two organs or piano-fortes will differ in quality of tone, because one instrument differs from another in its peculiar power of modifying sound, owing to its physical properties as an instrument.

The ancients employed a great number of terms to describe the quality of the voice. Its most important properties are gravity, or depth of tone; fullness, or volume of sound; smoothness, sweetness, and strength; by which latter property is meant the power of rendering syllables audible through an extensive space. There are other modifications of the quality of the voice which will be explained hereafter.

FORCE OF VOICE.

The degrees of Force are best described by the terms loud and soft, forcible and feeble, strong and weak. Force may be manifested, 1st by loudness, and consequent violent impression on the ear, during a short impulse of sound; or 2dly it may be continued equally through a long one: or 3dly it may be manifested by gradual increase, as when a sound increases perceptibly in volume during its progress as compared with its commencement, terminating at its loudest point, or again diminishing before it terminates. Suppose the element a (or any other syllable) uttered with great percussive force and quickness, it will exhibit one modification of force. Suppose it to begin with less force, growing louder by degrees in the usual sense of the expression swell of voice, and then again gradually diminishing to its termination, and you have another modification of force. Again, suppose the voice to begin with comparative fullness and to lessen

constantly in its volume till it dies away in silence, and the ear would be able to compare degrees of force under a third modification. Lastly, suppose the element a to be uttered in the usual manner except at its termination, but there to have a great and sudden increase of sound, and you have a modification of the element of force different from any of the preceding instances.

TIME.

The varieties of Time in the utterance of syllables are best expressed by the terms long and short, quick, slow, rapid, moderate. The most important general consideration as to the time of syllables is that it can be varied upon the same syllable. The term quantity, as applicable to syllables, means exactly the same as time. The time of pauses, it is perfectly apparent, may be lengthened or shortened at pleasure. Suppose the sounds a, bee, cee, dee, (the names of the first four letters of the alphabet,) to be uttered in immediate succession, each sound to be shortened as much as possible and as short pauses as possible to be made between each; in such case each syllable will have short quantity, the pauses will have short time and the general movement will be in quick time. But the four sounds above mentioned can be greatly lengthened without altering their customary pronunciation. If a lengthened pronunciation is given to each, and the pauses between them are made about half as long as the time consumed in the pronunciation of each syllable (a, bee, œe, dee,) the whole series will be in slow time and each sylla ble will have long quantity. The term quantity is employed absolutely and relatively. If a syllable is pronounced long, we may say with propriety it has quantity

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 thrōne of royal name.*

High on a throne of royal năme.

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. This 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.

If while the bow is drawn across it, the string be pressed on the board, say at every second 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 in