The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-11-16
VOICE BUILDING
Possibilities in the Art OF
Training the Vocal Organ.
The Professional Voice of the Clergy
man, Lawyer and Actor. :.

Mrs. Florence James Adams has
studied the art of voice building, both
in this country and abroad. She is
deeply interested i'll the subject, md an
ardent believer in tho future possibilities
of the voice.
First Of ALL" she explained, 'syou
must know in the new method of voice
building the Conversations voice is
trained by the vocal scale. There arc
three registers in tho speaking voice
upper, middle and lower. Every voice
has a range of ut least seven notes. The
lower register is merely used in CONVEX
sation, of course. Its province is to en-
press anger n the harshcr passions.
The middle register is usually the
weakest of the three. This is, however,
the normal voice. The upper register,
with its shrlll, decisive tones, is the
mental. The lower one is called the
vital. 1t is deep and passionate. The
normal is, of course, the happy medium.
The evenly balanced man whose heart
does not outrun his head, speaks in this
voice. Excitablc people drift into n
extreme or the other. In the voice, as in
things, rcpose brings grace. The range
matters little in the conversational voice.
Though it were limited to three notes, a
wise succession of tone would make it
effective. It is the slur, the careless,
meaningless rise and fall that ruins the
speaking voice.
EAR not our English cousins good
speakers 2"
They say, you know" Mrs. Adams
replied, 'that the rising infection is the
best spur to conversation. The falling
infection is dogmatic, decisive, and cuts
OF all discussion. The young English
man says, 'I-ah love you-ah,' with the
rising infection. He leaves the subject
poised in the middle voice. Naturally
tho young woman can't leave it hanging
there like Mohammed's coffin. You see,
the matter has already drifted into a de-
lightful explanatory discussion. The
young American, however, says 4
love you with falling inf. ction.
That ends the matter. The young wo-
man can call or pass out-that's all. But
there is ever SO much to be said on the
other side"
do tho Americans speak through the
nose 2"
Educated Americans No. The
Americans have n good speaking voice as
a usual thing, though it tends, perhaps
TO sharpness. The voice, you know, is
the truest test of character. 1t is al
most anfail;ng. One can disguise the
face, the eyes, the manner, but rarely
thinks of speaking out of the usual voice.
One can toll the intellectual man, the i'm
moral man, by his voice moro readily
thar in any other way. The professional
voice is another strange thing. One can
tell a lawyer the moment he opens his
mouth. He speaks in a hard, didactic
tone with a downward infection. His
voice is low, but decisive. Usually when |
a lawyer wants to get a great effect he
a stage whisper. OF course there
arc ever so many churacte ristics."
"What OF the clergym ans professional
"Well, from his calling one would ex-
pect him to have a middle-register voice,
full OF heart and sympathy, but as a
usual thing the head tones predominant
the pulpit. The idea of one preach
ing charity and benevolence in head
tones strikes me as very ridiculous. The
voice n thought arc out of harmony.
reminds n of a boatman looking one
way and rowing steadily in the other
OF course most clergymen
are hard student given to brain work
and this accounts for their voices. Now
and her you hear a clergyman who
speaks in the low, broad tones of the
voice. He may speak the veriest
nonsense, but he is called magnetic.
Every evangelist I ever heard uses this
voice. Moody, Sam Jones, Talmage and
preachers of that kind all do. There is
. heart quality in it that has a wonderful.
fleet. Again, it gives one m impress
of ~self-contained strength. A1t
can never use all the middle
'olce, and one feels that there is
always a reserve awaiting call. DR.. John
Hall, of New York. is one of the best
of what 1 am saying. He
Understands that emphasis depends on
he tone, not on the force"
Gas to the staueY'