Let the first line be read with vivid rising melody and crescendo volume, culminating, on 'glow', with a strong, swelling, falling (direct) wave. Begin the next line at the terminal pitch of 'glow', and rise again, to culminate in an abrupt falling slide of fourth or fifth on 'shrink', which is to be followed by a long grouping and emphatic pause. Pronounce 'beneath' as a monotone phrase, deriving its pitch from the vanish of 'shrink', with moderate prolongation of its last syllable, and followed by a pause of the very briefest. Mass 'each gallant arm that strikes', carefully avoiding a pause after 'arm'; give 'strikes' a rising inflection (of a second), and follow it with a marked grouping pause. 'Below,' monotone, taking pitch from 'strikes',-with quantity on the last syllable, and with no pause, or the slightest, between it and the next word, 'that.' A pause of emphasis after 'lovely.' FORCE: THE EQUABLE CONCRETE; STRESS; GENERAL FORCE. FORCE. Force, or energy, of voice, is the audible sign, in kind and degree, of the causative mental or emotional energy,-the Will. Force is heard as distributed over a group, a sentence, a stanza, a paragraph, a section, a whole discourse; in which case it is called General Force. It is also used to throw into emphatic prominence a syllable or a word, here and there, giving rise to the distinction of Special Force. Special Force, under the name of Stress, is heard on all the accented syllables of emphatic words. Preliminary to the study of Stress, it is important to understand clearly the form and function of the Equable Concrete. THE EQUABLE CONCRETE. This, the normal form of syllabic utterance in unimpassioned speech, and of the unaccented and unemphatic syllables of all speech, is visibly typified by a slender, wedgeshaped character, The inflection is a straight rising or falling slide of the second; the radical (vowel opening) has a light but distinct fullness and explosive abruptness, and from that opening the syllable tapers instantly and equably to silence. Doctor Rush called the opening of the tonic the Radical, because from it, as from a root (radix), springs all syllabic utterance, and consequently all speech. The diminishing latter part of the impulse he called the Vanish, in analogy to the fading from sight of a receding object. Expressing it differently, consecutive utterance is a process of alternate seizure and release: The radical is the seizure, or attack, and the vanish is the audible release, or letting-go of the syllable, preparatory to the seizure of the next. Since the radical and the vanish are necessarily involved in each other are inseparable,-Doctor Rush called this unobtrusive, delicate, but beautiful and pervasive form of the syllabic impulse the Equable Concrete:-Concrete, because radical and vanish are organic-grow together (con-cresco); and Equable, because the syllable diminishes in force and volume symmetrically, constantly, and smoothly, from its clear, crystalline opening to the end, where it dies in silence. THE GOLDEN KEY TO BEAUTIFUL UTTERANCE. Mr. Murdoch says (Analytic Elocution): The concrete function is the foundation upon which is built the measurement of all the sounds of speech, and is the principle which underlies the life and power of every utterance of the speaking voice, from the most delicate audible whisper to the accumulated forces of the loudest and most prolonged shout within the capabilities of the vocal mechanism. It is the key which unlocks the whole philosophy of the speaking voice. A theoretical and practical understanding of this great fundamental principle of spoken language not only develops the full powers of the voice, but gives control of it for effective and natural utterance. EXAGGERATION NECESSARY, IN THE EARLY STUDY For the untrained ear, the attempt to scrutinize and analyze this delicate and momentary syllabic form is like trying to pick up a cambric needle with a pair of blacksmith's tongs. It should, therefore, be greatly magnified in the initiatory study. Take one or more of the narrow (long) vowels, and from a clear, sharp, and somewhat loud radical, make straight slides of earnest inquiry and command, alternately, thus: E? E! Ah? Ah! O? O! Oi? Oi! Awe? Awe! Ay?Ay! If well and gracefully done, the proportions of radical and vanish in the Equable Concrete will be heard, but on a much enlarged scale of time, volume, force, and extent of inflection. Many, many repetitions should be made, until the form and character of the syllabic impulse are thoroughly familiar. Then, gradually diminish the loudness, the interval of the slide, and the quantity, but retain the clear abruptness of the radical,--the abruptness, not the loudness,-until, at length, the syllable is of but an instant's duration, and a clear and slender spicule-almost a point of sound. Attention in practice to the bright, decided-not loud-explosive attack of the radical and the instant taper of the vanish, tends to divest the habitual speech of drawl, renders the syllabication distinct, and induces that clear-cut, crystalline character in enunciation that we admire the more because it is so rarely heard. In matter-of-fact speech, every syllable should have its distinctly perceptible equable-concrete form; but the accents, because they give the momentum and flow of movement and rhythm, and largely regulate melody,-should re ceive superior force and time and especial abruptness and fullness. Speech thus comes 'trippingly on the tongue.' WHY CURVE THE NOTES IN THE NOTATIONS? The slender, straight characters of the first paragraph under the heading, 'The Equable Concrete,' page 178, are more truthfully representative of the shape and direction of the syllabic note of unimpassioned speech, than the curved characters of the diagram above, page 180. Doctor Rush adopted the curved form for the syllabic note in his own notations, simply for its more graceful appearance, when placed on the staff. He says, 'Philosophy of the Human Voice,' page 99, footnote: On first observing the peculiar character of the radical and vanish, when my attention was sometimes misled by hasty conclusions, and while doubtfully experimenting on the form of melody, I drew, partly after the pattern of a musical note, the symbol of the concrete as it still remains. And see how that deceitful thing, the mind, with its resemblances, as we are prone to use them, should be watched, Upon the first draft of the illustrations, the graceful lines of a Greek scroll seemed analogous to the delicate impression of the vocal vanish; and the form then given to the symbol subsequently so influenced my perception, that perhaps I am not yet. quite free from the thought that induced it. Although aware from the first, that the figurative representation of the radical and vanish should be by the outline of a spire, still the wedgelike symbol, especially if set obliquely on the staff, appeared too awkward a picture of this master-no, this mistress-principle of the voice. 'EQUABLE CONCRETE' A BETTER TERM THAN Most writers since Rush, including Murdoch and Russell, place the Equable Concrete under the head of Radical Stress, |