tity absolutely: but we speak of quantity as a power inherent in the voice relative to syllables, because many of the vowels and consonants can (though many cannot) be pronounced long or short as may be desirable: and the terms long and short quantity describe the two cases of such syllables. We say then of syllables, that they are syllables of Quantity because they can be extended, or because they are actually extended in their pronunciation. We say of a passage that it has long quantity, meaning that the syllables and pauses are intentionally lengthened; that it has short quantity because the syllables either do not admit of extension or are not extended. The pauses in all good delivery bear a proportion to the length of syllables. High on a throne of royal name.* Let the superscribed sentence be uttered with the extremes of quick and slow time as already described and the nature of time or quantity as applicable to speech will be demonstrated. ABRUPTNESS. Abruptness means a sudden and full pronunciation of sound. In utterance it is best demonstrated in the explosion of the vowels in the manner already described in the Recitation on Articulation. It is a power to be again treated of, under the head of force, being a particular modification of that property of the voice. * The word name has been employed for illustration in this example, instead of state, on account of its quantity-as the word state is necessarily short. PITCH. Pitch means the place of any sound in the musical scale. A person wholly unacquainted with pitch may obtain clear ideas of this property of sound from a piano forte. In running over a few of the keys, he will perceive that the sounds they yield differ from each other. Now this difference consists in pitch. The different sounds are called notes. If a person strike the lowest key on the left hand and pass from that to the other end touching each key successively, he will observe as he goes on that each note rises in pitch until he reaches the most distant key on the right hand of the instrument. If an ear unaccustomed to compare varieties of pitch does not at once perceive the difference of the pitch of two notes next to each other, let him try two notes with one between them; two notes with three between them; two notes with six between them. He will thus obtain an impressive notion of the nature of pitch from the varieties which these distant notes present to the ear. The whole of the notes of a piano constitute a scale referred to by musicians. Pitch and inflection have been used as synonymous in their application to speech. Great care, however, is required in order to obtain clear ideas of Pitch. If the finger be slid up and down the string of a violin with continued pressure, while the bow is drawn across it, a mewing sound will be produced. The sound will end at a higher or lower pitch than that at which it began, according to the direction of the movement of the finger. The sound produced is named in the science of speech a concrete or continuous sound, inasmuch as the change of pitch is without break, or takes place during a single impulse of sound. The term Concrete, etymologically considered, means grown together. It is derived from the verb concresco, concrescere, concrevi, concretum, "To unite or coalesce as separate particles into one body." (Webster.) The term concrete is intended to particularize the nature of the sound produced by the sliding motion of the finger on the string. That sound, as it differs in pitch at its two extremities, must of course be made up of distinct impulses differing in pitch; but as each is too short in its duration to be discerned by the ear, they may be said to be concreted together into one unbroken movement, which is properly enough named a slide. This slide when heard, is perceived to rise or fall in pitch only as a whole, and is therefore called a concrete sound. Such a slide, rising or falling in pitch, is invariably made whenever a syllable is spoken, or in other words is inseparable from the act of speech. It is usually called the slide of the voice, and is more particularly designated by writers on Elocution the upward and downward slide, according as the voice ends at a lower or higher pitch than that at which the syllable began. If while the bow is drawn across it, the string be pressed on the board, at short intervals of time, at certain points or places, rising one above another, determined by a previous known rule of mathematical calculation, the sounds of the common scale will be produced. The sounds thus produced may be called Discrete sounds. The term Discrete is derived from dis and cerno, to see apart, or to distinguish, to apprehend a difference in things. Discerno, discernere, decrevi, decretum. The term discrete is therefore employed to denote two or more separate sounds. The sounds of a piano forte, for instance will consist of discrete sounds. A succession of syllables, consisting of separate impulses, are a succession of discrete sounds, commencing at the same or different points of pitch from each other; while the slides heard in the utterance of each syllable will consist of concrete sounds. Discrete and Concrete sound is therefore heard in all discourse, and both are inseparable from it. Discrete sounds consist of a series of skips. These are made by omitting the concrete or sliding movement previously described, produced by the motion of the finger. T T S TT T S T T STT T S 1 2 34 5 6 78 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 The horizontal line drawn above represents the strings of the violin, the black dots the points, places, or degrees at which it is to be pressed to produce certain sounds. From 1 to 7 constitutes the series of sounds called the scale, each rising above the other. To this series of seven sounds a second series may be added of the same number, beginning immediately above the first; each sound in such second series bearing the same relation in pitch to every other sound in that series, which the corresponding sound bears to every other in the first series. The letters put between the supposed places of sound represent the terms Tone and Semitone. Tone means a certain distance (mathematically determined) between the sounds; Semitone means about half that distance. Musical instruments in general, such as the piano forte, organ and others, produce only discrete sounds, or such a succession of sounds as is here represented. The violin and other stringed instruments can produce both con crete and discret sounds. The human voice produces both. Each sound of the scale is called a note. The distance between any two notes, whether next to each other, or more distant, is called an interval. The interval from 1 to 2 is called a tone, from 2 to 3 a tone, from 3 to 4 (being about half the distance) a semitone, from 4 to 5, from 5 to 6, and from 6 to 7 are tones, from 7 to 8 a semitone. The intervals are named numerically, that is, the interval from 1 to 2 is called a second, from 1 to 3 a third, from 1 to 4 a fourth, from 1 to 5 a fifth, from 1 to 6 a sixth, from 1 to 7 a seventh, from 1 to 8 an octave. The intervals rise from 1 to 2, 1 to 3, 1 to 4 and so on, and fall in the same reverse order. Though the first seven sounds make up what is called the scale, the ear requires, in order to form a satisfactory close, that the first of the second series, marked 8 and called the octave (as before stated,) should be added, in running the voice upwards or downwards, in the order of the scale, or in what is called in musical science solfaing. The first note of any series of sounds is called the key note. The succession of the seven notes above described is called the natural scale, because that succession is satisfactory to the ear. It is also called the Diatonic scale from Dia by or through, and Tonos a sound. The term melody (as applicable to speech) in this Grammar, means the condition of single sounds and the order of successive sounds as respects the pitch. Concrete melody means the pitch of the slides of speech. Discrete melody, the pitch at which successive syllables begin relatively to each other. Intonation means the management of the voice in the production of pitch both concrete and discrete. |