canon.

they abruptly abruptly,

base bass.

20,

318,

25,

340,

18,

409,

31,

543,

14,

Introduction

The analysis of the human voice, contained in the following essay, was undertaken some years ago, exclusively as a subject of physiological inquiry. The discovery of some of the essential functions of speech, having led to a full investigation of the modes of utterance, I was induced to attempt a methodical description of all the vocal phenomena, with a view to bring the subject within the limits of science, and thereby to assist the purposes of oratorical instruction.

By every scheme of the cyclopaedia, the description of the voice is classed among the duties of the physiologist; yet he has strangely neglected his part, by borrowing the small substance of his knowledge from the fancies of rhetoricians, and the dull errors of grammarians. It is time at last for physiology, of right, and seriously to take up its task.

In entering on this inquiry, I determined to avoid an express reference to the productions of former writers, until the authority of nature over the ear was so far established by observation, as to obviate the danger of adopting unquestioned errors, which

B ii INTRODUCTION.

the stoutest resolution of independence finds it so difficult to avoid. Even a faint recollection of school instruction was not without its forbidding interference, with my first endeavour to discover, by the ear alone, the hidden processes of speech.

After obtaining an outline of the work of nature in the voice, sufficient to enable me to avail myself of the useful truths of other observers, and to guard against their mistakes, I consulted all the accessible treatises on the subject, particularly the European compilations of the day, the authors of which have opportunities for selection, not enjoyed in this country. Finding on comparison, that the following history of the voice represents its nature more extensively and definitely than any known system, I have been induced to offer it to the public. Many errors may be found in it; but if the leading points of analysis, and the general method be not a copy from nature, and do not prompt others, far better furnished than I have been with the resources of ability, time, and companionable assistance, to carry these principles into specific detail, I shall forever deeply regret the publication.

It becomes me, however, to remark, that as this work has not been made up from the quoted, or controverted, or accommodated opinions of authors, I shall totally disregard any decision upon its merits, which is not made by a scrutinizing comparison with nature herself.

The art of speaking well, has, in most civilized countries, been a cherished mark of distinction between the elevated and the humble conditions of

INTRODUCTION. [[[

life, and has been immediately connected with some of the greater labours of ambition and taste. It ma} r therefore appear extraordinary, that the world, with all its works of philosophy, should have been satisfied with the instinctive exercise of the art, and with the occasional examples of its perfection, without an endeavour to found an analytic system of instruction, productive of more multiplied instances of success. Due reflection, however, will convince us, that even this extended purpose of the art of speaking, has been one of the causes of neglect. It has been a popular art ; and works for popularity are too often the works of mediocrity The majority around the stage, the senate, the bar, and the pulpit, deprecate the trouble of improvement: and the satisfaction of the general ear is, in no less a degree, encouraging to the faults of the voice, than the approving judgment of the million is subversive of the rigid discipline of the mind.

Physiologists have described, and classed the organic positions by which the alphabetic elements are produced. This has been done by the rule, and with the success of philosophy. Other attempts have not been so fair or so fortunate. When they have taken up the subject of intonation, that is, the movement of the voice in regard to its pitch, they have not accurately measured by some known or invented scale, the modes and degrees of such movements ; and thus furnished a real detail of the economy of speech. But they have undertaken to determine whether the organs of the voice partake of the nature of a wind or stringed instrument — how i v INTRODUCTION.

the falsette is made, and whether acuteness and gravity are formed by variations in the dimensions of the glottis, or in the length of the larynx. They have removed the organs from men and other animals, and have produced something like their natural voices by blowing through them. They have inspected and named the curious structure of the cartilages and muscles of the larynx, with the absurd purpose to discover thereby the cause of intonation, when they were ignorant of the very forms of that intonation. In short, they have tried to see sound, and to touch it with the dissecting knife — and all this without reaching any positive conclusion, or describing any more of the audible effects of the anatomical structure, than was known to rhetoricians, two thousand years ago.

Instead of listening to the forms of vocal sound, and recording them, physiologists have copied the common places of argument from one another, from the time of Galen to the present, with that variety only which the mere capricious changes in arrangement produce.

The Greek and Roman rhetoricians, and the writers on music have recorded their knowledge of the general affections of the voice. They distinguished its different qualities by such terms as hard, smooth, sharp, clear, hoarse, full, slender, flowing, flexible, shrill, and austere. They knew the time of the voice, and had a view to its quantities in pronunciation. They gave to loud and soft, appropriate places in speech. They perceived the existence of pitch, or variation of high and low: noting further,

INTRODUCTION. V

that the rise and fall in speaking were made by a concrete or continuous slide of the voice. This concrete sound, was, in their system, contra-distinguished from the change of pitch produced on musical instruments, which consists in a rise or fall to other places of pitch, without the continuous junction of the slide. This was called discrete sound. The ancients however show no acquaintance with the subdivisions, definite degrees, and particular applications of these general affections, for the discriminative purposes of oratorical use: and if we may judge, from an attempt by Dionysius of Halicarnassus to point out the difference between singing and speech, and from some other descriptions, totally irreconcilable with any of the present modes of intonation, we must believe that they made only a limited analysis of the voice; that the cultivation of the art of speaking was conducted altogether by imitation; and that the means of improvement were not reduced to any precise or available directions of art.

No one can read the discourse on the management of the voice, in Quinctilian's elaborate chapter on action, without allowing to the ancients a power of perceiving the beauties and blemishes of speech. Yet among so many indications of their practical familiarity with the art, we find no clear description of its elements, nor any definite instruction. The abundant detail throughout his work, which more than once suggests an apology for its minuteness, precludes the supposition that he designedly omitted to describe any well known means,

Vi INTRODUCTION.

by which the various modes of the voice might be represented with useful precision.

It is believed that the ancient rhetoricians designated the pitch of vocal sounds by the term accent. They made three kinds of accents, the acute, the grave, and the circumflex; signifying, severally, the rise, fall, and turn of the voice. The existence of differently pointing small lines, and these conjoined in angle, in Greek manuscripts and in print, since the seventh century, which have been considered as indicials of the ancient manner of pitching the voice, has afforded the only data for inquiring into the nature of Greek intonation, and has created a learned dispute, which has been continued without one satisfactory result, from the time of the ^ ounger Vossius, to the recent days of Foster and Gaily.

If Greek scholars had employed other means than contests with each other, for ascertaining the intention of accentual marks, it would long ago have been determined whether they directed to any practical knowledge of Greek utterance, or might be erased from notation, as a subject of useless perplexity. If the tongue had been once consulted on this point, these symbols, even with the certainty of their alleged use, would have been rejected as vague and meagre representations of the rich variety and measurable modes of the voice.

The disputants found that degree of obscurity in the ancient records on accent, which encourages the profitless labours, and alternate triumphs of party; which subjects opinion to all the knavery of sectarean argument, and shuts out the conclusive inqui-

INTRODUCTION. vii

ries of independent observation. In the full spirit of the old dialectic art, they discoursed about truth until they forgot to discover it: and whilst they have exhibited a distressing waste of time and thought and temper, by seeking in the obscurity of unfinished records, that light which would readily have arisen on their observation, they hold out to the future historians of literature, a temptation towards the sarcastic inquiry, whether the writers on Greek and Roman accent were endowed with the powers of hearing and pronunciation.

Since the decline or limitation of classic authority, modern inquirers, by listening to the sounds of their own language, have at last undertaken to discover other elemental functions of the voice, than the scanty indications of Greek accentual marks.

The works of Steele, Sheridan and Walker have made large contributions to the long neglected and still craving condition of our tongue.

Mr. Joshua Steele published, at London, in the year seventeen hundred and seventy -five, " An essay towards establishing the melody and measure of speech, to be expressed and perpetuated, by peculiar symbols." The design of this essay was suggested by some remarks on the nature of speech, made by lord Monboddo, in his " origin and progress of language;" and was executed, in part, as an argumentative correspondence between this author and Mr. Steele.

Future times must smile at some of the effects of classical pursuits, if they should ever know that a free inquirer had considerable difficulty, in con-

Viii INTRODUCTION.

vincing a scholar, at the end of the eighteenth century, that the English language has those qualities of accent and quantity, which were supposed to belong exclusively to the Greek and Latin: for this was one of the objects in the controversy. Mr. Steele has therefore given a notation of the time of the voice; and in showing that the same concrete intonation which belonged to syllables of the Greek language, is necessarily heard on those of his own, has endeavoured, but unsuccessfully, to describe its specific application and range. The principal design of his work is, to set forth a system of rythmic notation, by which the accidents of emphasis and pause may be represented to a pupil; and the habit of attention fixed on these great points in the art of reading.

Mr. Steele seems to have possessed nicety of ear; knowledge of the science and practice of music, together with an originality of mind, created by observation and reflection: powers sufficient, when well directed, to have fulfilled the unaccomplished inquiry into human speech.

Had he pursued truth by observation instead of controversy; had he not let his attention fall into the deviating course of argument; nor suffered the harmless respect of a verbal decorum towards the opinions and objections of others, to exert a secret weight of authority; had he not looked back to the ancients, and the dark confusion of their commentators, but kept his undeviating ear on nature, she would at last have led him up to light.

INTRODUCTION. i x

Mr. Sheridan is well known by his accurate and systematic investigation of the art of reading: and though he improved both the detail and method, of his subject, in the departments of pronunciation, emphasis and pause, he made no analysis of intonation. A regretted omission! The more so, from the certainty, that if this topic had invited his attention, his genius and industry would have shed their full light of explanation upon it.

Mr. Walker, who, by his rhetorical and philological labours, has contributed largely to the improvement of the English language, exhibits in more than one place of his works, that the varieties of intonation were studiously examined by hi in: indeed, he reiterates his claims to originality on this subject. Mr. Walker may have been the first to endeavour to apply the old system of accents to a modern language: but he has scarcely gone beyond the analysis on which this ancient doctrine of inflection was founded. Some of the Greek writers on music, and many subsequent authors who have quoted them, have noted the rise, and fall, and circumflex turn of speech. Aristoxenus the philosopher, a pupil of Aristotle, first observed or described that peculiar rise and fall of sound by a concrete or continuous progression, which distinguishes the vocal movement, from the skipping or discrete transition on musical instruments.

Mr. Walker does triumphantly claim the discovery of the inverted circumflex accent, or the downward and upward continued movement. Yet, if it is correctly inferred from the dates of publication.

x INTRODUCTION.

and from Mr. Walker's rather derisive allusion to Mr. Steele's essay, that the latter author preceded him, he might have found, in Mr. Steele's gravoacute accent, proof of the real existence of his newly found function of the voice.

Mr. Walker was an accomplished reader, and knew well how to manage his intonation; but in his attempt to delineate it, he is not more definite than Mr. Steele in noting his degrees of inflection, and is much less full. His insinuation that music and speech, each being but varying affections of sound, should not be illustrated by some analagous notation, and his erroneous diagrams of the progress of pitch, are instances of a want of reflection and of obtuseness of ear, which would be quite reprehensible in any one, who, without compulsion, should undertake to investigate the relationships of sound.

I have thus summed up the sources, and noted the degree of our knowledge of the vocal functions. There exists a copious -detail in the branches of articulation, emphasis, accent, (in its signification of stress) and pause. On the other hand, the analysis of intonation has not been carried much beyond the recorded knowledge of the ancients. Greek and Roman writers tell us, indefinitely, of the acute, grave, and circumflex movements; and these, with the newly described inverted circumflex, have, at a recent date, first been formally regarded, in the art of speaking the English language.

These four general heads of intonation are truly drawn from nature : yet, with their present vague meaning, they are useless for practical instruction,

INTRODUCTION. Xl

and are no less imperfectly expressive of the measurable modifications of speech, than the four cardinal terms of the compass are descriptive of all the points, distances, and contents of space.

The discovery of the abovementioned distinctions in intonation, which must indeed form the outline of all nicer discriminations, was the result of philosophical inquiry. A much more abundant, but not more precise nomenclature has been derived from criticism. The following phrases are extracted from a description of Mr. Garrick's manner of reading the church service, and have an especial reference to the intonation of his voice. — u Even tenor of smooth regular delivery" — " Fervent tone" — " Sincerity of devotional expression" — 11 Repentant tone" — " Reverential tone" — " Evenness of voice" — " Tone of solemn dignity" — u Of supplication" — " Of sorrow and contrition."

Those who know what constitutes the accuracy of terms, must confess that these and similar attempts to name the signs of expression, have no more claims to the title of clear elemental description, than belongs to the rambling signification of vulgar nomenclature. We are not aware that no images of audible perception are associated with these phrases, until required to illustrate them by some assignable accidents of vocal sounds. " Grandeur of feeling," says a writer, " should be expressed with pomp and magnificence of tone •," and we may presume, that if he had been asked how pomp and magnificence of feeling should be expressed, he would have said, by grandeur of tone. These are words.

xii INTRODUCTION.

not definitions. Nor can any weight of authority give them the power of description: since the terms <c sorrowful expression," and " tone of solemn dignity !" in the instruction of an accomplished Elocutionist, have no more precision of meaning, as to pitch, time, and force of sound, than " fine turned cadence," and " chaste modulation," in the idle criticism of a daily gazette.

All arts and sciences appear under two different conditions. They may be seen through the medium of terms of vague signification, adapted to the limited knowledge and feeble senses of the ignorant, in every caste of society. Those who view them under this condition, in vainly pretending to discriminate, express nothing but their approbation. In the other light, they are shown in definite deliueation, by a language of unchangeable meaning, closely appropriate to all their parts ; and independently of the perversions, which slender ability, natural temper, or momentary humour may create. He who thus views an art, in expressing his approbation, always discriminates.

Some branches of the art of speaking, are, even at this late period of cultivation, scarcely removed from the first of these conditions. We might say, this is strange, if the causes were not so manifest. The specific constituents of intonation and force and time, have been unknown: and the mind has consequently wanted that fine stimulus to attention, which abundant and definite terms always afford. The fullness of the nomenclature of an art is always directly proportional to the degree of its

INTRODUCTION. x iii

improvement; and the precision of its terms is almost synonimous with its perfection. The few and indeterminate designations of the modes of sound in reading, compared with their number and accuracy in music, imply the different degree of success with which each has been cultivated. The inquirers into the nature of speech, have given up their judgments to authority, and their pens to quotation. The musician has devoted his ear to observation, and his labour to the trial of its truth. The words, quick, slow, long, short, loud, soft, rise, fall and turn, include nearly all the analytic terms of the art. How far they fall short of an enumeration of all the functions of the voice, and how fairly I have represented the present condition of our knowledge, shall be determined by an age to ccme, when the ear will have made deliberate examination.

A conviction of the imperfect state of our knowledge in some of the branches of the art of speaking, first suggested the design of the ensuing investigation of them: whilst a hope to influence others to assist in the completion of a desirable measurement and method of the voice, produces the present publication. If I have failed to furnish a plan for the future establishment of the principles of intonation and time and force, I must still desire to believe, without controversy, in the attainable nature, and practical benefits of such a work.

I cannot withhold from this place, a few very general remarks on the importance of fixed principles in the arts; not only because these principles are the true sources of the intellectual enjoyment xiv INTRODUCTION.

which the arts afford, but because they are the most effective means for their improvement. And although the entire want of such principles, for the government of intonation, has unnecessarily led to the belief that they cannot be instituted, still I hope to show, in the following essay, that they are not only as essential, but likewise as attainable in Elocution, as in any other art which employs the judgment, and interests the imagination.

Those persons who receive the highest enjoyment from the works of art, know well, that its fulness and durability are derived from a wide and vivid discernment, acquired by a disciplined reflection on the principles of taste which directed their production. The knowledge of these principles gives power to the artist, and delight to him who contemplates the work. It is not the form, or colour or sound, which merely passes into the eye or the ear, that constitutes an enlightened perception of the objects of the fine arts. Delicate organization is, indeed, essential to this perception : but it is the activity of the senses or the mind in the work of comparison, or in the application of pre-established rules, which forms the liberal pleasure of taste. And if there is yet to be discovered some surpassing efficacy of art, it can never be attained, except through the influence of sure and multiplied principles.

The discussion of the subject of standard principles, in some of the arts, has always involved the question of their origin : and nature has generally been assumed as the source.

INTRODUCTION. X V

There are two modes through which nature affords her governing rules in the arts. In one she sets as a prototype for exact imitation, in those branches of art which profess to copy her actual detads. In the other, which consists in adorning some one creation of art, by a selection from her scattered integrals of beauty, the standard grows out of that congenial judgment and feeling, exhibited in strong similarity among persons of equal cultivation ; which, if it does not declare conformity in taste to be the development of irreversible nature, at least affords education effectual means to personate her.

The uses of the voice have not yet been brought to the rule of either of these cases. Nature cannot be imitated entirely in her own aggregates*, since she never furnishes a single instance worthy to be copied : and from a want of a full knowledge of the elements of speech, and a definite nomenclature, there has never been that clear perception of the causes of beauty and deformity, which would warrant the construction of a system upon the more artificial mode of selection. The highest achievements in statuary, painting, and the landscape, consist of those ideal forms and compositions, which are perhaps never found purely associated in nature, but which far surpass her individual productions.

In the following essay, the reader will find an analysis of the human voice, which will enable an Elocutionist of any nation, to reduce to established form, the best modes of speech in his language. He will also find the outline of a system of princixv i INTRODUCTION.

pies that I have ventured to propose, as a selection of those excellencies of utterance, which are accommodated to the temper and habits of the English ear ; and which, in analogy with the above named arts, may be called the ideal beauty of speech.

The establishment of a code of principles in the arts, not only assists their further progress, and gives to the individual the highest pleasure of their cultivation : but there is another advantage, lying in the prospects of social benefit. Excursiveness of thought is the great delight of solitary reflection. The enjoyments in the work of invention, are divided between the satisfaction of its accomplishment, and the busy activity of varied associations, pressing forward for selection. A reference to the approbation of others, or a willingness to contribute to their benefit, sacrifices the unsettled fancies of our silence, and creates a submission to those conventual rules of uttered thought, that in the companionship of accomplished artists, produce an identity of opinion and feeling, which is the very interpretation of friendship.

The accurate sciences and the fine arts, with great inadvertence to the pretensions of each, have been set in opposition to each other, by wider antithesis, than is justified on near examination. The careless argument asserts that taste is a variable feeling, and has no rule of beauty, in the uses of form, colour and sound. If the general agreement among men of equal education in the arts, approximates towards the meaning of a standard, there is not full reason for the contrariety, decreed to these